Fourth Session of the JCOMM Ship Observations Team (SOT)

Geneva, Switzerland, 16-21 April 2006

AGENDA AND PRESENTATIONS

Session I – SOT-IV Common Session 1

I.          SOT-IV

1.         ORGANIZATION OF THE SESSION

1.1        Opening of the Session (Graeme Ball, BOM)
1.2        Adoption of the Agenda
1.3        Working Arrangements

 Session II – Scientific and Technical Workshop

 II.         SOT-IV Scientific and Technical Workshop, New Developments

  1. Report on XBT Recorder Inter-comparisons (Derrick Snowden, NOAA/AOML, USA)

  2. Devil XBT Acquisition System update (Alex Papij, CSIRO, Australia)

  3. Quality Control (QC) of delayed-mode XBT data using MQuest (Ann Gronell Thresher, CSIRO, Australia)

  4. BlueLINK - Ocean Forecasting Australia (Graeme Ball, BOM, Australia)

  5. Report on VOS Climate Project (VOSClim) data (Elizabeth Kent, NOCS, United Kingdom)

  6. TurboWin electronic logbook enhancement and development (Frits Koek, KNMI, The Netherlands)

  7. Demonstration of DWD VOS database of ship and equipment metadata (Volker Weidner, DWD, Germany)

Session III – National Reports

 III.        National Reports

  • Australia (Graeme Ball, BOM)

  • Canada (Yvonne Cook, MSC)

  • France
    VOS (Danièle Blot, Météo France)
    SOOP     (Loic Petit de la Villeon, IFREMER/IRD/SHOM)

  • Germany
    VOS (Volker Weidner, DWD)
    SOOP     (Birgit Klein, BSH)

  • Italy (Franco Reseghetti, ENEA)

  • Japan (Toshifumi Fijimoto, JMA)

  • Kenya (doc, ppt) (Edward M. Muriuki, KMD)

  • New Zealand (Julie Fletcher, MSNZ)

  • Pakistan (Muhammad Touseef Alam, PMD)

  • Sweden (Kerstin Svensson, SMHI)

  • United Kingdom (Sarah North, MetOffice)

  • USA
    VOS (Robert Luke, NOAA/NDBC)
    SOOP (Gustavo Goni, NOAA/AOML)
    Air sampling     (Ed Dlugokencky, NOAA/ESRL)

Session I – SOT-IV Common Session 2

I.          SOT-IV (Common Session 2)

2.         REPORTS BY THE SECRETARIAT, OPA COORDINATOR, CHAIRPERSON OF SOT AND THE SOT TECHNICAL COORDINATOR

2.1        Report by the Secretariat
            Secretariat's report, (Edgard Cabrera, WMO)
            GOOS report (Albert Fischer, IOC)

2.2        Report by the Observations Programme Area Coordinator (Mike Johnson, NOAA)
2.3        Report by the Chairperson of SOT
2.4        Review of Action Items from SOT-III
2.5        Report by the SOT Technical Coordinator (Hester Viola, JCOMMOPS)

3.         REPORTS ON ASSOCIATED PROGRAMMES AND REQUIREMENTS FOR SHIP-BASED OBSERVATIONS

3.1        Requirements for ship-based observations
3.1.1     GCOS/GOOS/WCRP Ocean Observing Panel for Climate (OOPC) (Albert Fischer, IOC)
3.1.2     Use of VOS data in climate products (Elizabeth Kent, NOCS)

3.2        Reports by associated programmes
3.2.1     International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP) (Albert Fischer, IOC)
3.2.2     Shipboard  Automated Meteorological and Oceanographic System Project (SAMOS) (Shawn Smith, COAPS)
3.2.3     GODAE High Resolution SST Pilot Project (GHRSST) (Albert Fischer, IOC)
3.2.4     Ferrybox Project (Franciscus Colijn, GKSS Research Centre)
3.2.5     SeaKeepers Society
3.2.6     Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT)
3.2.7     Proposed SCOR Panel on Merchant Marine Instrumented Oceanographic Surveys (Tom Rossby, University of Rhode Island)
3.2.8     The Scholar ship programme (Sarah North, UK MetOffice)

4.         REPORTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS BY TASK TEAMS

4.1        Task Team on VOS Recruitment and Programme Promotion (Julie Fletcher, MSNZ)
4.2        Task Team on Satellite Communication System Costs (Sarah North, UK MetOffice)
4.3        Task Team on Metadata for WMO-No. 47. (Graeme Ball, BOM)
4.4        Task Team on VOSClim (Sarah North, UK MetOffice)
4.5        Task Team on Coding
4.6        Task Team on Instrument Standards

Session IV – VOS Panel



IV.        VOSP-V

1.         PROGRAMME REVIEW

1.1        Report by the Chairperson of the VOSP (Julie Fletcher, MSNZ)
1.2        Review of Action Items from the VOSP-IV

2.         PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

2.1        VOS automation and electronic logbook software
2.1.1     Status of VOS automation (Julie Fletcher, MSNZ)
2.1.2     VOS E-logbook software development (Frits Koek, KNMI)

2.2        Report on the E-SURFMAR VOS Technical Advisory Group (VOS-TAG) (Pierre Blouch, Météo France)

2.3        Port Meteorological Officers (PMO)
2.3.1     Review of Port Meteorological Officers role and responsibilities (Graeme Ball, BOM)
2.3.2     Report and recommendations from PMO-III (Volker Weidner, DWD)
2.3.3     Enhancement of the global PMO network

2.4        Ship monitoring
2.4.1     VOS quality monitoring tools (Julie Fletcher, MSNZ)
2.4.2     Dirkzwager vessel tracking tool (Frits Koek, KNMI)

3.         MONITORING AND DATA MANAGEMENT

3.1        Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre (RSMC), Exeter, VOS monitoring report (Sarah North, UK MetOffice)
3.2        Real-Time Monitoring Centre (RTMC) for the VOSClim project monitoring report (Sarah North, UK MetOffice)
3.3        Global Collecting Centres (GCC) report on the VOS & VOSClim (Elanor Gowland, UK MetOffice)
3.4        VOSClim Data Assembly Centre (DAC) report (Alan Hall, NOAA/NCDC)
3.5        Review of the Marine Climatological Summaries Scheme (MCSS) (Scott Woodruff, NOAA/ESRL)
3.6        Implementing a VOS Database for tracking ship and equipment metadata
3.7        VOSClim issues

4.         ISSUES FOR THE VOS

4.1        Industry concerns regarding the transmission of meteorological data from ships
4.1.1     Report from the fifty-eighth session of the WMO Executive Council
            Background, EC-LVIII discussions, and resulting actions (Etienne Charpentier, WMO)
            Japan perspective (Toshifumi Fujimoto, JMA)
            US perspective (Robert Luke, NOAA/NDBC)

4.1.2     Implementation of masked call signs (Graeme Ball, BOM)

4.2        Impact of national regulations on VOS operations
4.3        Multiple ship recruitment
4.4        European Union’s restriction on the use and transportation of Mercury (Sarah North, UK MetOffice)
4.5        VOS communication problems and errors (Sarah North, UK MetOffice)
4.6        Reduction of national Voluntary Observing Fleet

5.         FUTURE WORK PROGRAMME AND IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES

5.1        Partnerships and the integration of other programmes with the VOS
5.2        Action items

6.         ORGANIZATIONAL MATTERS

6.1        Review the Terms of Reference of the VOSP

Session V – SOOP Implementation Panel



V.         SOOPIP-VII

1.         PROGRAMME REVIEW

1.1        Report by the Chairperson of the SOOPIP (Steve Cook)
1.2        Review of Action Items from the SOOPIP-VI

2.         PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

2.1        Status of the current sampling programme
2.2        JCOMM/SOT pool of XBT probes
2.3        Review of the XBT line responsibilities
2.4        Operational XBT systems and development
            High Density XBT lines (Glenn Pezzoli, SIO)
            XBT in the Mediterranean Sea (Franco Reseghetti, ENEA)
            Revisiting the XBT fall rate equation (Derrick Snowden, NOAA/AOML)

2.5        Report on IOGOOS/JCOMM Western Indian Ocean XBT Training Workshop (V.V. Gopalakrishna, NIO)
2.6        Report on the Argo Pilot Project
            Argo float deployment (Steve Cook)

3.         MONITORING AND DATA MANAGEMENT

3.1        JCOMM in situ Observing Platform Support Centre (JCOMMOPS) report (Hester Viola, JCOMMOPS)
3.1.1     Review of the 2006 Semestrial Survey
3.1.2     Timely submission of data for SOOP Semestrial Reports
3.1.3     Improving the ease of upload to JCOMMOPS database

3.2        SOOP database of ship and equipment metadata

3.3        Monitoring Centre reports
3.3.1     Global Temperature and Salinity Profile Programme (GTSPP) (Charles Sun, NOAA/NODC)
3.3.2     Global Ocean Surface Underway Data Pilot Project (GOSUD) (Loic Petit de la Villeon, IFREMER)

4.         ISSUES FOR THE SOOP

4.1        Future global requirements (Albert Fischer, IOC)
4.2        Observing other ocean variables
            ThermoSalinoGraph (TSG) operations (Gustavo Goni, NOAA/AOML)
            The Oleander section (Tom Rossby, University of Rhodes Island)

5.         FUTURE WORK PROGRAMME AND IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES

5.1        Partnerships and the integration of other programmes with the SOOP
5.2        Action items

6.         ORGANIZATIONAL MATTERS

6.1        Review the Terms of Reference of the SOOPIP
6.2        Review the membership of the SOOPIP

Session VI – ASAP Panel



VI.        ASAPP-XVI

1.         PROGRAMME REVIEW

1.1        Report by the Chairperson of the ASAPP (Sarah North, UK MetOffice)
1.2        Review of Action Items from the ASAPP-XV

2.         PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION

2.1        Report on the EUMETNET ASAP (E-ASAP) (Rudolf Krockauer, DWD)
2.2        Report on the Worldwide Recurring ASAP Project (WRAP)

3.         MONITORING AND DATA MANAGEMENT

3.1        Monitoring reports
3.1.1     Monitoring activities of ECMWF in support of the ASAP (Antonio Garcia-Mendez, ECMWF)
3.1.2     Report by the ASAP Monitoring Centre (Gérard Rey, Météo France)

4.         ISSUES FOR THE ASAP

4.1       Ship recruitment (Sarah North, UK MetOffice)
4.2        Satellite transmission difficulties
4.3        Improvement of data quality
4.4        ASAP routes (Sarah North, UK MetOffice)
4.5        Costs

5.         FUTURE WORK PROGRAMME

5.1        Action items

6.         ORGANIZATIONAL MATTERS

6.1        Future of the ASAPP
6.2        Review the Terms of Reference of the ASAPP (Sarah North, UK MetOffice)
6.3        Review the membership of the ASAPP
6.4        ASAP Trust Fund

Session I – SOT-IV Common Session 3



I.          SOT-IV (Common Session 3)

5.         SUPPORT INFRASTRUCTURE

5.1        JCOMM in-situ Observing Platform Support Centre (JCOMMOPS)
5.1.1     JCOMM OCG round-table review of the future of JCOMMOPS
5.1.2     JCOMMOPS portal for WMO Publication No. 47 (Graeme Ball, BOM)

5.2       Telecommunication facilities
5.2.1     Inmarsat
5.2.2     EUMETSAT
5.2.3     Argos (Christian Ortega, CLS)
5.2.4     Review of other satellite data telecommunication systems
            Iridium (David Meldrum, SAMS)

5.3        WMO Information System (WIS) and GTS issues (David Thomas, WMO)

6.         PROGRAMME OPERATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT

6.1        Data standards

6.2        Data management
6.2.1     META-T Pilot Project (Elanor Gowland, UK MetOffice)
6.2.2     Coding issues: BUFR templates for VOS/VOSClim, XBT/XCTD, META-T

6.3        Quality Management and Best Practices

7.         PROGRAMME PROMOTION, CAPACITY BUILDING AND INFORMATION EXCHANGE

7.1        SOT Annual Report
7.2        Websites
            VOS web site (Graeme Ball, BOM)

7.3        Focal Point mailing lists
7.4        Certificates to ships participating in SOT
7.5        Publications and brochures
7.6        Capacity Building (Edgard Cabrera, WMO)

8.         ORGANIZATIONAL MATTERS

8.1        Review of the SOT Management Team
8.2        Selection process of new DBCP/SOT Technical Coordinator (David Meldrum, SAMS)
8.3        Review the role of the SOT Technical Coordinator
8.4        Review the funding of the SOT Technical Coordinator
8.5        Ship Consumables Trust Fund
8.6        Review the Terms of Reference of the SOT (Graeme Ball, BOM)

9.         NEXT SESSION OF THE SOT

10.        REVIEW OF THE SOT-IV SESSION REPORT, ACTION ITEMS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

11.        CLOSURE