1. INTRODUCTION

During the last two years, the Chilean National Oceanographic Committee (Comité Oceanográfico Nacional de Chile – CONA) has been organizing several activities related to the planning and implementation of the GOOS observing system in Chile.

This document serves to describe the activities that are performed by the Marine Institutions and Universities that form part of CONA.

 

2. NATIONAL GOOS COORDINATING COMMITTEE (Chilean-NGCC)

A National Coordinating Committee for GOOS has been established to develop, plan, coordinate and implement the necessary infrastructure to support operational oceanography and marine meteorology. The members of this Committe are:

Osvaldo Ulloa Programa de Oceanografía Física y Clima (PROFC) Universidad de Concepción Concepción - Chile Email: oulloa@profc.udec.cl Jose Luis Blanco Departamento de Oceanografía Instituto de Fomento Pesquero (IFOP) Valparaíso - Chile Email: jlblanco@ifop.cl José Rutllant Departamento de Geofísica (DGF-UCHILE) Universidad de Chile Santiago – Chile Email: jrutllan@dgf.uchile.cl

Dagoberto Arcos Instituto de Investigación Pesquera (INPESCA) Talcahuano – Chile Email: inpesca@arauco.reuna.cl Rodrigo Nuñez Departamento de Oceanografía Servicio Hidrográfico y Oceanográfico (SHOA) Valparaíso – Chile Email: rnunez@shoa.cl

 

3. SEA LEVEL NETWORK (GLOSS and Pacific Tsunami Warning System)

The Chilean contribution to GLOSS and to the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, covers installation, operation and maintenance of 20 sea level stations located between latitude 18º S and the Antarctic peninsula (Base Prat).

The network was recently updated from bubbler type gauges and digital platforms to one of the latest generations of digital collector platforms (DCPs) linked via satellite. The installation of all the platforms north of latitude 42º S was completed during May of 1999, leaving only four stations to be replaced. Near real-time data can be obtained downloading the data directly from the GOES-East satellite, from the University of Hawaii Sea Level Center (UHSLC) or from http://www.shoa.cl/oceano/sdc/Estaciones_marea/Estaciones.html (graphic displays of sea level, air temperature, water temperature and atmospheric pressure). Data in a delayed mode can be requested from the Centro Nacional de Datos Oceanograficos (CENDOC) at rrojas@shoa.cl.

Table 1 and Figure 1 show the geographic location of the sea level stations and transmitting codes for the GOES-East satellite.

Table 1: location and code identification of sea level stations
Station Code	Station Name	Latitude [South]	Longitude [West]
9320E016	Arica	18º 29’	070º 19’
ADC01548	Iquique	20º 13’	070º 10’
ADC020D2	Antofagasta	23º 39’	070º 25’
9321011E	Caldera	27º 04’	070º 50’
ADC033A4	Coquimbo	29º 56’	071º 21’
932127F2	Valparaiso	33º 02’	071º 38’
ADC0063E	San Antonio	33º 35’	071º 38’
ADC04534	Talcahuano	36º 41’	073º 06’
ADC05642	Corral	39º 52’	073º 26’
ADC063D8	Puerto Montt	41º 29’	072º 58’
ADC070AE	Ancud	41º 52’	073º 51’
ADC0935C	Puerto Williams	54º 56’	067º 37’
93214214	San Felix island	26º 16’	080º 07’
140F372	Salas y Gomez Island	26º 25’	105º 28’
93202BDA	Easter Island	27º 09’	109º 27’
93215162	Juan Fernandez island	33º 37’	078º 50’
ADC0802A	San Pedro island	47º 43’	074º 53’
DCP self-contained	Punta Arenas	53º 10’	070º 54’
DCP self-contained	Base Prat (Antarctica)
DCP self-contained	Chacabuco	45º 28’	072º 50’



Figure 1: Geographic location of sea level stations.

 

 

4. WOCE HIGH DENSITY XBT PROGRAMME

Chile is involved in the WOCE high density XBT programme, along line PX-50, from Valparaiso-Chile to Auckland-New Zealand and along line PX-25, from Valparaiso-Chile to Japan/Korea. Both lines are operated jointly by SCRIPPS and SHOA.

5. CAPACITY BUILDING

Within Chile, capacity building is mainly carried out by universities and a few marine science institutes. These academic centers provide undergraduate and graduate studies in oceanography, marine biology and atmospheric science. Universidad de Concepción, in the south of Chile, has an interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in oceanography for students from Latin American countries.

6. OCEAN SOUTH EAST PACIFIC ARRAY (OSEPA)

The South East Pacific Ocean is one of the areas of the planet that has no systematic meteorological and oceanographic information. Only the coastal stations and a few islands (Easter island, Juan Fernandez island, San Felix island and Salas y Gomez island) provide information on the sea surface temperature and sea level. The actual knowledge on the oceanographic conditions of the area does not help understand the ocean phenomena occuring along the coast zone, such as the upwelling processes and continental shelf wave propagation which impact fishing and coastal climate. The initial economical impact of ENSO 1997/1998 in Chile was close to US$ 655 millions.

Chile is proposing to install an array of buoys that combined with the new upgraded tidal network to monitor the evolution of ENSO to provide inputs for the Regional Models presently being develop to mitigate the impacts on the phenomenon in the coastal area.

This array will consist of 16 buoys (similar to the ATLAS buoys used by the TOGA/TAO array) and 12 currentmeter arrays installed at 3, 20, 100 and 1000 miles of shore at 20ºS, 30ºS, 40ºS and 45ºS. The data collected with this array could be used by Chile, Perú and Argentina, as part of an advanced meteorological warning and monitoring system. All data collected by this array and by the coastal stations will be freely shared among the scientific community to prevent and mitigate the social and economical impacts caused by El Niño in the Southeast Pacific Ocean.

The proposed array (OSEPA) has been adopted and extended by the Permanent Commission for the South Pacific (Comisión Permanente del Pacífico Sur – CPPS) to cover the oceanic and coastal waters on front of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile and now consists of 27 buoys and 17 currentmeter arrays. A meeting to complete the proposal for this project will take place in Concepcion, Chile during August of 1999. The meeting is being sponsor by WMO, IOC and CPPS.

Figure 2 shows an schematic diagram of OSEPA.

 

 

Figure 2: Schematic Diagram of the Ocean South East Pacific Array (OSEPA) as proposed by the Permanent Commission for the South Pacific (CPPS).