ANNUAL REPORT 2002

NATIONAL GOOS ACTIVITIES

1. COUNTRY : NORWAY

2. PRINCIPAL NATIONAL CONTACT FOR GOOS

Harald Loeng

Secretary of the Norwegian Council for Operational Oceanography Systems

Institute of Marine Research

P.O. Box 1870 Nordnes

5817 Bergen

Norway

Telephone: +47 5523 8466

Fax: +47 5523 8584

Email: harald.loeng@imr.no

3. MECHANISM FOR NATIONAL COORDINATION OF GOOS

Norwegian GOOS activities are coordinated through The Norwegian Council for Operational Oceanography Systems (NCOOS). Members are: Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Meteorological Institute (Met.no), Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI), Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC), Norwegian Institute of Water Research (NIVA). The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA), the Norwegian Pollution Control Authority and Norwegian Hydrographic Service are associated members.

4. MEMBERSHIP OF AND CONTRIBUTION TO REGIONAL GOOS BODIES

Met.no, IMR and NERSC are members of EuroGOOS. IMR also take part in ICES-GOOS.

NERSC is member of Arctic GOOS.

5. NATIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO GOOS IMPLEMENTATION

5.1CONTRIBUTIONS TO ELEMENTS OF THE GOOS INITIAL OBSERVING SYSTEM

· The Norwegian Meteorological Institute operates an Ocean Weather Ship at position M(ike) which makes surface observations one an hourly basis, upper air observations every 6 hour (radiosondes). Some regular oceanographic measurements are also carried out by the University of Bergen.

• 15-20 ships/platforms are involved in the Voluntary Observing Ship program.

• Norway participates in EGOS, an action group under DBCP. One drifting buoy is provided yearly in order to be deployed in the NA

· IMR take part in the ICES International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) of the North Sea

· NERSC is a member of the EuroGOOS Space Panel and undertake impact studies on use of operational and experimental satellite data, notably in the Atlantic-Arctic sector using the TOPAZ ocean data assimilation system.

· Norwegian Institute of Water Research (NIVA) participates in the EU-project FerryBox – “from on-line oceanographic observations to environmental information”, where 8 ferry lines are involved. The objective are to show that ship-borne instrumentation can cost effectively deliver information of immediate scientific value and help to solve environmental problems. Observations of temperature, salinity, chlorophyll fluorescence and turbidity from sensors at 3.5 m depth, sampled each minute along the ship-route about twice a day. An automatic water sampler (refrigerated) is used for discrete sampling of water for control of sensors and for other non-sensor analyses. This is considered as a Norwegian contribution to the upper ocean measurements of the Ship of Opportunity Programme (SOOP).

5.2 CONTRIBUTIONS TO GOOS PILOT PROJECTS

· EuroGOOS regional projects:

The EuroGOOS Arctic Task Team started in 1997 as one of the five regional task teams of EuroGOOS. The objective of the ATT is to develop an operational monitoring and forecasting system for the Arctic Marine Region and adjacent seas using state-of-art remote sensing, in situ data, numerical modelling and data assimilation techniques. The first ATT workshop was arranged at NERSC on 31. May 2001 to what activities the task team should prioritise. About 20 institutions are active in preparing a planning document which is now in preparation. Two categories of projects have been proposed as areas where ATT should focus:

1) Operational monitoring and forecasting using near real-time satellite data and ice-ocean models to support marine operations, fisheries and ship traffic;

2) Monitoring of fluxes in straits surrounding the Nordic Seas with mooring arrays, following in agreement with the ASOF Science Plan, for ocean climate monitoring of importance for management of marine resources.

EuroGOOS have been instrumental in coordinating and obtain EU-funding for projects related to operational oceanography, and all institutions in the ATT are actively involved in ongoing projects dealing with modelling, remote sensing or in situ measurement systems. In addition to NERSC that has the chair, Met.no and IMR are members of ATT. ATT undertake integrated sea ice – ocean modelling assimilating impact studies using current satellite sea ice products as well as simulated data from future satellite based ice thickness measurement.

• NOOS (North West Shelf Operational Oceanographic Systems): Met.no is a charter member of NOOS. In 2002, NOOS evolved from the EuroGOOS Northwest Shelf Task Team, where met.no was an active member. As part of the NOOS cooperation, met.no participates in an exchange of sea level forecasts and observations among forecasting agencies around the North Sea. IMR will sign the MOU in 2003.

• NORSEPP (North Sea Ecosystem Pilot Project) is being prepared by ICES/EuroGOOS. Bot IMR and met.no are contributing actively to NORSEPP.

· MONCOZE: IMR, met.no and NERSC cooperate in this national project which aims to establish a pilot monitoring and forecasting system for the Norwegian coastal zone environment. The pilot system will combine in situ and satellite observations with model predictions to provide information to management authorities, scientists and other users of Norwegian coastal waters.

· The Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE).

NERSC is a member of International GODAE Steering Team (EGST) and contribute to GODAE via the implementation and operation of the regional Atlantic-Arctic assimilation system named TOPAZ.

· Argo: IMR has deployed 3 Argo floats in the Nordic Sea during summer 2002 and plan to deploy more float during 2003

5.3 CONTRIBUTIONS TO GOOS-RELATED RESEARCH

· Met.no hosts the high-latitutde component of the Eumetsat Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility (OSI-SAF), in which operational sea surface temperature, surface solar irradiance and sea ice products are developed from satellite observations and made available to Eumetsat members.

· Contribution to GOOS-related research (as well as GODAE) is provided by the international MERSEA Strand-1 project (coordinated by NERSC) funded for 18 months under the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security initial phase by CEC.

• NERSC, IMR and Met.no is currently undertaking a research and development project (2001-2005) with the goal to outline the design and implementation of a Norwegian Monitoring system for the Coastal Zone Environment.

• In the ESA and Norwegian Space Center project VAMP – “Validation of MERIS data products” the validation and development of ocean colour data products for monitoring are essential, and in the EU-project REVAMP – Regional validation of MERIS chlorophyll-a products in the North Sea coastal waters this is further tuned to local areas. NIVA participates in the EU-project DISMAR – Data Integration System for Marine Pollution and Water Quality where data from SOOP and operational satellites will be used in an intelligent system for monitoring and forecasting.

• The Norwegian Hydrographic Service operates 23 tide gauges along the coast. The outputs are water level and barometric pressure for every 10 minutes. The gauges are connected to a data base system through public phone lines. Five of the observation sites are GLOSS stations.

5.4 OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS TO GOOS

· IMR operate the Norwegian Marine Data Centre (NMD), and vertical profiles from 9 fixed stations are made available at:

http://old.imr.no/mil/nmd/showroom/coast/top.html

In addition SST data along the Norwegian coast are available at:

http://old.imr.no/mil/nmd/showroom/tgraf/top.html

• Met.no maintains a fully operational ocean nowcast/forecast system for northern European and Arctic waters that produces daily short- to medium-range forecasts of ocean physical and primary production variables (in cooperation with IMR), as well as rapid response forecasting for a wide range of oil pollution and drifting object events. The latter services are maintained and developed in close cooperation with users: national fisheries, pollution and safety authorities, and offshore petroleum operators. Met.no participates in national climate research projects (RegCLIM, NOCLIM) and operates a national service center for climate data (NoSERC).

· NPI, IMR and University of Bergen carry out current measurement in different sections both in Atlantic and Arctic water masses in Norwegian waters. These observations are not operative, but the results are available shortly after recovery and used for model validation. There are also ongoing efforts to include acoustic thermometry and tomography in one section through collaboration between NPI, NERSC and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (USA).

• Ocean and climate modeling activities/centres; Main ocean services and products and their sources.NERSC, IMR and Met.no is participating in the preparation and build-up of the European MERSEA Integrated Project to be submitted to CEC Framework Program 6 in spring 2003. If funded, the goal of this project is to design and implement a system for global ocean operational oceanography ready for regular provision of products by 2008.

• Johannes Guddal, Met.no is co-president of JCOMM and editor of the GOOS Products and Services Bulletin. Other Norwegian JCOMM delegates are Karen Doublet, met. no, and Einar Svendsen, IMR.

8. INDICATIONS OF FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTION TO GOOS

8.2 INVESTMENT IN NATIONAL COORDINATION

NCOOS and SatOcean. The latter steering committee lead by the Norwegian Spacecentre undertakes coordination of national activities for advancing and systemazing the use of satellite remote sensing in ocean and sea ice related research and application.