The first IGOS International Workshop was held in Tokyo on 4-6 February 2004. The workshop was organized by JAXA under MEXT sponsorship and endorsed by the 17th CEOS Plenary and the IGOS-P 10bis meeting last November.

The purpose of the workshop was to report and update the status of the IGOS Themes and to discuss their implementations and development.

The workshop was very well attended by more than 200 attendees including all theme leaders.

The workshop consists of plenary sessions and splinter sessions. The opening plenary included overall IGOS-P progress report by Prof. Li Deren, IGOS-P co-chair representative, and a report on GEO status and Tokyo Summit planning by Mr. Fukai, Director of MEXT Summit Office. Dr. Furuhama, a new CEOS SIT chair reported the outcome from the 13th SIT meeting which was held on the previous day, particularly space agency’s commitment for the IGOS Themes.

Eight splinter sessions were held for six IGOS Themes and two cross-cutting issues; data integration and capacity building. In each IGOS Theme splinter session, the Theme leader presented update of Theme report, and then participants reported their activities relevant to the Theme. The splinter session identified key issues and recommendations for the implementation and development of the Themes.

In the closing plenary, outcomes from the splinter sessions were reported and a panel discussion was held. The panel consists of Theme leaders and representative of space agency and in-situ observation agency. The panel discussion was very active and interesting.

In the end, Prof. Ogawa, the workshop organizer, presented draft recommendations for the workshop. Those are 9 recommendations by the workshop participants and include the following two key messages;

1. The workshop recognized IGOS Themes are mature or near approval and it is recommended these serve as major input for the implementation of first phase of GEO.

2. It is recommended both the GEO and IGOS-P communities recognize the value of GEO process in securing necessary support for the IGOS Themes and make the necessary linkages between the two frameworks.

Those recommendations were adopted by the workshop participants and the workshop was successfully closed.

- February 2004 - 505kb