World Meteorological Organization (WMO)

The Twelfth Congress of the WMO in 1995, agreed that the WMO should contribute to the celebration of the important International Year of the Ocean. The WMO Members were urged to contribute to celebrations at the national level, and requested the Executive Council to arrange for a variety of WMO contributions to the year, both directly and in concert with other United Nations system agencies (see Resolution 17 (Cg-XII)).

Subsequently, the Executive Council, in response to this request and in support of the International Year of the Ocean 1998 (IYO 98), agreed that the theme for World Meteorological Day 1998 (WMD 98) should be "Weather, the oceans and human activity". Following the normal practice for World Meteorological Day, a booklet, poster, video clip and other publicity material on this theme have been prepared, and these will be distributed to the Permanent Representative Members of the WMO.

In addition to WMD 98, there are a number of other activities and events planned or underway in celebration of IYO 98 in which WMO is involved:

• EXPO 98: the international exhibition EXPO 98, on the theme of "The oceans, a heritage for the future", will take place in Lisbon, Portugal, between May and September 1998. A United Nations pavilion will form part of EXPO 98, and WMO is contributing to this pavilion, along with other UN agencies with ocean interests;

• IYO 98 logo: A special logo has been designed, and will be used by UN agencies contributing to IYO 98 on all publications and other printed and visual material relevant to the theme of the year;

• Conferences, symposia and meetings: All conferences and other such events in 1998 with an ocean-related theme, organized or supported by WMO, will be dedicated to the IYO 98. These include:

(a) Ocean Circulation and Climate - the 1998 WOCE Conference (WCRP), Halifax, Canada, May;

(b) 9^th Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, UNESCO, Paris, May;

(c) MARPOLSER - International Seminar/Workshop on Meteorological and Ocean Services for Marine Pollution Emergency Response Support, Townsville, Australia, July;

(d) Cost 714 Conference on Applications of Directional Wave Spectra, Paris, September;

(e) CLIVAR Scientific Conference (WCRP), December;

(f) Various smaller specialist meetings within the WMO marine program, in relation to CMM, IGOSS, GOSS and the DBCP;

• Publications: All WMO publications with an ocean-related theme issued during 1998 will carry the IYO 98 logo and be dedicated to the IYO. The January 1998 numbers of the WMO Bulletin and World Climate News will also be largely devoted to aspects of the general theme of "oceans, weather and climate".