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Issue No.4, February 2007 | PDF version | go to archives »
It has been an active boreal autumn-winter for JCOMM, with highlights below. Please remember that this JCOMM Newsletter is intended as a two-way street,
and you are encouraged to submit information of interest to the wider JCOMM community for inclusion in future JCOMM Newsletters
~~~~~~~ To subscribe to the JCOMM newsletter, send an e-mail to: List-Subscribe. ~~~~~~~ The fifth session of the JCOMM Management Committee, hosted by WMO in Geneva, 5-7 October 2006, was the first formal session of the new Committee established by JCOMM-II (Halifax, September 2005), and as such represented an important occasion for the Committee to review the overall programme, provide guidance to the Secretariat and co-presidents on major issues, and assign specific tasks for each Committee member. The sixteen member Management Committee is currently composed of an almost equal number of new members and experienced hands from the last intersessional period, and form a strong team to lead the Commission over the next several years. Major items addressed during the meeting included: JCOMM-II follow-up; urgent and cross-cutting issues; actions arising from the work of the Programme Areas requiring advice and input from the Management Committee; external interactions; meetings of the WMO and IOC Governing Bodies; communications, outreach and strategic development; coming major events; priorities for the current intersessional period; and funding and Secretariat support. In their report to the meeting, the co-presidents put particular stress on those issues which would require the attention of the Committee during the session, and also underlined the importance of all Committee members contributing, both to the debates during the meeting, and also directly to the implementation of specific work assignments during the remainder of the intersessional period. Specific issues and outcomes of interest included:
Overall, it is clear that much has already been accomplished in the past year, and the Commission is well on track to achieving a substantial proportion of its objectives for the current intersessional period, despite a chronic shortfall of regular budget funding in both parent Organizations, below that required for basic programme coordination support. Efforts are underway to secure extra-budgetary funding for a range of programme implementation activities, but this still only partially addresses the problem. This fifth meeting of the JCOMM Management Committee was more efficiently conducted and more effective in its outcomes than any of the previous four sessions, reflecting the large amount of preparatory work put in by the co-presidents and Secretariat to focus the agenda, input documentation, and subsequent discussions, on those issues requiring management decisions. The use of breakout discussion and drafting groups also proved very effective. Improvements can still be made, but we are on the right track. After some discussion, it was agreed that the Management Committee should continue to meet every year, at least while JCOMM continues to evolve rapidly. ~~~~~~~ The JCOMM Coordination Groups for both the Data Management and Services Programme Areas have recently met, with the Coordination Group for Observations scheduled to meet in April 2007. All the Coordination Groups have encorporated the instructions given at the JCOMM 2 session in Halifax into their ambitious work plans for the intersessional period leading up to the third JCOMM session in 2009. The Data Management Coordination Group at its second session (October 2006, Geneva) agreed on a comprehensive list of actions and work plan, including:
Members of the Data Management Coordination Group
The Services Coordination Group at its third session (November 2006, Exeter) endorsed a work plan founded on a number of objectives:
The SCG coordinator has noted that the key challenge for the SCG is the integration of science and standards into operational services supporting maritime safety, emergency response, disaster risk reduction and maritime hazards, with full user support and interaction. A new structure for the Services Programme Area which focuses all current ETs on a common theme of met-ocean services will be proposed at JCOMM-III. In addition, noting the importance of operational ocean forecasting systems (and pulling through the successes of the GODAE Project into JCOMM as GODAE concludes), a new rapporteur for Operational Ocean Forecasting Systems was appointed. The SCG also launched planning for an International Metocean Maritime Safety Conference to be held in 2008 in Exeter, with the aim to establish and agree on international MetOcean services requirements, identifying shortcomings of present systems and reviewing long and short-term solutions. ~~~~~~~ A technical and scientific workshop focusing on ocean related hazards opened the twenty-second session of the data Buoy Cooperation Panel, held in La Jolla from 16 - 20 October 2006 at the kind invitation of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The Panel discussed a number of issues ranging from global implementation aspects (the Panel now operates through nine Action Groups, including the OceanSITES adopted last year), data requirements, data management, quality assurance, satellite data telecommunication, instrument evaluation and technical developments, to capacity building. The Panel addressed a warm welcome to its new Technical Coordinator, Ms Hester Viola, who started to work for the DBCP at JCOMMOPS in Toulouse in July 2006. Other highlights from the session included:
Ken Jarrott checking over a tsunameter ~~~~~~~ GRA Forum (report by Peter Dexter) The Forum of the GOOS Regional Alliances (GRAs), which was held at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa, from 14-17 November 2006, hosted by GOOS-Africa, was the third in the series, following the earlier ones in Athens (2002) and Fiji (2004). There is no doubt that this third Forum was much more effective than the previous two. In addition to the general objective of enhancing coordination and cooperation among the GRAs in addressing GOOS implementation and in support of the intergovernmental process, the forum was focussed on three specific issues: developing a more formal coordination arrangement, including a relationship to IGOOS; enhanced coordination with the Large Marine Ecosystems network supported by GEF; and the implementation of coastal GOOS. This latter issue was also of particular importance to JCOMM, and a review of the report of the joint JCOMM/GOOS/GRA Task Team on Coastal GOOS was the focus for this issue. There were around 50 participants overall, representing all the GRAs except WAGOOS as well as a number of associated organizations, bodies and programmes. Peter Dexter participated as co-president of JCOMM and as an observer from Australia. Overall, the Forum was both productive and largely devoid of the conflicts and disagreements which affected the previous two. This was due to good preparation, better focus, and a clear desire of participants to work towards common goals. The Forum decided to establish a GOOS Regional Council, as an advisory body to IGOOS and the GSSC, and prepared initial draft terms of reference. These have subsequently been refined and better focussed, with substantive input from Jim Baker, John Field, Tom Malone, Francois Gerard and JCOMM. They will be reviewed by I-GOOS-VIII (June 2007), which is expected to recommend that the GRC should be recognized as an advisory body to I-GOOS, with an ex officio member on the I-GOOS Board. The Forum developed and approved a large number of recommendations (to the GRAs themselves as well as to I-GOOS) relating to cooperation with the LMEs and the implementation of coastal GOOS. In particular, several pilot projects were initiated or supported. The Forum reviewed the draft report of the JCOMM/GOOS/GSSC Task Team on Coastal GOOS Implementation, including the comments and recommendations on the report by the JCOMM Management Committee. The Forum largely agreed with the JCOMM recommendations, and included a number of its own. These have all been incorporated into the final report of the task team, which have been submitted formally to GSSC-X in March 2007, as well as to the JCOMM co-presidents. Essentially, it is now agreed that the GSSC will be the body responsible for coordinating all implementation actions for coastal GOOS, addressing these actions to JCOMM, the GRAs or other bodies as appropriate and as technologies, methodologies and requirements become firmly established and ready for operational implementation. In this context, the Forum also strongly supported the establishment of the proposed Panel for Implementation of Coastal Observations (PICO), jointly with GTOS as appropriate, to act as an advisory body to the GSSC.
Participants in the third GOOS Regional Forum, Cape Town, November 2006, ~~~~~~~
See full calendar at: http://www.wmo.ch/web/aom/marprog/Forthcoming-Events/forthcoming-events.htm ~~~~~~~ Call for Applications: The Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) and its partner, the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), announce the POGO-SCOR Visiting Fellowship Programme for 2007. This programme is designed to promote training and capacity building leading towards a global observation scheme for the oceans. A limited number of fellowships will be awarded to those involved in oceanographic work or study in developing countries, providing airfare and a cost-of-living stipend for a training period of up to three months in oceanographic institutions worldwide. The deadline for application is 15 April 2007. More details and the application can be found at: http://ocean-partners.org/Training_Education.htm. ~~~~~~~
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Data Management Programme Area, Geneva, October 2006
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