The fourth session of the GLOSS Group of Experts was held in Bordeaux, France during 31 January - 3 February 1995 and was chaired by Dr.David Pugh, now at the Southampton Oceanography Centre, UK. David, along with Klaus Wyrtki in Hawaii and Albert Tolkatchev at IOC, played the major role in the development of GLOSS from the mid-1980's, and chaired first the IOC GLOSS Task Team meetings and later the Group of Experts sessions.
In January 1996, David resigned as Group Chairman and IOC asked me to act as Interim Chairman, including chairing the fifth session of the Group at its meeting at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) 19-21 March 1997, and editing the new Implementation Plan for GLOSS. I have compiled this note, with the help of David Pugh and Albert Tolkatchev, to provide a summary of GLOSS-related activities during 1995-96.
The list is quite impressive but I would be very pleased if it could serve to stimulate consideration of new GLOSS products and projects, and the evolution of GLOSS itself, which we will discuss at the fifth session at JPL.
BORDEAUX PUBLICATIONS
Minutes of the fourth session of the group have been published (IOC, 1995a) as has an IOC workshop report on the IOC/GLOSS-IAPSO Southern Ocean Circulation workshop which preceded it (IOC, 1995b). In addition, several members of the Group stayed in Bordeaux in order to attend the BORDOMER'95 conference, papers from which have now been published (IOC, 1995c).
IOC TRAINING COURSES
A number of IOC/GLOSS training courses have been held or are in the planning stage.
In November-December 1995, a GLOSS-GOOS training workshop on sea level data analysis was held at the Survey of India, Geodetic and Research Branch, Dehra Dun, India with several guest lecturers (Caldwell, Murty, Woodworth). The meeting was co-organised and co-funded by the Indian Department of Ocean Development and the National Institute of Oceanography (Satish Shetye) and was extremely successful, containing 'hands on training' sessions as well as science lectures.
In November 1996, a further sea level training course was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina hosted by the Servicio de Hidrografia Naval, Armada Argentina (Capitan J.A. Valladares) and with guest lecturers including Pugh and Zlotnicki. This course included more 'science' than 'training', reflecting perceived priorities.
An IOC training course is planned to be held at the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (POL), UK in 16-27 June 1997, with a style similar to that of Dehra Dun. It will be co-funded by the Commission Internationale pour l'Exploration Scientifique de la Mer Mediterranee (CIESM) and will have participants from Mediterranean and Black Seas including North Africa, and possibly the Middle East. (The POL course will be followed by a sea level summer school in Kos, Greece in July for Mediterranean scientists funded by the European Union).
Further training courses have been proposed for the Indian Ocean (some time in 1998) and by the University of Sao Paulo (in January 1998), following recommendations of the Dehra Dun and Buenos Aires meetings respectively. These proposals will be discussed at the GLOSS GE-V session and will of course be subject to available funding.
OTHER GLOSS-RELATED TRAINING
The British Council has funded extended visits of two Indian scientists to POL for sea level training. The Australian National Tidal Facility (NTF) has continued training related to its South Pacific, Indian Ocean and ASEAN activities.
TRAINING MATERIALS
The second part of IOC Manuals and Guides No.14 has been published (IOC, 1994) and widely circulated. (I propose that a 'Part 3' on 'How to operate GPS near a tide gauge' be one of the products of the IGS/PSMSL GPS Workshop which comes before GE-V).
Several sets of tidal analysis software have been widely distributed. The most used is that of Pat Caldwell from the University of Hawaii; this formed the basis of 'HOTS' at Dehra Dun for example. Other packages are available from the NTF and POL.
Several CD-ROMS with data or GLOSS information are now available. (And note that the new Implementation Plan suggests that training materials make the most of CD-ROM technology in future). These include:
- A CD-ROM from 1994 produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which includes PSMSL and TOGA files of the time.
- A CD-ROM produced by the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) for the Geneva Climate Conference in July 1996. This includes the GLOSS Handbook, PSMSL data sets and the IOC sea level training manuals. The latter provide a guide to an economical way of spreading training information. Co-funding for this project was provided by IOC and the US National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC).
- A third CD-ROM has been proposed by BODC and NODC and will be discussed during the GE-V session.
NEWSLETTERS ETC.
There have been 3 issues (and a short 4th to advertise the GLOSS Implementation Plan) of the GLOSS Bulletin on the web. The PSMSL will undertake to produce a 5th, primarily using contributions from GE-V. Thereafter, the NTF has kindly offered to take over production of the Bulletin.
The Afro-American GLOSS News (AAGN) has moved on to issue number 3. This is an old-style paper newsletter, with articles mostly in Spanish and Portuguese, produced by the University of Sao Paulo. In my opinion, such newsletters need to be produced more frequently, and perhaps another group can share the editorial responsibilities? (University of Cape Town has been suggested).
All sea level centres (PSMSL, BODC, UHSCL, NTF) now have good web pages which serve to spread information to the public as well as the science community.
A new GLOSS brochure for general Public Relations purposes is required, all the brochures from 5-6 years ago having been given away. The suggestion is to produce a new brochure after the new Implementation Plan is published.
SCIENCE
As normal, there have been many science meetings at which sea level changes have been discussed. Meetings of the TOPEX/POSEIDON Science Working Team, typically once a year, have been very useful in serving our area of science (ERS meetings also but less so). Gary Mitchum and others have provided good bridges between the altimetry and tide gauge communities.
An important session on sea level was held at the IUGG'95 conference in Boulder, and another is planned already for IUGG'99 in Birmingham.
Other relevant meetings include Tidal Science 1996 at the Royal Society, London in October 1996 and the PSMSL/IGS GPS Workshop in March 1997. (Also note that two important WOCE meetings are planned this year relevant to GLOSS: S.Atlantic June (Brest) and S.Ocean July (Australia) following IAPSO/IAMAP).
Numerous papers have been published using GLOSS (and sea level in general) data. The IPCC Second (1995) Scientific Assessment has been most important in stressing the continued need for sea level measurements (Warrick et al., 1995).
GLOSS REGIONAL PROJECTS
There have been many of these I am delighted to say. See Chapters 8 and 9 of the draft GLOSS Implementation Plan for short descriptions.
TIDE GAUGE HARDWARE
Four OTT type tide-gauges were sent by Germany to Nigeria, Guinee, Gambia and Cote d'Ivoire in 1996. See also the report by Awosika to this meeting.
CONTINUED DEVELOPMENT OF GLOSS ITSELF
Evidence that GLOSS objectives are being met (slowly maybe) can be obtained from the data holdings of the PSMSL and other centres (UHSLC, SOSLC etc.). Statistics have been compiled each year by the PSMSL, and up-to-date details are given in the Implementation Plan. Just recently we heard of the installation of a new GLOSS gauge at the tiny, remote island of Minamitorishima by the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA).
GLOSS FUNDING
Contributions have continued to be received during 1995-96 from the UK and USA to the IOC Trust Fund specifically in support of GLOSS.
NEW GLOSS IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
The editing of a draft version of a new Implementation Plan for GLOSS has been one of my main tasks in 1996, making use of contributions from many people. The draft includes suggestions for the evolution and prioritisation of the tide gauge network and for data flow etc., particularly as new techniques (GPS, altimetry, electronic communications) become more important. It will form the main topic for discussion at GE-V.
References
IOC. 1994. Manual on sea-level measurement and interpretation. Volume 2 - Emerging Technologies. Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Manuals and Guides No. 14. IOC, Paris, 72pp.
IOC. 1995a. IOC group of experts on the Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS), fourth session, Bordeaux, France, 31 January - 3 February 1995. Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, Reports of Meetings of Experts and Equivalent Bodies, IOC/GE-GLOSS-IV/3, 18pp. & annexes.
IOC. 1995b. IOC/GLOSS-IAPSO Workshop on Sea Level Variability and Southern Ocean Dynamics, Bordeaux, France, 31 January 1995. Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Workshop Report No.115.
IOC. 1995c. Proceedings of Bordomer 95: Coastal Change conference 6-10 February, 1995, Bordeaux, France. (Two volumes). Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Workshop Report No.105.
Warrick, R.A., Le Provost, C., Meier, M.F., Oerlemans, J. and Woodworth, P.L. 1995. Lead authors of Chapter 7 (Changes in sea level) of Climate Change 1995. The science of climate change. Contribution of working group I to the second assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, eds. J.T.Houghton, L.G.Meira Filho, B.A.Callander, N.Harris, A.Kattenberg and K.Maskell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 572pp.