administrative backup for all WOCE Panels and
WGs and regularly promulgated information
about the project through the WOCE International Newsletter. The DIU, together with the IPO
(which became a Project rather than Planning
Office in 1990), compiled annual resource assessments of the experiment. During this time the IPO
was led, in succession, by Peter Koltermann
(1989–91), Nick Fofonoff (1991–93), and John
Gould (1993 to present).
By 1994 (just past the mid-point of the nowextended observational phase) it was clear that
WOCE would need a more detailed strategy for its
post-observational phase. In consequence, the SSG
and IPO drew up a plan for a phase of Analysis,
Interpretation, Modelling and Synthesis (WOCE
AIMS). In March 1995, the JSC, having inherited
the responsibility for WOCE from CCCO,
endorsed the plan and agreed that WOCE should
continue in its AIMS phase to 2002 (WOCE IPO,
1995). An integral part of the strategy was the
streamlining of the WOCE oversight structure. Up
to this time each Core Project and many programme elements had their own oversight Panel
and modelling activities were by-and-large considered separately from observations and coordinated
by the WOCE Numerical Experimentation Group
(NEG). The Core Project Working Groups were
therefore disbanded in favour of a Synthesis and
Modelling WG (SMWG), bringing together observationalists and modellers. It first met in October
1995 to start the preparation of a detailed plan for
the AIMS phase (WOCE IPO, 1997).
Additionally in 1997 the Data Products Committee (this had changed in 1994 from being a
Data Management Committee) assumed oversight
of the WOCE Hydrographic Programme.
An essential element of the WOCE AIMS
strategy was a series of regional and subject-based
workshops that would (in the case of the regional
meetings) stimulate basin-wide syntheses of WOCE
data sets and foster collaboration between research
groups. The first of these workshops was held in
1996 on the Pacific Ocean. The complete sequence
and locations is shown in Table 1.3.1.
A significant number of papers based on science
presented at the regional workshops were published in special issues of the Journal of Geophysical Research. The reports of the workshops have
been published by the IPO and in a number of
cases these reports contain recommendations that
are of long-term consequence. For instance the
Ocean Moelling workshop led to the re-formation
of a group charged with stimulating ocean model
development within the wider framework of the
WCRP. The 2001 workshop on Global Transports
will address a central objective of WOCE – that of
determining the oceanic transports of heat and
fresh water. The JGOFS CO 2 measurements made
on the WOCE one-time sections will provide estimates of the CO 2 fluxes and a key inventory of
CO 2 in the oceans (Wallace, Chapter 6.3).
A further activity of the AIMS phase will be the
publication of a series of atlases of WOCE Hydrographic Programme One-Time Survey data in a
common format embodying profiles of all the
WHP parameters.
WOCE held a conference on ‘Ocean Circulation
and Climate’ in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, in
May 1998 to mark the end of the observational
phase, to review the state of WOCE science and to
give the large WOCE community an opportunity
to make poster presentations of their latest results.
The attendance of almost 400 ranging in age from
the founders of WOCE to students who had barely
started school in the late 1970s was gratifying and
the keynote presentations were the starting point
for this book. The 1998 conference was also the
occasion of the distribution of the first set of
WOCE Global Data on CD-ROMs. Preliminary
planning is now underway for a final WOCE
Science Conference to be held in the USA in 2002.
SECTION 1 THE OCEAN AND CLIMATE
42
Table 1.3.1 Sequence of WOCE AIMS phase
workshops
Subject
Venue
Date
Pacific Ocean
USA
August 1996
South Atlantic
France
June 1997
Southern Ocean
Australia
July 1997
Ocean state estimation
USA
March 1998
(with GODAE
a
)
Ocean modelling
USA
August 1998
(with CLIVAR)
Indian Ocean
USA
September 1998
Tracer AIMS
Germany
February 1999
North Atlantic
Germany
August 1999
Ocean variability
Japan
October 2000
(with CLIVAR)
Global transports
UK
Summer 2001
(with JGOFS)
a GODAE – Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment
WGs and regularly promulgated information
about the project through the WOCE International Newsletter. The DIU, together with the IPO
(which became a Project rather than Planning
Office in 1990), compiled annual resource assessments of the experiment. During this time the IPO
was led, in succession, by Peter Koltermann
(1989–91), Nick Fofonoff (1991–93), and John
Gould (1993 to present).
By 1994 (just past the mid-point of the nowextended observational phase) it was clear that
WOCE would need a more detailed strategy for its
post-observational phase. In consequence, the SSG
and IPO drew up a plan for a phase of Analysis,
Interpretation, Modelling and Synthesis (WOCE
AIMS). In March 1995, the JSC, having inherited
the responsibility for WOCE from CCCO,
endorsed the plan and agreed that WOCE should
continue in its AIMS phase to 2002 (WOCE IPO,
1995). An integral part of the strategy was the
streamlining of the WOCE oversight structure. Up
to this time each Core Project and many programme elements had their own oversight Panel
and modelling activities were by-and-large considered separately from observations and coordinated
by the WOCE Numerical Experimentation Group
(NEG). The Core Project Working Groups were
therefore disbanded in favour of a Synthesis and
Modelling WG (SMWG), bringing together observationalists and modellers. It first met in October
1995 to start the preparation of a detailed plan for
the AIMS phase (WOCE IPO, 1997).
Additionally in 1997 the Data Products Committee (this had changed in 1994 from being a
Data Management Committee) assumed oversight
of the WOCE Hydrographic Programme.
An essential element of the WOCE AIMS
strategy was a series of regional and subject-based
workshops that would (in the case of the regional
meetings) stimulate basin-wide syntheses of WOCE
data sets and foster collaboration between research
groups. The first of these workshops was held in
1996 on the Pacific Ocean. The complete sequence
and locations is shown in Table 1.3.1.
A significant number of papers based on science
presented at the regional workshops were published in special issues of the Journal of Geophysical Research. The reports of the workshops have
been published by the IPO and in a number of
cases these reports contain recommendations that
are of long-term consequence. For instance the
Ocean Moelling workshop led to the re-formation
of a group charged with stimulating ocean model
development within the wider framework of the
WCRP. The 2001 workshop on Global Transports
will address a central objective of WOCE – that of
determining the oceanic transports of heat and
fresh water. The JGOFS CO 2 measurements made
on the WOCE one-time sections will provide estimates of the CO 2 fluxes and a key inventory of
CO 2 in the oceans (Wallace, Chapter 6.3).
A further activity of the AIMS phase will be the
publication of a series of atlases of WOCE Hydrographic Programme One-Time Survey data in a
common format embodying profiles of all the
WHP parameters.
WOCE held a conference on ‘Ocean Circulation
and Climate’ in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, in
May 1998 to mark the end of the observational
phase, to review the state of WOCE science and to
give the large WOCE community an opportunity
to make poster presentations of their latest results.
The attendance of almost 400 ranging in age from
the founders of WOCE to students who had barely
started school in the late 1970s was gratifying and
the keynote presentations were the starting point
for this book. The 1998 conference was also the
occasion of the distribution of the first set of
WOCE Global Data on CD-ROMs. Preliminary
planning is now underway for a final WOCE
Science Conference to be held in the USA in 2002.
SECTION 1 THE OCEAN AND CLIMATE
42
Table 1.3.1 Sequence of WOCE AIMS phase
workshops
Subject
Venue
Date
Pacific Ocean
USA
August 1996
South Atlantic
France
June 1997
Southern Ocean
Australia
July 1997
Ocean state estimation
USA
March 1998
(with GODAE
a
)
Ocean modelling
USA
August 1998
(with CLIVAR)
Indian Ocean
USA
September 1998
Tracer AIMS
Germany
February 1999
North Atlantic
Germany
August 1999
Ocean variability
Japan
October 2000
(with CLIVAR)
Global transports
UK
Summer 2001
(with JGOFS)
a GODAE – Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment