IN SITU OBSERVATIONS: SYSTEMS AND MANAGEMENT
211
¾ Sub-surface: ARGO (Profiling floats), TAO, GTSPP (Global
Temperature and Salinity Pilot Project)
¾ Sea Level: GLOSS (Sea Level)
Being able to collect and share the acquired data and distribute them to
the user community requires significant work of normalisation/coordination
on data collection and format (from metadata to profile and timeserie
datasets), on quality control procedures, as well as on networking
organisation to make these data circulate efficiently. Several concurrent
attempts of normalization for metadata description (ISO 19115, GXML,
XML-Marine, etc.) or data format and access systems are underway, both at
national and international levels, but there is still no convergence towards a
unique general agreement.
3.
Implementation issues
When an observing system, often set up and maintained by scientific
teams, moves to operational status there are some requirements that need to
be fulfilled.
3.1
Sustainability
First, an operational system is sustained in different ways. This regards
funding of course, as they are often expensive networks: new funding
mechanisms have to be set up coming from sources other than R&D. Not all
countries are organized in such a way that a transition to operational is easy:
for example it is the case between NSF or NASA and NOAA in the USA,
between ESA and Eumetsat for earth observations in Europe. Systems must
be sustained also in terms of the operation: this goes from deployment
planning, at-sea servicing (this requires ship and engineering teams to
perform these activities), to data processing that has to move from R&D
laboratories to operational data centres who are committed to do such tasks
in the long-term. It is not always easy to find the institutions that are, in each
contributing country, mandated or capable or willing to perform these tasks.
3.2
System maintenance
Second, work to maintain and operate such a network has to be
coordinated at the international level with a clearly identified Project Office.
This Project Office interacts with the contributing countries to update the
implementation plans and secure the fundings. It coordinates the national
-
211
¾ Sub-surface: ARGO (Profiling floats), TAO, GTSPP (Global
Temperature and Salinity Pilot Project)
¾ Sea Level: GLOSS (Sea Level)
Being able to collect and share the acquired data and distribute them to
the user community requires significant work of normalisation/coordination
on data collection and format (from metadata to profile and timeserie
datasets), on quality control procedures, as well as on networking
organisation to make these data circulate efficiently. Several concurrent
attempts of normalization for metadata description (ISO 19115, GXML,
XML-Marine, etc.) or data format and access systems are underway, both at
national and international levels, but there is still no convergence towards a
unique general agreement.
3.
Implementation issues
When an observing system, often set up and maintained by scientific
teams, moves to operational status there are some requirements that need to
be fulfilled.
3.1
Sustainability
First, an operational system is sustained in different ways. This regards
funding of course, as they are often expensive networks: new funding
mechanisms have to be set up coming from sources other than R&D. Not all
countries are organized in such a way that a transition to operational is easy:
for example it is the case between NSF or NASA and NOAA in the USA,
between ESA and Eumetsat for earth observations in Europe. Systems must
be sustained also in terms of the operation: this goes from deployment
planning, at-sea servicing (this requires ship and engineering teams to
perform these activities), to data processing that has to move from R&D
laboratories to operational data centres who are committed to do such tasks
in the long-term. It is not always easy to find the institutions that are, in each
contributing country, mandated or capable or willing to perform these tasks.
3.2
System maintenance
Second, work to maintain and operate such a network has to be
coordinated at the international level with a clearly identified Project Office.
This Project Office interacts with the contributing countries to update the
implementation plans and secure the fundings. It coordinates the national
-