GLOSS Status 1998
GLOSS status, from a PSMSL viewpoint, is reviewed each year around October. For information on the present status, Click here.
GLOSS Regional Reports
I am very grateful to the following people for contributions to this issue:
Doug Martin (NOAA) for an article on the Caribbean CPACC programme.
Paul Denys (Otago University) for an article on GPS and Sea Level in New Zealand.
Philip Axe (POL) for an article on the European EOSS programme.
Note that other national and regional reports may now appear on the web in the Afro-America GLOSS News. Congratulations to Afranio de Mesquita and colleagues at the University of Sao Paulo for setting up the pages. I believe Afranio would welcome articles for the next issue of his Newsletter.
Postcards from Australia and Taiwan
This page includes some reflections from GLOSS-related visits to Australia and Taiwan earlier this year, Click here.
GLOSS Implementation Plan 1997
The GLOSS Implementation Plan 1997 has now been printed at IOC and copies may be obtained either from the GOOS Office or from me. It can also be copied from the web, Click here and follow the instructions.
GLOSS Contacts should pay attention to Chapter 12 of the Plan which lists their national obligations towards GLOSS, as agreed by their delegates to the IOC Assembly in 1997. In particular, Chapter 7 specifies how original (typically hourly) data from GLOSS sites must be made available to the community, in addition to the monthly mean values sent regularly to the PSMSL. Original data can either be made available on an organisation's own ftp/web server, or sent to one of the International Sea Level Centres (e.g. PSMSL, UHSLC, NTF or regional programme centre). I shall be writing to GLOSS Contacts in the near future to remind them of their obligations to the programme, now that the Plan has been printed and circulated.
IGS/PSMSL Meeting on GPS at Tide Gauges March 1997
Issue 5 of the Bulletin referred to this very successful meeting for which there is now a proceedings report available on paper either from Ruth Neilan or from me. Ruth and Priscilla Van Scoy are to be thanked for the excellent production of this report, which will appear in web form in the near future.
A recommendation of that meeting was that a Technical Committee would be set up under the chairmanship of Mike Bevis from the University of Honolulu (bevis@soest.hawaii.edu). The first task of the committee would be the production of a 'manual' on how to operate GPS at tide gauge sites. Mike has since produced first drafts of this manual and 'final drafts' are to expected in the next few months. Meanwhile, Mike has produced a personal overview of the subject as an IGS Technical Document which appears in this edition, Click here.
Other Publications
Issue 5 of the Bulletin also referred to a number of other publications in preparation:
(i) an important book entitled 'Sea-Level Change and Coastal Processes: Implications for Europe' stemming from a European meeting on sea level in Barcelona, Spain during 9-12 April. This book is now in final form and will be sent for printing soon.
(ii) a report from the International Workshop on Climate Aspects of Sea Level held at the University of Hawaii during 10-11 June 1997. Copies of this report can be obtained from NOAA and from WOCE/CLIVAR International Programme Office at the Southampton Oceanography Centre.
(iii) a special issue of Progress in Oceanography based on papers stemming from the 'Tidal Science 1996' meeting at the Royal Society. This special issue has now been published as Volume 40 of P in O.
GLOSS Group of Experts Meeting No.6
The dates and location of the sixth (formal) meeting of the GLOSS Group of Experts have been agreed for 10-14 May 1999 at the Laboratoire d'Etudes en Geophysique et Oceanographie Spatiales in Toulouse, kindly hosted by Christian Le Provost.
The GLOSS Meeting itself will take up 12-14 May but we intend to use the 10-11 for a special workshop on 'Ocean Circulation Science derived from the Atlantic, Indian and Arctic Sea Level Networks' to be held under the auspices of IOC/GLOSS and IAPSO and with convenor Gary Mitchum from the University of South Florida. Please mail Gary if you have suggestions for the workshop.
One purpose of the workshop is to highlight the important science which can be performed using sea level data from the Atlantic, Indian and Arctic Oceans and, thereby, to point to requirements for sea level measurements in the future. We concentrate on these areas in particular as several excellent workshops have been already been held on the Pacific and Southern Oceans by IOC and IAPSO in recent years, and as these three ocean areas could require (depending on the science requirements) relatively greater investment in instrumentation than they have had in the past.
For the moment, just put these dates in your diaries. More details will be circulated later. However, we hope very much that people wishing to attend one of these meetings will also stay in Toulouse for the other. Some travel funds may be made available by IOC and IAPSO.
We also intend that there will be a GLOSS meeting at the IUGG in Birmingham in July 1999, possibly held in association with the IAPSO Commission on MSL and Tides.
But Before GE-6, Remember GE-5 ?
Before we can concern ourselves with GE-6, we should consider the things which we promised to do at the GE-5 meetings (or which you were 'volunteered' to do). A list of actions arising from GE-5 can be inspected by Clicking here.
If any of these concern you, I would be grateful if you could expedite matters.
GLOSS Training Courses
A GLOSS sea level training course will be held at the University of Cape Town during 16-27 November this year, kindly hosted by Geoff Brundrit and Howard Waldron. The course will follow a style much like that of Bidston 1997 or Dehra Dun 1995, with formal lectures and 'hands on training sessions'. At the time of writing, attendees have been selected and are being mailed essential pre-course training materials to read.
A training course is being planned for 1999, in probably the first half of the year, for a location in South America. People interested in that should contact their national GLOSS Contacts who will be the recipients of formal notification from IOC when that course is approved.
GLOSS Brochure
An updated 2 page brochure advertising GLOSS has been produced by Gillian Spencer and Robert Smith. Several thousand copies will be printed for circulation in the UK and we hope that GLOSS National and Regional Contacts will arrange for printing in their own countries. Copies of the files which make up the brochure (Corel Draw files) may be sent to anyone interested who can edit and adapt them according to local interests.
WOCE Sea Level CDROM and GLOSS Handbook New Version
A new version of the GLOSS Handbook has been produced by Lesley Rickards based on questionnaires circulated in 1997. A preliminary version of the new Handbook was included in a sea level CDROM circulated at the International WOCE Meeting in Halifax in May, and the preliminary version replaced the older web version of the Handbook. At the time of writing we expect the final version of the new Handbook to be available on the web 'in about a fortnight'.
The most depressing aspect of these questionnaires was that they asked for feedback on how GLOSS could be made more effective, perhaps through better training courses or materials. Only one person (from Mauritius) bothered to reply, pointing to the need for more graduates to be involved in sea level research, thereby taking the lead in each country. This is of course a good point.
Copies of the WOCE Sea Level CDROM may be obtained either from Lesley Rickards or from Pat Caldwell in Hawaii.
New Versions of Hawaii and PSMSL/POL Tidal Analysis Software
A new version of Pat Caldwell's widely used tidal analysis sofware from the University of Hawaii is now available. For information, Click here.
Meanwhile, a new version of the PSMSL/POL TASK (Tidal Analysis Software Kit) called TASK-2000 is also available on request. Mail plw@pol.ac.uk for information.
After GLOSS: GLOUP
Many people interested in tide gauges and altimetry will also be interested in bottom pressure measurements. My colleague Chris Hughes has recently taken a lead in trying to get global bottom pressure measurements and data sets on a better footing. He calls this activity GLOUP, an acronym which may result in legal action from IOC. Meanwhile, for more information, Click here.
IPCC Third Scientific Assessment
You may know that the third scientific assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has kicked off with a meeting in Bad Munstereifel, Germany at the end of the June. At that meeting, there was considerable discussion as to whether there should be a dedicated sea level chapter and working group, as for the second assessment. In the end, the conclusion was that there should be, and the following people were eventually delegated to act as Lead Authors:
John Church CSIRO Marine Research, Australia
john.church@marine.csiro.au
Joint Coordinator
Jonathan Gregory Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, UK
jmgregory@meto.gov.uk
Joint Coordinator
Philippe Huybrechts Free University of Brussels, Belgium
phuybrec@vub.ac.be
Michael Kuhn University of Innsbruck, Austria
Michael.Kuhn@uibk.ac.at
Kurt Lambeck Australian National University
Kurt.Lambeck@anu.edu.au
Dahe Qin Chinese Academy of Sciences
dhqin@rose.cashq.ac.cn
Philip Woodworth Proudman Oceanographic Lab, UK
plw@pol.ac.uk
My role in this is, of course, to provide some linkage to GLOSS and the PSMSL.
Your input to the editing work to be performed by these Lead Authors over
the next year or so will be very important. Janice Trotte
Finally I would like to take the opportunity to thank Janice Trotte for all her hard work as Acting GLOSS Technical Secretary at the GOOS Office at IOC following the retirement of Albert Tolkatchev in 1997. Janice has been 'on loan' to IOC from DHN in Brazil and she was not originally expecting to be involved with GLOSS. However, she has done a great job chasing people for action around the world. At the time of writing, I understand that the position at IOC which includes GLOSS Technical Secretary has been offered to someone who will take up the appointment in early 1999.
As this will be the first and last issue of the Bulletin in 1998, best wishes for 1999.
Philip Woodworth plw@pol.ac.uk