ALBERT

Description: A recent temperature reconstruction of global annual temperature shows Early Holocene warmth followed by a cooling trend through the Middle to Late Holocene [Marcott SA, et al., 2013, Science 339(6124):1198–1201]. This global cooling is puzzling because it is opposite from the expected and simulated global warming trend due to the retreating ice sheets and rising atmospheric greenhouse gases. Our critical reexamination of this contradiction between the reconstructed cooling and the simulated warming points to potentially significant biases in both the seasonality of the proxy reconstruction and the climate sensitivity of current climate models.

Description: The composition and abundance of algal pigments provide information on characteristics of a phytoplankton community in respect to its photoacclimation, overall biomass, and taxonomic composition. Particularly, these pigments play a major role in photoprotection and in the light-driven part of photosynthesis. Most phytoplankton pigments can be measured by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) techniques to filtered water samples. This method, like others when water samples have to be analysed in the laboratory, is time consuming and therefore only a limited number of data points can be obtained. In order to receive information on phytoplankton pigment composition with a higher temporal and spatial resolution, we have developed a method to assess pigment concentrations from continuous optical measurements. The method applies an Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis to remote sensing reflectance data derived from ship-based hyper-spectral underwater radiometric and from multispectral satellite data (using the MERIS Polymer product developed by Steinmetz et al., 2011) measured in the Eastern Tropical Atlantic. Subsequently we developed statistically linear models with measured (collocated) pigment concentrations as the response variable and EOF loadings as predictor variables. The model results, show that surface concentrations of a suite of pigments and pigment groups can be well predicted from the ship-based reflectance measurements, even when only a multi-spectral resolution is chosen (i.e. eight bands similar to those used by MERIS). Based on the MERIS reflectance data, concentrations of total and monovinyl chlorophyll a and the groups of photoprotective and photosynthetic carotenoids can be predicted with high quality. The fitted statistical model constructed on the satellite reflectance data as input was applied to one month of MERIS Polymer data to predict the concentration of those pigment groups for the whole Eastern Tropical Atlantic area. Bootstrapping explorations of cross-validation error indicate that the method can produce reliable predictions with relatively small data sets (e.g., 〈 50 collocated values of reflectance and pigment concentration). The method allows for the derivation of time series from continuous reflectance data of various pigment groups at various regions, which can be used to study variability and change of phytoplankton composition and photo-physiology.

Description: The variability of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) at multidecadal and longer timescales is poorly constrained, primarily because instrumental records are short and proxy records are noisy. Through applying a new noise filtering technique to a global network of late Holocene SST proxies, we estimate SST variability between annual and millennial timescales. Filtered estimates of SST variability obtained from coral, foraminifer, and alkenone records are shown to be consistent with one another and with instrumental records in the frequency bands at which they overlap. General circulation models, however, simulate SST variability that is systematically smaller than instrumental and proxy-based estimates. Discrepancies in variability are largest at low latitudes and increase with timescale, reaching two orders of magnitude for tropical variability at millennial timescales. This result implies major deficiencies in observational estimates or model simulations, or both, and has implications for the attribution of past variations and prediction of future change.

Description: Methane plays an important role in the Earth’s atmospheric chemistry and radiative balance being the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. Methane is released to the atmosphere by a wide number of sources, both natural and anthropogenic, with the latter being twice as large as the former (IPCC, 2007). It has recently been established that significant amounts of geological methane, produced within the Earth’s crust, are currently released naturally into the atmosphere (Etiope, 2004). Active or recent volcanic/geothermal areas represent one of these sources of geological methane. But due to the fact that methane flux measurements are laboratory intensive, very few data have been collected until now and the contribution of this source has been generally indirectly estimated (Etiope et al., 2007). The Greek territory is geodynamically very active and has many volcanic and geothermal areas. Here we report on methane flux measurements made at two volcanic/geothermal systems along the South Aegean volcanic arc: Sousaki and Nisyros. The former is an extinct volcanic area of Plio-Pleistocene age hosting nowadays a low enthalpy geothermal field. The latter is a currently quiescent active volcanic system with strong fumarolic activity due to the presence of a high enthalpy geothermal system. Both systems have gas manifestations that emit significant amounts of hydrothermal methane and display important diffuse carbon dioxide emissions from the soils. New data on methane isotopic composition and higher hydrocarbon contents point to an abiogenic origin of the hydrothermal methane in the studied systems. Measured methane flux values range from –48 to 29,000 (38 sites) and from –20 to 1100 mg/mˆ2/d (35 sites) at Sousaki and Nisyros respectively. At Sousaki measurement sites covered almost all the degassing area and the diffuse methane output can be estimated in about 20 t/a from a surface of about 10,000 mˆ2. At Nisyros measurements covered the Stephanos and Kaminakia areas, which represent only a part of the entire degassing area. The two areas show very different methane degassing pattern with latter showing much higher flux values. Methane output can be estimated in about 0.25 t/a from an area of about 30,000 mˆ2 at Stephanos and about 1 t/a from an area of about 20,000 mˆ2 at Kaminakia. The total output from the entire geothermal system of Nisyros probably should not exceed 2 t/a.

Description: Published

Description: Vienna, Austria

Description: 4.5. Studi sul degassamento naturale e sui gas petroliferi

Description: open

Description: A biomonitoring survey, above tree line level, using two endemic species (Senecio aethnensis and Rumex aethnensis) was performed on Mt. Etna, in order to evaluate the dispersion and the impact of volcanic atmospheric emissions. Samples of leaves were collected in summer 2008 from 30 sites in the upper part of the volcano (1500- 3000 m a.s.l). Acid digestion of samples was carried out with a microwave oven, and 44 elements were analyzed by using plasma spectrometry (ICP-MS and ICP-OES). The highest concentrations of all investigated elements were found in the samples collected closest to the degassing craters, and in the downwind sector, confirming that the eastern flank of Mt. Etna is the most impacted by volcanic emissions. Leaves collected along two radial transects from the active vents on the eastern flank, highlight that the levels of metals decrease one or two orders of magnitude with increasing distance from the source. This variability is higher for volatile elements (As, Bi, Cd, Cs, Pb, Sb, Tl) than for more refractory elements (Al, Ba, Sc, Si, Sr, Th, U). The two different species of plants do not show significant differences in the bioaccumulation of most of the analyzed elements, except for lanthanides, which are systematically enriched in Rumex leaves. The high concentrations of many toxic elements in the leaves allow us to consider these plants as highly tolerant species to the volcanic emissions, and suitable for biomonitoring researches in the Mt. Etna area.

Description: Published

Description: Vienna, Austria

Description: 4.4. Scenari e mitigazione del rischio ambientale

Description: open

Description: Etna volcano, Italy, hosts one of the major groundwater systems of the island of Sicily. Waters circulate within highly permeable fractured, mainly hawaiitic, volcanic rocks. Aquifers are limited downwards by the underlying impermeable sedimentary terrains. Thickness of the volcanic rocks generally does not exceed some 300 m, preventing the waters to reach great depths. This is faced by short travel times (years to tens of years) and low thermalisation of the Etnean groundwaters. Measured temperatures are, in fact, generally lower than 25 °C. But the huge annual meteoric recharge (about 0.97 kmˆ3) with a high actual infiltration coefficient (0.75) implies a great underground circulation. During their travel from the summit area to the periphery of the volcano, waters acquire magmatic heat together with volcanic gases and solutes through water-rock interaction processes. In the last 20 years the Etnean aquifers has been extensively studied. Their waters were analysed for dissolved major, minor and trace element, O, H, C, S, B, Sr and He isotopes, and dissolved gas composition. These data have been published in several articles. Here, after a summary of the obtained results, the estimation of the magmatic heat flux through the aquifer will be discussed. To calculate heat uptake during subsurface circulation, for each sampling point (spring, well or drainage gallery) the following data have been considered: flow rate, water temperature, and oxygen isotopic composition. The latter was used to calculate the mean recharge altitude through the measured local isotopic lapse rate. Mean recharge temperatures, weighted for rain amount throughout the year, were obtained from the local weather station network. Calculations were made for a representative number of sampling points (216) including all major issues and corresponding to a total water flow of about 0.315 kmˆ3/a, which is 40% of the effective meteoric recharge. Results gave a total energy output of about 140 MW/a the half of which is ascribable to only 13 sampling points. These correspond to the highest flow drainage galleries with fluxes ranging from 50 to 1000 l/s and wells with pumping rates from 70 to 250 l/s. Geographical distribution indicates that, like magmatic gas leakage, heat flow is influenced by structural features of the volcanic edifice. The major heat discharge through groundwater are all tightly connected either to the major regional tectonic systems or to the major volcanic rift zones along which the most important flank eruptions take place. But rift zones are much more important for heat upraise due to the frequent dikes injection than for gas escape because generally when dikes have been emplaced the structure is no more permeable to gases because it becomes sealed by the cooling magma.

Description: Published

Description: Vienna, Austria

Description: 1.2. TTC - Sorveglianza geochimica delle aree vulcaniche attive

Description: open

Description: During the 2007-2008 antarctic campaign, the Italian PNRA installed a Low Power Magnetometer within the framework of the AIMNet (Antarctic International Magnetometer Network) project, proposed and coordinated by BAS. The magnetometer is situated at Talos Dome, around 300 km geographically North-West from Mario Zucchelli Station (MZS), and approximately at the same geomagnetic latitude as MZS. In this work we present a preliminary analysis of the geomagnetic field 1-min data, and a comparison with simultaneous data from different Antarctic stations.

Description: Published

Description: Vienna, Austria

Description: 1.6. Osservazioni di geomagnetismo

Description: open

Description: In this study temporal variations of coccolithophore blooms are investigated using satellite data. Eight years, from 2003 to 2010, of data of SCIAMACHY, a hyper-spectral satellite sensor on-board ENVISAT, were processed by the PhytoDOAS method to 5 monitor the biomass of coccolithophores in three selected regions. These regions are characterized by frequent occurrence of large coccolithophore blooms. The retrieval results, shown as monthly mean time-series, were compared to related satellite products, including the total surface phytoplankton, i.e., total chlorophyll-a (from GlobColour merged data) and the particulate inorganic carbon (from MODIS-Aqua). The 10 inter-annual variations of the phytoplankton bloom cycles and their maximum monthly mean values have been compared in the three selected regions to the variations of the geophysical parameters: sea-surface temperature (SST), mixed-layer depth (MLD) and surface wind speed, which are known to affect phytoplankton dynamics. For each region the anomalies and linear trends of the monitored parameters over the period of this 15 study have been computed. The patterns of total phytoplankton biomass and specific dynamics of coccolithophores chlorophyll-a in the selected regions are discussed in relation to other studies. The PhytoDOAS results are consistent with the two other ocean color products and support the reported dependencies of coccolithophore biomass’ dynamics to the compared geophysical variables. This suggests, that PhytoDOAS 20 is a valid method for retrieving coccolithophore biomass and for monitoring its bloom developments in the global oceans. Future applications of time-series studies using the PhytoDOAS data set are proposed, also using the new upcoming generations of hyper-spectral satellite sensors with improved spatial resolution.

Description: The gradual cooling of the climate during the Cenozoic has generally been attributed to a decrease in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. The lack of transient climate models and in particular the lack of high-resolution proxy records of CO2, beyond the ice-core record prohibit however a full understanding of for example the inception of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation and mid-Pleistocene transition. Here we elaborate on an inverse modelling technique to reconstruct a continuous CO2 series over the past 20 million year (Myr), by decomposing the global deep-sea benthic d18O record into a mutually consistent temperature and sea level record, using a set of 1-D models of the major Northern and Southern Hemisphere ice sheets. We subsequently compared the modelled temperature record with ice core and proxy-derived CO2 data to create a continuous CO2 reconstruction over the past 20 Myr. Results show a gradual decline from 450 ppmv around 15 Myr ago to 225 ppmv for mean conditions of the glacial-interglacial cycles of the last 1 Myr, coinciding with a gradual cooling of the global surface temperature of 10 K. Between 13 to 3 Myr ago there is no long-term sea level variation caused by ice-volume changes. We find no evidence for a change in the long-term relation between temperature change and CO2, other than the effect following from the saturation of the absorption bands for CO2. The reconstructed CO2 record shows that the Northern Hemisphere glaciation starts once the long-term average CO2 concentration drops below 265 ppmv after a period of strong decrease in CO2. Finally, only a small long-term decline of 23 ppmv is found during the mid-Pleistocene transition, constraining theories on this major transition in the climate system. The approach is not accurate enough to revise current ideas about climate sensitivity.

Description: Understanding the temporal variation of cosmic radiation and solar activity during the Holocene is essential for studies of the solar-terrestrial relationship. Cosmic-ray produced radionuclides, such as 10Be and 14C which are stored in polar ice cores and tree rings, offer the unique opportunity to reconstruct the history of cosmic radiation and solar activity over many millennia. Although records from different archives basically agree, they also show some deviations during certain periods. So far most reconstructions were based on only one single radionuclide record, which makes detection and correction of these deviations impossible. Here we combine different 10Be ice core records from Greenland and Antarctica with the global 14C tree ring record using principal component analysis. This approach is only possible due to a new high-resolution 10Be record from Dronning Maud Land obtained within the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica in Antarctica. The new cosmic radiation record enables us to derive total solar irradiance, which is then used as a proxy of solar activity to identify the solar imprint in an Asian climate record. Though generally the agreement between solar forcing and Asian climate is good, there are also periods without any coherence, pointing to other forcings like volcanoes and greenhouse gases and their corresponding feedbacks. The newly derived records have the potential to improve our understanding of the solar dynamics and to quantify the solar influence on climate.

Description: The ongoing disintegration of large ice shelf parts in Antarctica raise the need for a better understanding of the physical processes that trigger critical crack growth in ice shelves. Finite elements in combination with configurational forces facilitate the analysis of single surface fractures in ice under various boundary conditions and material parameters. The principles of linear elastic fracture mechanics are applied to show the strong influence of different depth dependent functions for the density and the Young’s modulus on the stress intensity factor KI at the crack tip. Ice, for this purpose, is treated as an elastically compressible solid and the conse- quences of this choice in comparison to the predominant in- compressible approaches are discussed. The computed stress intensity factors KI for dry and water filled cracks are com- pared to critical values KIc from measurements that can be found in literature.

Description: The reconstruction of the stable carbon isotope evolution in atmospheric CO2 (δ13Catm), as archived in Antarctic ice cores, bears the potential to disentangle the contributions of the different carbon cycle fluxes causing past CO2 variations. Here we present a new record of δ13Catm before, during and after the Marine Isotope Stage 5.5 (155 000 to 105 000 yr BP). The dataset is archived on the data repository PANGEA® (www.pangea.de) under 10.1594/PANGAEA.817041. The record was derived with a well established sublimation method using ice from the EPICA Dome C (EDC) and the Talos Dome ice cores in East Antarctica. We find a 0.4‰ shift to heavier values between the mean δ13Catm level in the Penultimate (~ 140 000 yr BP) and Last Glacial Maximum (~ 22 000 yr BP), which can be explained by either (i) changes in the isotopic composition or (ii) intensity of the carbon input fluxes to the combined ocean/atmosphere carbon reservoir or (iii) by long-term peat buildup. Our isotopic data suggest that the carbon cycle evolution along Termination II and the subsequent interglacial was controlled by essentially the same processes as during the last 24 000 yr, but with different phasing and magnitudes. Furthermore, a 5000 yr lag in the CO2 decline relative to EDC temperatures is confirmed during the glacial inception at the end of MIS5.5 (120 000 yr BP). Based on our isotopic data this lag can be explained by terrestrial carbon release and carbonate compensation.

Description: Stable carbon isotope analysis of methane (δ13C of CH4) on atmospheric samples is one key method to constrain the current and past atmospheric CH4 budget. A frequently applied measurement technique is gas chromatography (GC) isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) coupled to a combustion-preconcentration unit. This report shows that the atmospheric trace gas krypton (Kr) can severely interfere during the mass spectrometric measurement, leading to significant biases in δ13C of CH4, if krypton is not sufficiently separated during the analysis. According to our experiments, the krypton interference is likely composed of two individual effects, with the lateral tailing of the doubly charged 86Kr peak affecting the neighbouring m/z 44 and partially the m/z 45 Faraday cups. Additionally, a broad signal affecting m/z 45 and especially m/z 46 is assumed to result from scattered ions of singly charged krypton. The introduced bias in the measured isotope ratios is dependent on the chromatographic separation, the krypton-to-CH4 mixing ratio in the sample, the focusing of the mass spectrometer as well as the detector configuration and can amount to up to several per mil in δ13C. Apart from technical solutions to avoid this interference, we present correction routines to a posteriori remove the bias.

Description: Permafrost is one of the essential climate variables addressed by the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GCOS). Remote sensing data provide area-wide monitoring of e.g. surface temperatures or soil surface status (frozen or thawed state) in the Arctic and Subarctic, where ground data collection is difficult and restricted to local measurements at few monitoring sites. The task of the ESA Data User Element (DUE) Permafrost project is to build-up an Earth observation service for northern high-latitudinal permafrost applications with extensive involvement of the international permafrost research community (www.ipf.tuwien.ac.at/permafrost). The satellite-derived DUE Permafrost products are Land Surface Temperature, Surface Soil Moisture, Surface Frozen and Thawed State, Digital Elevation Model (locally as remote sensing product and circumpolar as non-remote sensing product) and Subsidence, and Land Cover. Land Surface Temperature, Surface Soil Moisture, and Surface Frozen and Thawed State will be provided for the circumpolar permafrost area north of 55° N with 25 km spatial resolution. In addition, regional products with higher spatial resolution were developed for five case study regions in different permafrost zones of the tundra and taiga (Laptev Sea [RU], Central Yakutia [RU], Western Siberia [RU], Alaska N-S transect, [US] Mackenzie River and Valley [CA]). This study shows the evaluation of two DUE Permafrost regional products, Land Surface Temperature and Surface Frozen and Thawed State, using freely available ground truth data from the Global Terrestrial Network of Permafrost (GTN-P) and monitoring data from the Russian-German Samoylov research station in the Lena River Delta (Central Siberia, RU). The GTN-P permafrost monitoring sites with their position in different permafrost zones are highly qualified for the validation of DUE Permafrost remote sensing products. Air and surface temperatures with high-temporal resolution from eleven GTN-P sites in Alaska and four sites in Siberia were used to match up LST products. Daily average GTN-P borehole- and air temperature data for three Alaskan and six Western Siberian sites were used to evaluate surface frozen and thawed. First results are promising and demonstrate the great benefit of freely available ground truth databases for remote sensing products.

Description: The Toba eruption that occurred some 74 ka ago in Sumatra, Indonesia, is among the largest volcanic events on Earth over the last 2 million years. Tephra from this eruption has been spread over vast areas in Asia, where it constitutes a major time marker close to the Marine Isotope Stage 4/5 boundary. As yet, no tephra associated with Toba has been identified in Greenland or Antarctic ice cores. Based on new accurate dating of Toba tephra and on accurately dated European stalagmites, the Toba event is known to occur between the onsets of Greenland interstadials (GI) 19 and 20. Furthermore, the existing linking of Greenland and Antarctic ice cores by gas records and by the bipolar seesaw hypothesis suggests that the Antarctic counterpart is situated between Antarctic Isotope Maxima (AIM) 19 and 20. In this work we suggest a direct synchronization of Greenland (NGRIP) and Antarctic (EDML) ice cores at the Toba eruption based on matching of a pattern of bipolar volcanic spikes. Annual layer counting between volcanic spikes in both cores allows for a unique match. We first demonstrate this bipolar matching technique at the already synchronized Laschamp geomagnetic excursion (41 ka BP) before we apply it to the suggested Toba interval. The Toba synchronization pattern covers some 2000 yr in GI-20 and AIM-19/20 and includes nine acidity peaks that are recognized in both ice cores. The suggested bipolar Toba synchronization has decadal precision. It thus allows a determination of the exact phasing of inter-hemispheric climate in a time interval of poorly constrained ice core records, and it allows for a discussion of the climatic impact of the Toba eruption in a global perspective. The bipolar linking gives no support for a long-term global cooling caused by the Toba eruption as Antarctica experiences a major warming shortly after the event. Furthermore, our bipolar match provides a way to place palaeo-environmental records other than ice cores into a precise climatic context.

Description: Here we present results of the first comprehensive study of sulphur compounds and methane in the oligotrophic tropical West Pacific Ocean. The concentrations of dimethylsuphide (DMS), dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP), dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO), and methane (CH4), as well as various phytoplankton marker pigments in the surface ocean were measured along a north-south transit from Japan to Australia in October 2009. DMS (0.9 nmol l−1), dissolved DMSP (DMSPd, 1.6 nmol l−1) and particulate DMSP (DMSPp, 2 nmol l−1) concentrations were generally low, while dissolved DMSO (DMSOd, 4.4 nmol l−1) and particulate DMSO (DMSOp, 11.5 nmol l−1) concentrations were comparably enhanced. Positive correlations were found between DMSO and DMSP as well as DMSP and DMSO with chlorophyll a, which suggests a similar source for both compounds. Similar phytoplankton groups were identified as being important for the DMSO and DMSP pool, thus, the same algae taxa might produce both DMSP and DMSO. In contrast, phytoplankton seemed to play only a minor role for the DMS distribution in the western Pacific Ocean. The observed DMSPp : DMSOp ratios were very low and seem to be characteristic of oligotrophic tropical waters representing the extreme endpoint of the global DMSPp : DMSOp ratio vs. SST relationship. It is most likely that nutrient limitation and oxidative stress in the tropical West Pacific Ocean triggered enhanced DMSO production leading to an accumulation of DMSO in the sea surface. Positive correlations between DMSPd and CH4, as well as between DMSO (particulate and total) and CH4, were found along the transit. We conclude that both DMSP and DMSO serve as substrates for methanogenic bacteria in the western Pacific Ocean.

Description: The Lena Delta in Northern Siberia is one of the largest river deltas in the world. During peak discharge, after the ice melt in spring, it delivers between 60–8000 m3 s−1 of water and sediment into the Arctic Ocean. The Lena Delta and the Laptev Sea coast also constitute a continuous permafrost region. Ongoing climate change, which is particularly pronounced in the Arctic, is leading to increased rates of permafrost thaw. This has already profoundly altered the discharge rates of the Lena River. But the chemistry of the river waters which are discharged into the coastal Laptev Sea have also been hypothesized to undergo considerable compositional changes, e.g. by increasing concentrations of inorganic nutrients such as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and methane. These physical and chemical changes will also affect the composition of the phytoplankton communities. However, before potential consequences of climate change for coastal arctic phytoplankton communities can be judged, the inherent status of the diversity and food web interactions within the delta have to be established. In 2010, as part of the AWI Lena Delta programme, the phyto- and microzooplankton community in three river channels of the delta (Trofimov, Bykov and Olenek) as well as four coastal transects were investigated to capture the typical river phytoplankton communities and the transitional zone of brackish/marine conditions. Most CTD profiles from 23 coastal stations showed very strong stratification. The only exception to this was a small, shallow and mixed area running from the outflow of Bykov channel in a northerly direction parallel to the shore. Of the five stations in this area, three had a salinity of close to zero. Two further stations had salinities of around 2 and 5 throughout the water column. In the remaining transects, on the other hand, salinities varied between 5 and 30 with depth. Phytoplankton counts from the outflow from the Lena were dominated by diatoms (Aulacoseira species) cyanobacteria (Aphanizomenon, Pseudanabaena) and chlorophytes. In contrast, in the stratified stations the plankton was mostly dominated by dinoflagellates, ciliates and nanoflagellates, with only an insignificant diatom component from the genera Chaetoceros and Thalassiosira (brackish as opposed to freshwater species). Ciliate abundance was significantly coupled with the abundance of total flagellates. A pronounced partitioning in the phytoplankton community was also discernible with depth, with a different community composition and abundance above and below the thermocline in the stratified sites. This work is a first analysis of the phytoplankton community structure in the region where Lena River discharge enters the Laptev Sea.

Description: There are a number of clear examples in the instrumental period where positive El Niño events were coincident with a severely weakened summer monsoon over India (ISM). ENSO's influence on the Indian Monsoon has therefore remained the centerpiece of various predictive schemes of ISM rainfall for over a century. The teleconnection between the monsoon and ENSO has undergone a protracted weakening since the late 1980's suggesting the strength of ENSO's influence on the monsoon may vary considerably on multidecadal timescales. The recent weakening has specifically prompted questions as to whether this shift represents a natural mode of climate variability or a fundamental change in ENSO and/or ISM dynamics due to anthropogenic warming. The brevity of empirical observations and large systematic errors in the representation of these two systems in state-of-the-art general circulation models hamper efforts to reliably assess the low frequency nature of this dynamical coupling under varying climate forcings. Here we place the 20th century ENSO-Monsoon relationship in a millennial context by assessing the phase angle between the two systems across the time spectrum using a continuous tree-ring ENSO reconstruction from North America and a speleothem oxygen isotope (δ18O) based reconstruction of the ISM. The results suggest that in the high-frequency domain (≤ 15 yr), El Niño (La Niña) events persistently lead to a weakened (strengthened) monsoon consistent with the observed relationship between the two systems during the instrumental period. However, in the low frequency domain (≥ 60 yr), periods of strong monsoon are, in general, coincident with periods of enhanced ENSO variance. This relationship is opposite to which would be predicted dynamically and leads us to conclude that ENSO is not pacing the prominent multidecadal variability that has characterized the ISM over the last millennium.

Description: Sea ice thickness information is important for sea ice modelling and ship operations. Here a method to detect the thickness of sea ice up to 50 cm during the freeze-up season based on high incidence angle observations of the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite working at 1.4 GHz is suggested. By comparison of thermodynamic ice growth data with SMOS brightness temperatures, a high correlation to intensity and an anticorrelation to the difference between vertically and horizontally polarised brightness temperatures at incidence angles between 40 and 50° are found and used to develop an empirical retrieval algorithm sensitive to thin sea ice up to 50 cm thickness. The algorithm shows high correlation with ice thickness data from airborne measurements and reasonable ice thickness patterns for the Arctic freeze-up period.

Description: Following the launch of ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, it has been shown that brightness temperatures at a low microwave frequency of 1.4 GHz (L-band) are sensitive to sea ice properties. In the first demonstration study, sea ice thickness up to 50 cm has been derived using a semi-empirical algorithm with constant tie-points. Here, we introduce a novel iterative retrieval algorithm that is based on a thermodynamic sea ice model and a three-layer radiative transfer model, which explicitly takes variations of ice temperature and ice salinity into account. In addition, ice thickness variations within the SMOS spatial resolution are considered through a statistical thickness distribution function derived from high-resolution ice thickness measurements from NASA's Operation IceBridge campaign. This new algorithm has been used for the continuous operational production of a SMOS-based sea ice thickness data set from 2010 on. The data set is compared to and validated with estimates from assimilation systems, remote sensing data, and airborne electromagnetic sounding data. The comparisons show that the new retrieval algorithm has a considerably better agreement with the validation data and delivers a more realistic Arctic-wide ice thickness distribution than the algorithm used in the previous study (Kaleschke et al., 2012).

Description: The ice shelf caverns around Antarctica are sources of cold and fresh water which contributes to the formation of Antarctic bottom water and thus to the ventilation of the deep basins of the World Ocean. While a realistic simulation of the cavern circulation requires high resolution, because of the complicated bottom topography and ice shelf morphology, the physics of melting and freezing at the ice shelf base is relatively simple. We have developed an analytically solvable box model of the cavern thermohaline state, using the formulation of melting and freezing as in Olbers and Hellmer (2010). There is high resolution along the cavern's path of the overturning circulation whereas the cross-path resolution is fairly coarse. The circulation in the cavern is prescribed and used as a tuning parameter to constrain the solution by attempting to match observed ranges for outflow temperature and salinity at the ice shelf front as well as of the mean basal melt rate. The method, tested for six Antarctic ice shelves, can be used for a quick estimate of melt/freeze rates and the overturning rate in particular caverns, given the temperature and salinity of the inflow and the above mentioned constrains for outflow and melting. In turn, the model can also be used for testing the compatibility of remotely sensed basal mass loss with observed cavern inflow characteristics.

Description: Bio-optical measurements and sampling were carried out in the delta of the Lena River (northern Siberia, Russia) between 26 June and 4 July 2011. The aim of this study was to determine the inherent optical properties of the Lena water, i.e., absorption, attenuation, and scattering coefficients, during the period of maximum runoff. This aimed to contribute to the development of a bio-optical model for use as the basis for optical remote sensing of coastal water of the Arctic. In this context the absorption by CDOM (colored dissolved organic matter) and particles, and the concentrations of total suspended matter, phytoplankton-pigments, and carbon were measured. CDOM was found to be the most dominant parameter affecting the optical properties of the river, with an absorption coefficient of 4.5–5 m−1 at 442 nm, which was almost four times higher than total particle absorption values at visible wavelength range. The wavelenght-dependence of absorption of the different water constituents was chracterized by determining the semi logarithmic spectral slope. Mean CDOM, and detritus slopes were 0.0149 nm−1(standard deviation (stdev) = 0.0003, n = 18), and 0.0057 nm−1 (stdev = 0.0017, n = 19), respectively, values which are typical for water bodies with high concentrations of dissolved and particulate carbon. Mean chlorophyll a and total suspended matter were 1.8 mg m−3 (stdev = 0.734 n = 18) and 31.9 g m−3 (stdev = 19.94, n = 27), respectively. DOC (dissolved organic carbon) was in the range 8–10 g m−3 and the total particulate carbon (PC) in the range 0.25–1.5 g m−3. The light penetration depth (Secchi disc depth) was in the range 30–90 cm and was highly correlated with the suspended matter concentration. The period of maximum river runoff in June was chosen to obtain bio-optical data when maximum water constituents are transported into the Laptev Sea. However, we are aware that more data from other seasons and other years need to be collected to establish a general bio-optical model of the Lena water and conclusively characterize the light climate with respect to primary production.

Description: The Surface Ocean CO2 Atlas (SOCAT), an activity of the international marine carbon research community, provides access to synthesis and gridded fCO2 (fugacity of carbon dioxide) products for the surface oceans. Version 2 of SOCAT is an update of the previous release (version 1) with more data (increased from 6.3 million to 10.1 million surface water fCO2 values) and extended data coverage (from 1968–2007 to 1968–2011). The quality control criteria, while identical in both versions, have been applied more strictly in version 2 than in version 1. The SOCAT website (http://www.socat.info/) has links to quality control comments, metadata, individual data set files, and synthesis and gridded data products. Interactive online tools allow visitors to explore the richness of the data. Applications of SOCAT include process studies, quantification of the ocean carbon sink and its spatial, seasonal, year-to-year and longerterm variation, as well as initialisation or validation of ocean carbon models and coupled climate-carbon models.

Description: In a feasibility study, the potential of proxy data for the temperature and salinity during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, about 19 000 to 23 000 years before present) in constraining the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) with a general ocean circulation model was explored. The proxy data were simulated by drawing data from four different model simulations at the ocean sediment core locations of the Multiproxy Approach for the Reconstruction of the Glacial Ocean surface (MARGO) project, and perturbing these data with realistic noise estimates. The results suggest that our method has the potential to provide estimates of the past strength of the AMOC even from sparse data, but in general, paleo-sea-surface temperature data without additional prior knowledge about the ocean state during the LGM is not adequate to constrain the model. On the one hand, additional data in the deep-ocean and salinity data are shown to be highly important in estimating the LGM circulation. On the other hand, increasing the amount of surface data alone does not appear to be enough for better estimates. Finally, better initial guesses to start the state estimation procedure would greatly improve the performance of the method. Indeed, with a sufficiently good first guess, just the sea-surface temperature data from the MARGO project promise to be sufficient for reliable estimates of the strength of the AMOC.

Description: OceanExpert is a product developed by GEMIM in 1997 and continuously refined to advance with new technologies. It is maintained by the Secretariat and contains information on individuals and institutions involved in all aspects of Marine or Freshwater Research and Management worldwide. It is intended to be a tool for scientists, policy makers and anyone who needs to contact a marine or freshwater professional. OceanExpert currently holds information on 13,168 experts and 4,455 institutions.It also includes job listings, upcoming events, individual scientist's publications listings, and links to the scientists IODE activities. Usage statistics indicate 30,000 uses per month.

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: The Joint WMO/IOC Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) was formally established in 1999 by Thirteenth Congress and the Twentieth Session of the IOC Assembly, through a merger of the Commission for Marine Meteorology (CMM) and the Joint IOC/WMO Committee for IGOSS. JCOMM is the reporting and coordinating mechanism for all operational marine activities in both WMO and IOC. As such, it is charged with the international coordination, regulation and management of an integrated, operational, oceanographic observing, data management and services system which will eventually become the ocean equivalent of the World Weather Watch. Thus JCOMM is the implementation arm of GOOS.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: PIMRIS (Pacific Islands Marine Resources Information Network) is a formal cooperative network of libraries and information centres within regional organisations (Secretariat of the Pacific Community-SPC, South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme-SPREP, Forum Fisheries Agency-FFA, South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission-SOPAC) and government agencies concerned with the development of fisheries and marine resources in the Pacific. Its aim is to improve access to information on marine resources in the region by: (i) collecting, cataloguing and preserving relevant documents in print and electronic formats, especially “grey literature”; (ii) disseminating information via new products and services; (iii) supporting the development of regional libraries and information centres through training and technical assistance; and (iv) cooperating with similar networks and institutions throughout the world, including IAMSLIC, FAO and IOC. ODIN-PIMRIS is a pilot project that contributes to the objectives of PIMRIS, by focussing on:  establishing a regional marine information portal  creating capacity at national and institutional level to use & contribute to the portal  promoting the portal as a valuable information source for managers and decision makers

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: JCOMM's vision to benefit the global community is long-term, far-reaching and innovative: JCOMM coordinates, and develops and recommends standards and procedures for, a fully integrated marine observing, data management and services system that uses state-of-the-art technologies and capabilities; is responsive to the evolving needs of all users of marine data and products; and includes an outreach programme to enhance the national capacity of all maritime countries. JCOMM aims to maximize the benefits for its Members/Member States in the projects, programmes and activities that it undertakes in their interest and that of the global community in general.

Description: Supported by IOC/IODE

Description: Document available in English

Description: Unpublished

Description: The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea has been signed by a majority of states, and therefore, without any prejudice to the eventual outcome of ratifications, it is prudent for the Working Committee for International Oceanographic Data Exchange to consider the possible effects of the Convention upon its responsibilities and procedures. This note consists of a commentary upon the general principles within the Convention, and is not the official view of the Natural Environment Research Council, the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, or Her Majesty's Government of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. No legalistic interpretation of the articles of the COnvention is implied or intended.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: The joint Marine XML/SeaDataNet vocabulary governance group has been working to develop vocabularies covering two facets of data discovery: 1) Water body namer, 2) Data production tools

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: The objectives of the ODINWESTPAC project are (i) Develop a marine data and information network that will promote data and information exchange and collaboration between WESTPAC member states;(ii) Provide the marine data and information products to serve the needs of WESTPAC member states and other ODINs and IODE members in data and information management, oceanographic research, marine environmental protection, marine hazards prevention and mitigation, etc.; (iii) Develop cooperation with other international and regional data projects in data collecting, processing, management and service; (iv) Implement relevant capacity building activities which specially related to ocean data and information management and service.

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Activities of OceanTeacher and Training Activities

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: The IODE Quality Management Framework (IODE-QMF) provides overall strategy, advice and guidance for NODCs to design and implement quality management systems (QMS) for the successful delivery of oceanographic and related data, products and services. The IODE Committee encourages NODCs to implement a QMS but does not propose a specific standard. NODCs may seek ISO 9001 quality management certification, however this is not mandatory and NODCs can successfully implement an effective quality management system without going through formal ISO 9001 certification.

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Text for action paper

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: In this manual a standard directory record structure is proposed, for use in the preparation of databases of organizations, individuals and their research interests. The structure is designed to be, as far as is possible, independent of the software used. However it is anticipated that the main use will be with the Unesco Mini-micro CDS/ISIS software. Provision is made for additional fields. for local needs.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO

Description: Document available in English

Description: Published

Description: Preparation of databases of organizations

Description: This paper provides a summary of the present and planned IGOSS publications and contains a secretariat proposal, that a publication plan be prepared for IGOSS. This question requires a detailed examination, taking into account, inter alia, the objective for which each document is to be prepared, its manner of preparation (authorship), publication medium, language requirements, the status of the publication within the sponsoring agencies and internationally and costs. IPLAN is invited to study this question and to prepare an IGOSS publication plan.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: The Global Temperature and Salinity Profile Programme (GTSPP) is a joint Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) programme to develop and maintain a global ocean Temperature-Salinity resource with data that are both up-to-date and of the highest quality[2]. The four primary objectives of GTSPP are: a) Provide a timely and complete data and information base of ocean temperature and salinity profile data, b) Implement data flow monitoring system for improving the capture and timeliness of real-time and delayed-mode data, c) Improve and implement agreed and uniform quality control and duplicates management systems, and d) Facilitate the development and provision of a wide variety of useful data analyses, data and information products, and data sets. The international oceanographic community‟s interest in creating a timely global ocean temperature and salinity dataset of known quality in support of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) dates back to the 1981 “International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange” (IODE) meeting in Hamburg, Federal Republic of Germany. The community's interest led to preliminary discussions by the Australian Oceanographic Data Center (AODC), the Marine Environmental Data Service (MEDS), now the Integrated Science Data Management (ISDM), of Canada and the U.S. National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) during the second Joint IOC–WMO Meeting of Experts on IGOSS1-IODE Data Flow in Ottawa, Canada in January 1988. Development of the GTSPP (then called the Global Temperature-Salinity Pilot Project) began in 1989. The short-term goal was to respond to the needs of the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Experiment and the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) for temperature and salinity data. The longer-term goal was to develop and implement an end-to-end data management system for temperature and salinity data and other associated types of profiles, which could serve as a model for future oceanographic data management systems. GTSPP began operation in November 1990. The first version of the GTSPP Project Plan was published in the same year. Since that time, there have been many developments and some changes in direction including a decision by IOC and WMO to end the pilot phase and implement GTSPP as a permanent programme in 1996. Figure 1 is a sketch diagramme of the GTSPP management structure. GTSPP reports to the IODE Programme of IOC and the Joint Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM), a body sponsored by WMO and IOC.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Global temperature; salinity profile programme

Description: Supported by IOC/IODE

Description: Document available in English

Description: Published

Description: The First ODINCARSA Planning Workshop for the Caribbean Islands was held in Christ Church, Barbados between 15 and 18 December 2003, co-sponsored by the Coastal Zone Management Unit of Barbados. The workshop was attended by participants from eight countries in the Caribbean. The meeting reviewed the ocean data and information management capacity available in this region, identified needs and capacity building requirements, and prepared a comprehensive work plan and timetable to develop a regional cooperative network for the management of oceanographic data and marine information on the basis of the experience of the ODINCARSA project in South America.

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO

Description: Document available in English

Description: Published

Description: Data management

Description: The IODE Steering Group for the IODE Ocean Teacher was established during IODE-XVI to support the IODE Resource Kit Project. The IODE OceanTeacher is a follow-up to the Resource Kit and Ocean-PC and a complement to IODE data and information management capacity building activities. During its Second Session the Steering Group reviewed the current status of OceanTeacher and Ocean Teacher Academy, noting that substantial developments have occurred since the last meeting and making OceanTeacher an important tool for capacity building. A SWOT analysis of the current situation was performed. The possibility of further exploring online tools was discussed with a distance-learning expert. The list of currently available training courses was examined, and how to make it a training resource for other organisations, thus OceanTeacher becoming a service provider in ocean-related capacity building in the future. The Steering Group also discussed future surveys on training needs and gaps and developed a comprehensive list of topics for training. The OceanTeacher website and Classroom were extensively discussed and a list of improvements was outlined. The Steering Group also drafted a strategic long-term plan for the next 5 years, bearing in mind the changing training needs and funding sources.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Ocean Teacher

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: This is the third and final in a series of three training workshops within the framework of the Ocean Data and Information Network for Eastern Africa (ODINEA), an oceanographic data management capacity building project implemented in the IOCINCWIO region, jointly sponsored by the Government of Flanders and IOC. In this final workshop, the participating countries (Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa and Tanzania) reviewed the successes and failures of the 3-year project and formulated concrete recommendations that can be taken into consideration within the ODINAFRICA-II project.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Caribbean marine atlas

Description: The Second Session of the IODE Steering Group for OBIS took place at the IOC Project Office for IODE, Oostende, Belgium on 19–21 November 2012. In 2012, OBIS has undergone changes in management and operation, and all activities previously carried out at Rutgers University, USA have now been transferred to the IOC Project Office for IODE in Oostende, Belgium. The meeting resulted in several decisions and recommendations that will move OBIS forward. In addition, several task teams were formed to further develop OBIS and support the execution of the 2013 Work Plan. The new data system architecture was presented and new procedures will become operational from June 2013 onwards. It is expected that this will greatly enhance the data flow and provide tools to further improve data quality. Despite the fact that the new OBIS manager was only recruited in May 2012, considerable progress was made with establishing international partnerships, engaging OBIS in global initiatives and increasing public awareness through social media. In 2012, 92 new datasets were collected and integrated in OBIS. OBIS now integrates 1,125 datasets, serving 33 million georeferenced species observations of 120,000 marine species and is by far the largest global database of its kind. OBIS is increasingly picked-up by the scientific community; scientific papers using OBIS data appear on a weekly basis (80 publications in 2012) and 50,000 people visited the data portal in 2012 (35% are returning visitors). OBIS continues playing a crucial role in providing guidance and information for the identification of Ecologically or Biologically Significant marine Areas (a process developed within the Convention on Biological Diversity). The 22 OBIS nodes (data assembly centres) are engaged in a wide spectrum of activities, which demonstrates that the role of OBIS is not limited to raw data encoding but also to develop tools and products and offering services (including capacity building) for data-science and sciencepolicy activities on a local, regional to global scale. In 2013, the task teams will produce an IOC Manual and Guides for OBIS nodes that will include the definition of OBIS nodes, the terms of reference and procedure to establish OBIS nodes, standards and best practices (OBIS handbook) and a section on quality assurance, criteria and evaluation of OBIS nodes. Funding remains an issue for the OBIS project office as well as for many OBIS nodes. The November 2011 decision of the USA to cease funding to UNESCO is threatening all programmes and activities of the IOC, including OBIS. OBIS now relies almost completely on extra budgetary funding. An OBIS business plan will be finalized early 2013 and will address OBIS' vision and mission, objectives and key priorities, budget needs in relation to the work plan and potential funding opportunities. An OBIS data manager, bringing the staff to two professional positions, will join the OBIS project office in 2013.

Description: Supported by IOC/IODE

Description: Document available in English

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Ocean data

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO

Description: Document available in English

Description: Published

Description: Pour renforcer la participation effective des Etats membres, particulièrement ceux en développement, à ses programmes, la COI, grâce à l'appui de certains Etats membres, organise des cours ou stage de formation dans le cadre de ses activités de formation, éducation et assistance mutuelle (TEMA). Le stage dont il est question ici a pu être réalisé grâce à la volonté dont fait preuve la France d'aider développer le potentiel des pays en développement dans le domaine des sciences et techniques océanographiques et des services y afférent, et grâce à l'étroite coopération que ce pays a toujours pris soin d'entretenir avec la Commission et ses principales activités. I1 porte sur les diverses méthodes utilisées pour gérer et traiter l'information scientifique et technique se rapportant à l'océanologie, qu'il s'agisse d'information documentaire ou numériqae. I1 a été organisé par le Centre National pour l'Exploitation des Océans (CMEXO) en son Centre Océanologique de Bretagne, Brest, France, du 28 novembre.an 9 décembre 1983. La COI tient 2t exprimer ici sa reconnaissance à l'égard du Gouvernement français qui a bien voulu financer la majeure partie des bourse6 destinées aux stagiaires, et au Bureau National des Données Océaniques du CNEXO qui a assuré la préparation et la conduite du stage.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in French.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: The Training Course on Tidal Observations and Data Processing was organized in the Institute of Marine Scientific and Technological Information and the Institute of Marine Technology, in Tianjin, People's Republic of China, from 27 August to 22 September 1984: with the financial support of the National Bureau of Oceanography (NBO), the Unesco Division of Marine Sciences and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). The course was announced in the coastal Member States covered by the Unesco Regional Offices of Science and Technology for Africa (Nairobi), the Arab States (Paris), South and Central Asia (New Delhi), South East Asia (Jakarta), and the Member States of the IOC Programme Group for the Western Pacific (WESTPAC). Twelve participants from these regions attended the Training Course. The purpose of the course was to introduce the participants to basic knowledge and methods of tidal observations and data processing, including sea level measurement and data reduction, through lectures, practical training and observation. It was also intended inter alia to contribute to the training of personnel with a view to facilitating the implementation of the Global Sea Level Observing System promoted and coordinated by IOC. The course was conducted in English, and through interpretation from Chinese into English. A group of Chinese experts and translators prepared a textbook of teaching material for the Training Course. In addition to the Chinese scientists, two visiting lecturers, Dr. David T. Pugh and Dr. Selim A. Morcos, participated in the course. The participants were selected among university graduates with qualifications in oceanography or relevant disciplines. Preference was given to those directly responsible for sea level observations and programmes. The present Report gives an outline of the Training Course which included lectures, field work and scientific talks by invited speakers. The Report ends with an evaluation of the course by the participants, and general conclusions which may be of help in the preparation of similar courses in the future.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: The objectives of the training course were to allow personnel currently involved in oceanographic data and information management from Member States in the WESTPAC region to become acquainted with basic concepts of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) system and its function, especially in the WESTPAC region, and acquisition, procession and compilation of oceanographic data.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: The IOC-Germany Advanced Training Course on Bathymetric Charting in the Western Indian Ocean took place in Durban, South Africa, and on board R.V. METEOR during cruise M33/3 from Durban to Cape Town, from 15 to 29 December 1995. It was a follow-up of a similar, more basic course held in Madagascar and on board R.V. METEOR in 1987. The Course profited from the fact that in 1995 R.V. METEOR spent several months in the Indian Ocean to do research for the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) and the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS). The Course was a contribution of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Training, Education and Mutual Assistance in the Marine Sciences (TEMA) Programme of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. The Course was jointly co-ordinated by Dr. Gtinter Giermann, Secretary of the German National IOC Committee, on behalf of the German Government (BMBF) and Dr. Dmitri Travin on behalf of IOC, with the assistance of the scientific Course Leader Dr. Werner Bettac, former member of the German Hydrographic Institute in Hamburg. While in Durban, technical assistance was provided by UEC/ADS (a counterpart of Atlas Elektronik, Bremen) and the local representative of Reederei Forschungsgemeinschaft (ship’s agent). The Course included lectures and demonstrations of instruments on board the vessel.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: The IOC’s Regional Subsidiary Bodies play an important role in the implementation of the Commission’s programmes in the regions. These efforts are complemented by other IOC decentralized offices, and regional networks established by the IOC’s global programmes. The report provides an overview of the status of IOC Regional Activities.

Description: Supported by IOC for Unesco

Description: Document available in English

Description: Published

Description: The First ODINAFRICA II Training Workshop in Marine Data Management was held in Casablanca, Morocco, April 2-13, 2001, attended by students from ten western African nations and one eastern African nation. ODINAFRICA is a data and information project working towards establishing a lasting network of marine and aquatic institutes in Africa. Its headquarters is located at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) in Mombasa, Kenya. Through its information services to the scientific community, the project aims at promoting the scientific capabilities of this continent. The objectives of the ODINAFRICA project are as follows: a) Provide marine scientists in Africa with the necessary bibliographic and scientific literature b) Make full use of the scientific literature available in Africa c) Promote and facilitate communication between marine scientists in Africa d) Promote and facilitate communication in Africa and other regions e) Promote the scientific activities of the marine and coastal scientists within and outside Africa f) Provide scientific information, and equipment, software and training to make full use of this information Under the leadership of the IOC, and with funding generously provided by the government of Flanders, the workshop was designed to address the final objective listed above. The workshop was organized locally in Casablanca by Dr. Maria Snoussi of the Université Mohammed V, Faculté des Sciences, Département Sciences de la Terre, Rabat, Morocco.

Description: Supported by the IOC and the Government of Flanders.

Description: Document available in English

Description: Published

Description: IOC and IODE have since long recognised the need for training courses, aimed at promoting knowledge on adequate management of marine and coastal data and at sharing the experience in this field between the countries involved. A first course of this type for the region was held in 1991 in Bogota, Colombia (IOC Training Course Report 14). It had as its main goals the promotion of methodologies and technologies for the management of marine data and information in National Oceanographic Data Centres, as well as the promotion of the system for International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange, IODE of IOC. The training workshop in Rio Grande was the second opportunity of this type for the countries of the region.

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE

Description: Document available in English/ Spanish.

Description: Published

Description: The GODAR Workshop at INODC/NIO,D ona Paula, Goa,I ndia is the third in the series after the two held at Obninsk, Russian Federation (17-20 May 1993) and Tianjin, China (8-11 March 1994). The Workshop, sponsored by IOC, ICSU, NOAA, DOD and CSIR was held following the decision taken at the first regional Workshop in Obninsk for the development of GODAR in the Indian Ocean region and in facilitating exchange of data under the IODE umbrella. Though the Indian Ocean is still least studied, yet a large amount of data have been collected but not all documented. The purpose of the Workshop was to unearth the data and make available to the wide international community in order to build global oceanographic databases for different fields of application, including global change and climate studies, world ocean research and global ocean monitoring, and to help in the capacity building of national, regional and global infrastructures. The desired outcome was to assess the state of data holdings in the region, to identify common goals and problems with data preservation and to recommend implementation steps and approaches to solve these problems. The Workshop was also considered as a start for laying the groundwork for a major upgrading of the entire regional ocean data management system, a major step in the development of a region-wise ocean data' system modernization programme. The present report contains a summary of the scientific papers and national reports presented at the sessions, software demonstration at Indian NODC, as well as recommendations and conclusions formulated by the Workshop.

Description: Supported by IOC.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: The objectives of the training course were to provide personnel currently involved in oceanographic data and information management from Member States of the WESTPAC region with basic concepts of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) system and its function, especially in the WESTPAC region, and acquisition, procession and compilation of oceanographic data.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: The objective of the training course was to allow personnel currently involved in oceanographic data and information management from Member States of the WESTPAC region to become acquainted with basic concepts of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) system and its function, especially in the WESTPAC region, and acquisition, processing and compilation of oceanographic data, as well as general data formats used within the framework of the IODE system.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: The Training Course on Management of Marine Data and Information for the IOCINCWIO Region was held in Mombasa, Kenya, from 1 to 11 December, 1997. The Course was organized in cooperation with and kindly hosted by the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, Mombasa. The course was designed within the continuing training programme of the IODE to familiarize marine data and information managers with current procedures and methods related to marine data and information management, with a special emphasis on newest microcomputer methods and software. Through such training courses the IOC aims to ensure increasing and sustained collaboration of Member States in the IODE programme, and to maintain a high level of competence in the National Oceanographic Data Centres.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: This document provides information on the progress in the implementation of the IODE Ocean Data Portal including the Ocean Data Portal version 1 status and also vision and high-level design decisions for Ocean Data Portal version 2. The committee is invited to consider the results of this project and work plan for the future Ocean Data Portal development.

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: ODINECET Training Course on Marine Information Management (Intermediate level) was held at the UNESCO/IOC Project Office for IODE Oostende – Belgium (19 – 23 November 2007). This Training course was a continuation of intended instruction within the framework of the ODINECET project. The Training Course was attended by 13 participants from 7 countries including Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. The main topic was dedicated to the creation of an ODINECET repository (CEEMaR – Central and Eastern Europe Marine Repository).

Description: Supported by IOC/ IODE

Description: Document available in English

Description: Unpublished

Description: Marine iInformation Management

Description: Report on activities

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: Renewal contract

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: This document provides information on the inter-sessional activities of the Reports of the NODCs, DNAs and Marine Information centre

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: The Annotated Agenda/ Action Paper will be the main working document for the 22nd Session of the IOC Committee on IODE. It includes (i) the draft introductory text that will be used for the summary report of the Meeting; (ii) (in yellow text boxes) the decisions requested from the Committee; (iii) draft recommendations and resolutions; and (iv) resource requirements. Regarding resource requirements it is noted that in Annex I a summary overview is provided of financial requirements for the inter-sessional period April 2013- March 2015. Participants in the Session are requested to carefully read this document as well as other working documents and prepare for short plenary interventions prior to the Session.

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: The GEMIM workplan as to ASFA involvement was completed during the intersession. L. Noble through FAO Secretariat to ASFA advised journal publishers connected with ASFA to make use of ASFA Thesauri. Grey Literature input by ODIN's as ASFA partners has been encouraged.

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: This document provides information on the work of the JCOMM/IODE Expert Team on Data Management Practices in the inter-sessional period (2009-2010). The committee is invited to consider the results of the ETDMP activities and also the proposal for revision of the ETDMP workplan for 2011 and 2012-2013.

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: 1 Introduction to the Workshop on Marine Spatial Planning 7 2 Introduction to Ecosystem-based, Sea Use Management 15 3 Ecosystem-based, Sea Use Management and Marine Spatial Planning 23 4 Key Scientific Issues for Ecosystem-based, Marine Spatial Planning 29 5 Legislation and Policy Framework for Marine Spatial Planning 35 6 A Process for Marine Spatial Planning 45 7 Defining the Human Dimension of Marine Spatial Planning 53 8 Implementing Marine Spatial Planning 57 9 Monitoring, Evaluating, and Adapting Marine Spatial Planning 65 10 Conclusions and Next Steps 71

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Marine spatial planning

Description: Supported by IOC for Unesco.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: The document provides information on the progress in the implementation of the IODE Ocean Data Portal including the Ocean Data Portal version 1 status and the Ocean Data Portal version 2. The committee is invited to consider the results of this project and work plan for the future Ocean Data Portal development and wide extension of the Ocean Data Portal nodes and data providers.

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Unpublished

Description: The IODE Ocean Data Portal (ODP) development has two stages: Version 1 (V1) and Version 2 (V2). The ODP V1 has the initial capabilities and based on the technical specifications and software of End-to-End Data Management (E2EDM) technology developed by JCOMM/IODE ETDMP and Russian NODC (RIHMI-WDC, Obninsk). ODP (V2) will have full capabilities with use of the international interoperability standards and tools.

Description: Supported by IOC/IODE

Description: Document available in English

Description: The ODINCINDIO’s accomplishments, since its establishment in the 18th session of IODE in April 2005 have been considerable In line with the objectives of ODINCIDNIO, these activities whether directly or indirectly were linked to the region’s capacity building in terms of marine data and information management by providing training and education and assisting in the development, operation and strengthening of National Oceanographic Data (and Information) Centers and to establish their networking in the region. In this regard collaboration with the other relevant organizations, programmes and projects operating in the region was always an important consideration for ODINCINDIO activities.

Description: Supported by IOC/IODE

Description: Document available in English

Description: Unpublished

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Step 1 Identifying need and establishing authority Introduction 26 Task 1: Identifying why you need marine spatial planning 26 Task 2: Establishing appropriate authority for marine spatial planning 27 Action 1: Authority to plan for marine spatial planning 27 Action 2: Authority to implement marine spatial planning 30 Step 2 Obtaining financial support Introduction 32 Task 1: Identifying alternative financing mechanisms 32 Task 2: Defining the feasibility of alternative funding mechanisms 34 Step 3 Organizing the process through pre-planning Introduction 36 Task 1: Creating the marine spatial planning team 37 Task 2: Developing a work plan 38 Task 3: Defining boundaries and timeframe 39 Action 1: Defining boundaries 38 Action 2: Defining the time frame 39 Task 4: Defining principles 40 Task 5: Defining goals and objectives 41 Task 6: Identifying risks and developing contingency plans 42 Step 4 Organizing stakeholder participation Introduction 43 Task 1: Defining who should be involved in marine spatial planning 44 Task 2: Defining when to involve stakeholders 45 Task 3: Defining how to involve stakeholders 47 Step 5 Defining and analyzing existing conditions Introduction 49 Task 1: Collecting and mapping information about ecological, environmental and oceanographic conditions 50 Task 2: Collecting and mapping information about human activities 55 Task 3: Identifying current conflicts and compatibilities 57 Step 6 Defining and analyzing future conditions Introduction 63 Task 1: Projecting current trends in the spatial and temporal needs of existing human activities 64 Task 2: Estimating spatial and temporal requirements for new demands of ocean space 65 Task 3: Identifying possible alternative futures for the planning area 66 Task 4: Selecting the preferred spatial sea use scenario 68 Step 7 Preparing and approving the spatial management plan Introduction 71 Task 1: Identifying alternative spatial and temporal management measures, incentives, and institutional arrangements 73 Task 2: Specifying criteria for selecting marine spatial management measures 76 Task 3: Developing the zoning plan 76 Task 4: Evaluating the spatial management plan 79 Task 5: Approving the spatial management plan 80 Step 8 Implementing and enforcing the spatial management plan Introduction 83 Task 1: Implementing the spatial management plan 83 Task 2: Ensuring compliance with the spatial management plan 84 Task 3: Enforcing the spatial management plan 85 Step 9 Monitoring and evaluating performance Introduction 86 Task 1: Developing the performance monitoring program 87 Action 1: Re-confirming the objectives 87 A Step-by-Step Approach toward Ecosystem-based Management – MARINE SPATIAL PLANNING 5 Action 2: Agreeing on outcomes to measure 87 Action 3: Identifying key performance indicators to monitor 88 Action 4: Determining baseline data on indicators 88 Action 5: Selecting outcome targets 89 Task 2: Evaluating performance monitoring data 90 Task 3: Reporting results of performance evaluation 91 Step 10 Adapting the marine spatial management process Introduction 92 Task 1: Reconsidering and redesigning the marine spatial planning program 92 Task 2: Identifying applied research needs 93 Task 3: Starting the next round of marine spatial planning 94 References 96

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Marine spatial planning

Description: This is the third edition of the catalog of reference materials suited for use in marine science, originally compiled in 1986 for NOAA, IOC and UNEP. The catalog lists close to 2,000 reference materials from sixteen producers and contains information about their proper use, sources, availability, and analyte concentrations. Indices are included for elements, isotopes, and organic compounds, as are cross references to CAS registry numbers, alternate names, and chemical structures of selected organic compounds. This catalog is being published independently by both NOAA and IOC/UNEP and is available from NOAA/NOS/ORCA in electronic form.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Reference materials

Description: The International Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue (GODAR) Review Conference took place in Silver Spring, MD, USA from 12-15 July 1999. The Conference marked the end of the first phase of the GODAR project and was attended by more than 70 data managers and scientists. The Conference summed up the results of the first phase and provided guidance for future GODAR activities. Substantial amounts of additional historical data that still reside only in manuscript form have been identified by Member States as a result of the 6 regional GODAR meetings that have been held to date. The meeting concluded that the GODAR project should be continued and extended to possibly include additional variables such as sea level and ocean bathymetry.

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Marine information management

Description: Supported by iOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: The Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM) Training Workshop for the English Speaking Caribbean States was held in Bridgetown, Barbados, March 16–18, 2011. The Meeting was attended by 22 participants representing Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Curacao, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago. The main objective of the meeting was to assist Member States in building the resilience of SIDS economies mainly dependant on coastal tourism using knowledge and expertise of the CZMU of Barbados for developing their own capacity to manage coastal areas. The meeting updated the ICAM management plan for the Caribbean Small islands incorporating economic and social issues as well as recent priorities of climate change adaptation and coastal hazard management. It was also agreed to conduct national assessments of capacity, science and technology and governance structures collated into a regional assessment. The group agreed to complete a 10 year project document with a 5 year Implementation Plan to be coordinated jointly with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC).

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Integrated Coastal Area Management

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: On 10-12 June 2008, the NOAA Climate Observation Division sponsored the 2nd Joint Global Ocean Surface Underway Data (GOSUD)/Shipboard Automated Meteorological and Oceanographic System (SAMOS) Workshop in Seattle, WA, USA. The workshop focused on the ongoing collaboration between GOSUD and SAMOS and addressing the needs of the research and operational community for highquality underway oceanographic and meteorological observations from ships. The SAMOS initiative is working to improve access to calibrated, quality-controlled, surface marine meteorological data collected in-situ by automated instrumentation on research vessels (primarily) and select merchant ships. GOSUD is an IODE project which focuses on the collection, quality evaluation, and distribution of near surface ocean parameters (for the moment mainly salinity and sea temperature) from vessels. The workshop organizing committee (Shawn Smith, Mark Bourassa, Loic Petit de la Villéon, David Forcucci, and Phillip McGillivary) brought together a panel consisting of operational and research scientists, educators, marine technicians, and private sector and government representatives to address several key topics (see below). Participants from the U.S. government represented NOAA (AOML, COD, ESRL, NDBC, NODC, NWS, PMC, and PMEL) and the United States Coast Guard. CIRES, LUMCON, Florida State University, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Oregon State University, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Stony Brook University, and the Universities of Delaware, Maryland, Miami, and Rhode Island represented the United States university community. A significant international presence included representatives from the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia); Environment Canada (Canada); LEGOS, IFREMER, and Meteo France (France); the University of Hamburg (Germany); the Directorate of Civil Aviation (Kuwait); the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research (Nigeria), University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain); and the NOCS (UK). Educators were present from ACT, IIRP, and MATE. Finally, Earth and Space Research, the RMR Company, and two consultants represented the private sector. The workshop was comprised of invited and contributed talks, poster presentations, plenary discussions, and the SAMOS and GOSUD technical working group meetings. Broad topic areas included new opportunities for international collaboration, emerging technologies, scientific application of underway measurements, and data and metadata issues. New sessions included a technician’s round-table discussion and developing educational initiatives. Scientific discussion centered around the need for high-quality meteorological and thermosalinograph observations to support satellite calibration and validation, ocean data assimilation, polar studies, air-sea flux estimation, and improving analyses of precipitation, carbon, and radiation. Determining the regions of the ocean and observational parameters necessary to achieve operational and research objectives requires input by the scientific user community. The CLIVAR community should be one way to approach the scientific community. This input will allow SAMOS and GOSUD to target their limited resources on vessels operating in the high priority regions. The vessel operators and marine technicians were very supportive of the activities of SAMOS and GOSUD. They requested a clear set of guidelines for parameters to measure, routine monitoring activities, and calibration schedules. The operators also desire additional routine feedback on data flow and data quality. A clear need for training and educational material was noted by the technical community. The dissemination of best practices guides for existing techs and pre-cruise training for new techs were suggested. The result of the workshop was a series of action items (Appendix A) and seven recommendations.

Description: Supported by IOC for IODE.

Description: Document available in ENglish.

Description: Published

Description: Supported by IOC for UNESCO.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published

Description: Biological and Chemical Data Management

Description: Supported by IOC/IODE

Description: JCOMM Meeting Report, Nr. 96. Document available in English

Description: Published

Description: The First ODINAFRICA Training Course on Marine Information Management was held in Cape Town, South Africa, kindly hosted by Marine and Coastal Management at the Research Aquarium, Sea Point. Seventeen out of twenty ODINAFRICA countries were ale to send a participant. The course included theoretical lectures on Information Management as well as a practical hands-on course on the use of the Integrated Library Management System (ILMS) INMAGIC for Libraries which was identified by the IODE Steering Group for the Resource Kit (Miami, March 2001) as a suitable software for this purpose. Discussions were also held on the results of an institutional survey filled by the participants during the course.

Description: Supported by the IOC and the Government of Flanders.

Description: Document available in English.

Description: Published