Attendees
For the full attendees list please see the Participants List at http://www.jcomm.info/new/index.php?option=com_oe&task=viewEventParticipants&eventID=112
HMEI was represented by:
Rémy Pepin - MODEM
Bruce Sumner - HMEI Executive Secretary
Christine Charstone - HMEI Administrator

Opening at 9.30
The Deputy Secretary-General Dr. Hong Yan opened the meeting at 9.30 on behalf of the Secretary General, He stressed the important or sharing information between oceanographic and meteorological activities, particularly in the area of climate change.

Technical Workshop
SOT (Ship Observation Team) consists of three components – VOS (Voluntary Observing Ship) Scheme consisting of 5000 ships making surface observations, the SOOP (Ship of Opportunity Programme consisting of 60 ships making 24,000 sub-surface thermal profiles each year and ASAP (Automated Shipboard Aerological Programme) consisting of 16 ships performing about 4500 Radiosonde profiles each year.

Technical Workshop presentations were made to show new techniques and instrumentation for the collection of shipboard observations:

• A test of XBT vs CTD profiles has been performed of six instrument systems.  Temp errors are within manufacturer’s specifications (0.1C), therefore no bias. There is a fall rate error. Two instruments are a little worse than the other four instruments.
• Summary of the Devil XBT acquisition system developed by CSIRO, teamed up with Sippican launcher and Sippican probe. 29 Devil systems have been delivered worldwide. Turo Technology Pty Ltd in Hobart has been licensed to make the systems (5800 dollars each).
• Mquest is a quality control program to check subsurface profiles, developed by the CSIRO. It is a multi-platform system to replace an old 1990 program.
• BluLink – an ocean forecasting tactility around Australia, using a partnership between BoM, CSIRO and Australian Navy. Uses a coupled ocean-atmosphere model. That goes down to 200m at every 10m.
• TurboWin version 4. This is KNMI software that is an electronic logbook for shipboard lodgement of data.. Redesign of sea level pressure e.g. surface or ship level.
   

NATIONAL REPORTS
General items of interest:

• Manual shipboard weather observations are declining, and to rectify this many services are starting to install shipboard Automatic Weather Stations (AWS). Some countries are very advanced, such as Canada, who no longer accept manual ship observations, and have replaced all their recruited weather ships with AVOS, an automated systems developed for Canada by AXYS Technologies. France are trialling shipboard AWS that they have developed, called BATOS and MILOS. The United Kingdom is trialing AWS on ships, such as MINOS from Martec, BATOS from Meteo-France and Automet by UKMet.. The UK also have AWS on offshore platforms, mostly in the North Sea. These are generally instrumentation from Muir Matherson.

• There was a suggestion from Scripps Institute and AML in Miami to arrange bulk purchasing of XBT’s. Smaller institutes are disadvantaged in that they have to pay a lot more for a few XBT’s, whereas Scripps and AMOL purchase about 12,000 XBT’s per year, mainly from Sippican, and may be able to assist smaller institutes to be able to more easily purchase more XBT’s.

• Transference from Inmarsat to Iridium satellite communications is generally happening in the oceanographic/marine community. This is to reduce costs. Costs drop from about $15.00 per observation to about $1.00 per observation. (Reference – all services performing ship, XBT and other shipboard observations).

• Greenhouse gas sampling from ships consists of approximately weekly sampling on various routes, such as New Zealand to Japan and New Zealand to Long Beach California. Samplers are usually located on the ships bridge. Bridge officers start the sampling, load new sampling flasks and press start. At the end of the sampling process, reloaded for next sampling in about 18 hours. New routes are planned, and there is a need to automate the sampler. (Reference – Atmospheric modelling laboratory, Boulder, Colorado)

• Private sector meeting held in Paris in March 2006. The results and actions from this meeting will be implemented shortly. A meeting in Exeter in 2008 will also involve the public sector.

Report by the SOT Coordinator
JCOMMOPS webpage has a new section on instrumentation:
http://wo.jcommops.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/JCOMMOPS  
(Reference – Hester Viola, JCOMMOPS, Toulouse)

Requirements for ship-based observations
This report highlighted that adequacy requirements need to be set for VOS observations, both for NWP and for climate purposes. Also need to ensure continuing observations of sea surface temperature (SST).
(Reference – Liz Kent, UK)

FerryBox as Operational Tool for Ocean Observing Tasks
FerryBox, built by Jena in Germany, is installed on ferries to measure flow through parameters, such as chlorophyll, turbidity, temperature, salinity, etc. Cost is about $50,000 per unit, depending on the seniors installed. System developed in Germany, with funding EuroGOOS, and used in northern Europe on trans-country ferries. However different countries require different sensors in the instrument, which means the data from different countries is difficult to compare.
(Reference – Franciscus Colijn, GKSS, Geesthacht, Germany)

Task Team Reports and Recommendations
There are six Task Teams:

• Task Team on VOS Recruitment and Programme Promotion
• Task Team on Satellite Communication System Costs
• Task Team on Metadata for WMO Publication No. 47
• Task Team on VOSClim
• Task Team on Coding
• Task Team on Instrument Standards

The only Task Team of relevance to HMEI is the Task Team on Instrument Standards, with a possible interest in Task Team on Coding. However the coding group mainly is involved in defining BUFR descriptors if they are not currently available. Instrument manufacturers should thus be aware that SOT (and JCOMM) is committed to the use of BUFR as the new code form. HMEI has been accepted as an advisor to the Task Team on Instrument Standards, and will be involved in future work of this Task Team.
Reference - Robert Luke, leader of Task Team on Instrument Standards.

E-SURFMAR VOS Component
A program to coordinate and optimize the surface marine observations component of EUCOS (EUMETNET Composite Observing System). E-SURFMAR participants are operating different shipboard AWS: France has 50 Batos stations and 8 Minos AWS, Germany has 20 Minos AWS operating through Meteosat, UK has seven stations – either Automet, Batos or Minos, Norway has one QLS-50 AWS, Ireland and Spain have one Milos station each and Denmark has one Batos AWS. A new simple AWS is under development by Meteo France, called Baros. Currently in pre-production, with final production expected in about two years time, when a tender will be issued to potential manufacturers.
(Reference – Pierre Blouch, E-SURFMAR Programme Manager)

XBT fall Rate Equation
366 profiles with 6 instrument systems were obtained in the Atlantic in 2006 to investigate the fall rate equation for XBT’s.  Current fall rate equation was developed by IGOSS in 1994. HMEI recommends a full scientific Intercomparison, over all ocean basins and with input from all manufacturers of probes (generally Sippican and TSK), so that the fall rate equation can investigated and a refined fall rate determined.
(Reference – Derrick Snowden, AOML, Miami, USA)

JCOMMOPS
^There is a website http://wo.jcommops.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/JCOMMOPS with lots of information on JCOMM activities, including instrumentation, monitoring, programmes, meetings, contacts, etc.
(Reference – Hester Viola, JCOMM Technical Coordinator)

• Development of a small, compact, expandable marine AWS, with easy installation and able to be moved from ship to ship.
• Development of a simple auto-launcher for automated launches of helium-based Radiosonde releases from ships.
• Development of a simplified hand launcher and multiple launcher for XBT probes from ships.
• Investigation of the fall rate equation of XBT instruments from different manufacturers.
• Update of manufacturers' information on JCOMMOPS website.

HMEI was accepted as a member of the Task Team on Instrument Standards and the new ASAP Task Team.

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2. Assessment of the instruments and techniques performance:

• Uncertainties associated with various gauging methods;
• Field tests and aDcp regattas;
• Rating curves: uncertainty assessment and extension.

3. Research on innovating methods:

• Acoustic Doppler current profilers (aDcp, Groupe Doppler);
• Discharge monitoring systems;
• Projects for video-based field measurements (LS-PIV)

France has done considerable work with testing during 2006 in the issues as noted above.

The importance of sharing information was stressed and the importance of the dissemination of information. France is publishing information on aDPC methodologies which is currently in French but will soon be available also in English.

Canada - The assessment of the Performance of Measurement Instrumentation by Patrick J McCurry
Water Survey of Canada (WSC) has leveraged with other "Hydrological Services" on technology sharing and training issues at the provincial and governmental levels and with United States Geological Survey (USGS), universities and other research institutes.

WSC has worked closely with USGS on the development, evaluation, quality assurance and training in areas including:

• Testing commercially available technologies;
• Working with selected manufacturers and research scientists;
• Investigation of flow disturbance around transducer heads;
• Methods of dealing with moving bed situations for hydroacoustics;
• Alternatives to GPS for hydroacoustics;
• Measurement platforms.

WSC has also:

• Done a comparison of hydroacoustic instruments against a Price AA meter. Instruments tested were: TRDI; ADCP; StreamPro; Sontek; Flowtracker;
• Written operational specifications for (moving boat) acoustic Doppler technology;
• Implemented a policy on use of acoustic Doppler data for final data production;
• Produced ADCP procedural manuals;
• Developed an ADCP accreditation process.

Some issues raised from his presentation were:

• Some instruments have "black box" software which can cause problems with data integrity and Intercomparisons.
• WSC provides a list of "Qualified Products" which meet their operational specifications  (therefore other products are not used operationally by them).

USGS Presentation - Assessing Flow Measurement Instruments by Janice Fulford
USGS has:

• Several extensive Instrument testing facilities in the US; both Field and Laboratory testing;
• However testing standards are not rigorous.

It was noted by one of the HMEI manufacturer representatives that this work is very valuable from the vendors viewpoint.

• Official Memoranda (Office of Surface Water);
• Official Publications (TWRI http://pubs.usgs.gov/twri/,  WSP http://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/, SIR http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/ )
• List servers (HAWG);
• Websites (both internal only and public);
• Internal Conferences and Meetings;
• WRD Instrumentation News (internal only);
• Conference presentations and Journals.

Uncertainty Analysis (UA) for Flow Measurements and Techniques using Standardized Methodology by Mr Marion Muste
Points in this presentation:

• The best guide on this issue was identified as: ISO, 1993 - Guide to the Expression Uncertainty Measurement (ISO, 1993). This has been adapted by various scientific and research communities.
• Mr Muste described in detail, for the meeting, UA using  Standardized Methodology.
• The need was noted for coordination and extensive evaluation among  ADCP manufacturers, operators, data users and third party evaluators.

General Discussion
The group discussed the identification of errors. It was decided that there was a need to quantify error biases for different instruments. Standardized procedures need to be defined to minimize and regularize biases. Traceability to primary standards is not generally available for ADCP instruments. The group checked, added to and subtracted from the proposed tasks for the proposed assessment of flow measurement instruments. A Work Plan was established to progress the proposal and identify the tasks to be undertaken.

Governance
A discussion on governance, and who will be responsible for the various components of the Work Plan, was conducted. Also there was a discussion of the composition of the working group membership. It was decided to form a team of a small group of experts to form a Steering Group. The steering group would also be active members of the Expert Team. HMEI was nominated for, and accepted, a position on the Steering Group.

Website
WMO will host the website where all the data collected by the Work Plan will be made available. This will include links to manufacturer’s instrument specifications, establishing protocols and specifications and developing sample formats for reporting testing and verification results.

Summary
The participation of HMEI and their experts from the manufacturers was recognized and appreciated by the meeting. The HMEI manufacturers' representatives participated actively and their input was a valuable contribution to this preparatory meeting. Ian Thompson of YSI subsequently made available to the meeting participants documentation on Discharge Uncertainty that will be useful information for the group.

It was recognised by the meeting that the continued involvement of HMEI in this issue was important for the success of assessments arising from this meeting. This continuing involvement is ensured by the above mentioned position of HMEI on the Steering Group.

There is an International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research (IIHR) website database of hydrology instruments at http://www.iihr.uiowa.edu/ 

Closing of the conference
The meeting closed on Friday afternoon, 27 April 2007.

Exhibition at JCOMM Scientific and Technical Symposium, on Storm Surges, Seoul, Republic of Korea, 2-6 October 2007
This new exhibition opportunity was announced at a special side meeting, attended by the HMEI Secretariat, during the WMO Congress in May this year. The JCOMM exhibition and conference will be held at the COEX [Convention & Exhibition Center] in Seoul.

The conference registration and accommodation booking are due by 31st July 2007. Further symposium information is available at: http://www.jcomm2007sss.org
The exhibition with this conference is expected to have 8 booths in the space just next to a small meeting room which will be used for special sessions and side meetings. A PowerPoint presentation of the plan of the exhibition area is available here. The prospectus and application form for exhibitors are available here.
 
The local organizer also seeks supports for the Symposium itself from the private sector, for example, sponsoring a social event during the symposium. Should there be any company interested in such an activity, please contact the local organizer at email: jcomm2007@jcomm2007sss.org, with copies also sent to Dr. Jae-Cheol Nam jcnam@kma.go.kr  and Dr. Jang-Won Seo jwseo@kma.go.kr. 
 
Contact with the local organizer, Dr. Nam, and Dr. Seo if you have any question or need further information.

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OTHER INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS 2007
More information on the exhibitions is available at the HMEI website Exhibitions page. The HMEI exhibition page is updated as new exhibition opportunities come to our attention. 
If you know of an exhibition of interest to our members, please email details to the HMEI Administrator at hmei@wmo.int

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OTHER UPCOMING CONFERENCES IN 2007
More information, on the conferences, is available at the HMEI website International Meetings page.