The HMEI Executive Secretary; Bruce Sumner was nominated by peers to participate and represent the private industry in this steering committee. However as Mr Sumner, on this occasion, was not available due to his participation in the Sestola meeting noted above, the HMEI Administrator, Ms. Charstone, deputized for him.

This was a single day meeting convened by the World Metrological Organization (WMO) and the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) for the purpose of making material arrangements for an International Workshop on Measurement Challenges in Global Observation Systems for Climate Change Monitoring: traceability, stability and uncertainty, which the two organizations will jointly be organising for 2010.

Meeting Attendees
Attendees at the meeting were:
Dr William Bell - ECMWF
Dr James H. Butler - AREP, GAW and GCOS
Prof. Bertrand Calpini {co-chair of the Steering Committee} - WMO CIMO
Ms Christine Charstone (substituting for Mr Bruce Sumner) - HMEI
Dr Pedro Espina {co-coordinator of the workshop and meeting rapporteur} -BIPM
Dr Wolfgang Finsterle (substituting for Prof. Werner Schmutz) - WRC
Dr Nigel Fox - NPL
Dr Gerald Fraser - GSICS
Dr Martin Milton NPL
Dipl.-Chem. Petra Spitzer - PTB
Prof. Andrew Wallard {co-chair of the workshop} - BIPM
Dr James Whetstone - CSTL, NIST
Dr Robert Wielgosz {co-chair of the Steering Committee} - BIPM
Dr Wenjian Zhang - WMO

Welcome
The participants were welcomed to the BIPM by Prof. Wallard. The meeting was co-chaired by Dr Wielgosz (BIPM) and Dr Calpini (WMO-CIMO). Dr Wielgosz spoke of the role of the BIPM and briefly described the background of the relationship between the WMO and the BIPM and that since 2002 there has been a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the WMO and the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM).

Dr Wielgosz also spoke about the motivation for the planned workshop on Measurement Challenges for Global Observation Systems for Climate Change Monitoring: Traceability, Stability and Uncertainty (here after to be known as the Workshop).

WMO Presentation
Dr Zhang - gave a presentation on WMO. The presentation noted the excellent work done for forecasting up to 7 day forecasts. Noted the new challenges that Climate Change issues are bringing and longer range forecasting related to this, also for now-casting when looking at disaster mitigation. Noted the wide range of observations needed for Climate Change issues and the need for WWW to expand its observing range to include whole of Earth as a dynamic system. Dr Zhang proposed that WMO could be the host venue for the Workshop.

Workshop Dates and Logistic
The steering committee decided to accept the WMO invitation for the Workshop to be held at the WMO building conference facilities in Geneva. Thus decisions made for the time and place and other logistic details are as follows:

Location: Geneva WMO - Facilities in WMO Building

Date: A three day Workshop to be held on one of the following dates: 23-25 February 2010 or 2-4 March 2010 or 30 March to 1 April 2010 (The exact date will be announced later when the confirmation of speakers' and the venue's availability are confirmed).

Financial Costs:
Covered by participants (However conference room hire costs may be covered by WMO).

Workshop Participant
Participation in the Workshop will be by invitation. Invitations to participants are expected to be sent out in October 2009. Approximately 120 attendees are expected at the Workshop.

Workshop Topics (eight topic sessions to be held in two lots of four in parallel over 2 days)
It was stressed that Topics need to be particularly important to climate change and measurements for ongoing detection of this. It was also established that uncertainties are a main concern in all areas of measurement for Global Observation Systems. After considerable discussion the steering committee decided on the following topic areas for the Workshop:

Climate trends from satellite sounding data

Stable time-series for key GHGs and other trace species

Radiation and earth energy balance

Microwave imagery data in climate and NWP

Aerosol composition and radiative properties

Earth surface (land and water) temperature

Surface properties:  albedo, land cover and ocean colour

Ocean Salinity

Workshop Format
Expert speakers for each topic will be invited to give presentations at the plenary session of the Workshop. The sessions will be arranged as following:

Plenary Session
The first day will be a plenary session with speakers on issues directed towards the topics and include: a WMO address; a BIPM address; a GCOS speaker; an IPPC speaker. Various members of the steering committee are dealing respectively with the organization of speakers for of the topics. A final draft program will be sent to the committee members for approval/suggestions. There expected to be be approximately 5 speakers per topic. Speakers are due to be invited in mid October this year.

Break out Topic sessions for the Workshop
Subsequently the Workshop will divide into "breakout groups" which will each focus on discussing one of the topic areas. A rapporteur for each group will be nominated to report back to the final session. It is expected there will be approximately 15 people per topic for each of the breakout groups..

A guideline/template for rapporteurs was discussed, and it was agreed that one should be produced.

Final Plenary
The afternoon of the final day will see the rapporteurs reporting back from the break out sessions, to a panel led plenary session that will identify priorities and produce a summary of action points.

Posters
Posters will be invited from participants.

Expected Conference Outcomes
Eventually a document/booklet of the conference findings is to be published. These findings may eventually (with close cooperation between BIPM and CIMO) feed into CIMO guide.

Actions from the 1st Meeting of the Steering Committee
The various actions necessary for the organisation of speakers, venue, workshop programme, breakout sessions and invitations to participants, were delegated to the members of the steering committee. The HMEI Secretariat is responsible for creating the draft of the reporting template for breakout session rapporteurs. The1st draft of outlines for break out sessions: including introduction/background and proposals for chair, rapporteur, speakers and participants, are due to be submitted to the steering committee by 28 August 2009.

Closure of Meeting
The steering committee meeting was closed at 4.00pm.