GCOS GOOS WCRP/OOPC IX/3 

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indicators  of  physical  processes,  more  difficult  to  observe.  A  workshop  uniting  key  players 

could be clarifying for GOOS. 

7.4 The Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE) 

GODAE  has  entered  its  demonstration  period  (2003 2005),  and  products  are  now 

available  on  the  GODAE  servers.  Feedback  from  users  is  needed,  and  a  training  process  to 

introduce users to the products may be necessary to get this started. Systematic comparison of 

products in the North Atlantic is underway, but needs to be extended. There will be a GODAE 

summer school in September, and a Symposium in November. GODAE has 3 streams   high 

resolution  near  real time,  seasonal to interannual  forecasting,  and  climate  reanalysis,  all  of 

these groups will be involved in the new CLIVAR GSOP, and the latter two have links to the 

WCRP. The OOPC felt that it should try to tap the GODAE community for help in computing 

routine climate indices. 

7.5 Data management Issues 

Keeley  presented  a  summary  of  the  developments  in  international  data  systems  that 

impact the global observing system. His presentation is available on the meeting website. He 

spoke  about  a  number  of  diverse  issues  including  those  surrounding  metadata,  data 

dictionaries,  xml,  the  themes  of  the  Ocean  Information  Technology  project,  measuring  the 

success  of  the  observing  program  in  meeting  global  climate  observational  targets, 

developments in new observational systems of Argo and surface salinity, and contributions to 

CLIVAR and GODAE. 

The JCOMM ETDMP has taken on 3 pilot projects that address some of the issues of 

the  Ocean  Information  Technology  Pilot  Project.  One  pilot  is  concerned  with  standardizing 

the way available data sets are described. Presently groups use forms promoted by FGDC, and 

other  diverse  descriptions.  There  is  a  group  to  work  towards  a  convergence  to  ISO  19115 

which  seems  to  be  able  to  accommodate  the  information  found  in  other  forms.  A  second 

project  is  addressing  issues  related  to  developing  standards  for  quality  control.  Members  of 

this  pilot  are  working  both  with  members  of  ETDMP,  but  also  with  GODAE  to  converge 

towards  standards.  There  is  also  a  component  that  is  working  towards  a  standard  data 

dictionary that is used commonly by a wide group of data centres. At present this is in early 

days,  but  progress  is  encouraging.  Finally,  there  is  a  pilot  to  show  how  diverse  data 

distributed  at  different  physical  locations  can  be  integrated  to  produce  composites.  All  of 

these OIT related activities have targets to show results by the next JCOMM meeting in Sep, 

2005. 

There have been developments in the use of xml for both metadata and data. A joint 

working  group  of  ICES  and  IODE  have  made  progress  towards  xml  structures  that  can  be 

used  to  exchange  both  data  and  metadata.  Results  of  this  work  will  be  presented  on  the 

Marine  XML  web  site.  This  working  group  has  completed  its  work  and  it  is  expected  that 

continuing efforts will be picked up by both IODE and JCOMM. 

The Global Ocean Surface Underway Data Project has progressed so that there is now 

a  global  data  centre  at  Coriolis,  and  some  data  are  starting  to  appear.  There  have  been 

agreements  made  between  the  High  Resolution  Marine  Meteorology  project  to  acquire  the 

TSG data collected by US ships in conjunction with meteorological observations. There will 

also  be  a  comparison  of  the  data  sent  on  the  GTS  and  those  that  arrive  at  the  global  data 

centre.