GCOS GOOS WCRP/OOPC IX/3 

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ANNEX VII 

THE SECOND JCOMM WORKSHOP ON ADVANCES IN MARINE CLIMATOLOGY 

(CLIMAR II) 

David PARKER

1

, Elizabeth KENT

2

, Scott WOODRUFF

8

, David DEHENAUW

4 

,  

D.E. HARRISON

5

, Teruko MANABE

6

, Miroslaw MIETUS

7

, Val SWAIL

8

,  

Steve WORLEY

9

1

Met Office, United Kingdom 

2 

Southampton Oceanography Centre, United Kingdom 

3

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Diagnostics Center, 

USA 

4

Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium  

5

NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, USA 

6

WMO Secretariat 

7

Institute of Meteorology and Water Management, Poland  

8

Environment Canada 

9

National Center for Atmospheric Research, USA 

Background 

Increasing  concerns  regarding  regional  and  global  climate  variability  and  trends 

underscore the crucial importance of extracting the maximum information from the historical 

marine  record,  as  well  as  improving  the  Global  Climate  Observing  System  (GCOS)  so  that 

future results will not suffer the uncertainty of historical ones. Accordingly, the Second Joint 

Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) Workshop on Advances 

in Marine Climatology (CLIMAR II) was held at the Residence Palace, Brussels, Belgium on 

17 22  November  2003,  at  the  kind  invitation  of  the  government  of  Belgium.  Poster 

presentations  started  on  17  November  and  oral  presentations  took  place  from  19  to  22 

November.  A  wrap up  session  took  place  on  22  November.  More  than  80  people  from  20 

Member  nations  from  all  the  WMO  Regional  Associations  attended  the  workshop.  Overall, 

46 oral presentations and 28 poster presentations were given.  

As  recommended  by  JCOMM I  (Akureyri,  Iceland,  June  2001),  CLIMAR II  was 

linked to, and immediately followed, the two day celebration (17 18 November) of the 150

th

anniversary  of  the  International  Maritime  Conference  held  in  Brussels  in  1853,  which  was 

convened  by  USA  Navy  Lt.  Matthew  Fontaine  Maury  and  chaired  by  Belgian  Observatory 

Director Dr Adolphe Quetelet. The 150

th

 anniversary ceremony was opened by His Majesty 

King  Albert  II  of  Belgium.  CLIMAR II  was  organized  jointly  by  JCOMM  and  the  Royal 

Meteorological  Institute  of  Belgium,  and  sponsored  by  the  Belgian  Federal  Science  Policy 

Office, Environment Canada, the Japan Meteorological Agency and the US National Oceanic 

and Atmospheric Administration. The international Organizing Committee was composed of 

members from Belgium, Canada, Poland, the United Kingdom, USA and WMO, chaired by 

Scott Woodruff (USA). 

CLIMAR II was the direct successor to CLIMAR99 (Vancouver, Canada, September 

1999;  JCOMM,  2003a)  and  to  the  Workshop  on  Advances  in  the  Use  of  Historical  Marine 

Climate Data held in Boulder, USA, in January   February 2002. The latter Workshop made a 

range  of  recommendations  for  activities  in  marine  climatological  data  development  and