The Partnership for Observation
of the Global Oceans
holds its second Plenary
Meeting in São Paulo
The Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans
(POGO), a newly-formed organisation that aims to bring together
major oceanographic institutions under a single umbrella, held their
second meeting at the University of São Paulo, in São
Paulo, Brazil, from 28 November to 1 December, 2000. Dr. Rolf Weber,
Director of the Instituto Oceanográfico at the University,
hosted the event.
Directors and their representatives from major oceanographic
institutions from 14 countries (Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada,
Chile, China, France, Germany, Holland, Japan, Russia, South Korea,
UK and USA) attended the meeting. International organisations and
programmes such as IOC (Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission),
SCOR (Scientific Committee on Ocean Research), the Argo Programme,
CLIVAR (CLImate VARiability and predictability), COOP (the Coastal
Ocean Observation Panel), GODAE (Global Ocean Data Assimilation
Experiment), OOPC (Ocean Observations Panel for Climate) and CoML
(Census of Marine Life) were also represented at the meeting. In
total, there were some forty participants at the event.
The meeting began with various presentations from
international oceanographic projects and programmes with a global
perspective. All the presentations focussed on the role that POGO
can play in improving the co-ordination, implementation and promotion
of major programmes. There were also short presentations from institutions
of South America, designed to give a flavour of their activities
to the international audience. In addition, there were presentations
from some of the POGO member institutions, highlighting the latest
developments relevant to POGO activities. There were also reports
on action items from the first meeting of POGO, at which it was
decided that POGO would encourage and promote the Argo network of
autonomous profiling floats and time-series measurements, and initiate
an experiment in data exchange.
The main focus of the meeting was on issues pertinent
to the Southern Ocean: Global coverage of oceanic observations presupposes
adequate coverage in the Southern Hemisphere. Yet, this is typically
a difficult task, given that two-thirds of the world’s oceans
are in the Southern Hemisphere, and most of the oceanographic institutions
and nations of the world are in the Northern Hemisphere. The cost
of operations, the inaccessibility of the area, and the harshness
of the environment limit observations in the Southern Hemisphere.
The meeting adopted a declaration to promote observations in the
Southern Hemisphere, and to make a concerted effort to identify
the gaps in the observations and the means for covering the gaps,
in co-ordination with programmes that are active in the area.
The means and ways of promoting training, education
and capacity building in oceanic observations also received much
attention at the meeting. Several new initiatives were approved
by the members of POGO: It was decided to institute a scholarship
scheme in collaboration with SCOR and IOC to provide training to
scientists and technicians from developing countries on aspects
related to global-ocean observations. POGO also decided to co-sponsor
a project called SEREAD (Scientific Educational Resources And Experience
Associated with the Deployment of Argo drifting floats in the South
Pacific Ocean) that has been developed to bring aspects of ocean
observations to the school room. The meeting also decided to co-sponsor,
and participate in, training programmes initiated by other organisations
such as the IOCCG (International Ocean Colour Co-ordinating Group),
when overlapping interests exist, and in the Austral Summer Institute
Series initiated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA)
and the University of Concepcion (Chile).
The first formal elections of POGO were held at
this meeting. Dr. Charles Kennel (Director, Scripps Institution
of Oceanography, USA) was elected the Founding Chairman of POGO.
Dr. Robert Gagosian (Director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,
USA), Dr. Howard Roe (Director, Southampton Oceanography Centre),
Dr. Michael Sinclair (Director, Bedford Institute of Oceanography,
Canada) and Dr. Rolf Weber (Director, Instituto Oceanográfico,
University of Sao Paulo, Brazil), were elected Members of the Executive
Committee. All elections were by acclamation. These voting members
and the Executive Director of POGO (present incumbent Dr. Shubha
Sathyendranath) will form the Executive Committee of POGO. The financial
aspects of POGO were also discussed. There was consensus that POGO
should strive to raise sufficient funds through membership dues
to maintain a full-time secretariat and cover the core activities
of POGO, and that outside funds would be sought in the future only
for specific, targeted projects. The meeting recorded warm appreciation
of the exemplary work carried out by Dr. Lisa Shaffer (Scripps Institution
of Oceanography) as the interim Executive Director of POGO. It was
recognised that her tireless efforts were a crucial element to spinning
up the fledgling organisation.
The meeting also discussed the terms of reference
of the organisations, and guidelines for membership. It was noted
that POGO membership would be open to individual institutions or
consortia of institutions. Several members reported that there were
initiatives at national levels to form consortia of oceanographic
institutions, to promote regional co-ordination and collaboration.
This was seen as a very positive step that would facilitate POGO
activities. Consortia would allow wider representation in POGO,
without causing the organisation to become too unwieldy. Participants
from South American countries expressed their interest in forming
national consortia prior to seeking formal membership in POGO.
The members decided to hold the next meeting in
late Fall, in 2001, at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada.
Two main themes were selected for the meeting. The first one is
biological observations. They are more complex, and less automated
than physical oceanographic measurements. The types of measurements
required are also variable, depending on the objectives of the study.
The needs of programmes with climate-change and carbon perspectives,
and those that target biodiversity studies in the marine environment
will be examined, with the objective of establishing what POGO can
do to promote the observations that are required. The second theme
is to be time-series observations. Time-series observations will
provide the necessary complement to the Argo programme, which depends
entirely on a floating array of buoys.
