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CONTENTSREPORT ON THE 11TH CEOS PLENARY ---This page
News From the Working Group on Information Systems and Services
CEOS Working Group on Calibration and Validation
IGOS Strategic Implementation Team - Progress Report
The Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment
The Upper Air Measurements
Long-Term Continuity of Ozone Measurements
Ocean Biology
Global Observation of Forest Cover
Disaster Management Support
The Global Terrestrial Observing System
ISRO takes over CEOS Chair for 1998
REPORT ON THE 11TH CEOS PLENARY
Jean-Louis Fellous CNESIn conclusion of its year of activity as CEOS Chair, CNES, the FrenchSpace Agency, hosted the 11th CEOS Plenary in Toulouse on 19 to 21 November 1997. 85 delegates were in attendance, representing 34 CEOS participating agencies, coming from 15 countries, and 15 International Programs or Organizations.
The WMO Secretary General, Dr. G.O.P. OBASI, accepted CEOS' invitation to participate in the 11th Plenary@opening ceremony, together with Pr A. BENSOUSSAN and Gerard BRACHET, respectively President and Director General of CNES. At this occasion he delivered a very constructive speech supporting the IGOS initiative and confirming WMO involvement in its development.
During this fruitful meeting the Plenary adopted 9 resolutions and identified 18 action items for the forthcoming year.
11th Plenary Main Issues
Beyond its internal regular business the Plenary had to tackle some particularly important issues related to furthering the development of the IGOS initiative. The 10th Plenary had established two IGOS focused ad hoc groups, namely the Strategic Implementation Team (SIT) and the Analysis Group (AG), and the delegates had to consider the results achieved in the implementation of the six prototype projects identified to demonstrate the IGOS concept (see article p. 4).
The Chairman of the Analysis Group, Mr. Yukio HARUYAMA from NASDA reported to the Plenary on the results of his group and concluded that the AG had accomplished its mandate. The Plenary endorsed this recommendation to disband the AG and decided to maintain the SIT. A mandate was given to its Chairman, M. Brian EMBLETON from CSIRO, to reshape the Team and update its Terms of Reference in order to better respond to the development of the initiative.
The future of IGOS was the subject of a large and constructive debate involving many CEOS partners. Dr. Patermann recalled that IGFA is an informal international group of funding agencies interested in improving coordination in the allocation of resources identified for global change research. The IGFA Plenary extensively discussed the IGOS perspective and expressed its strong support for an IGOS, confirmed that IGFA will pursue strategic partnership with CEOS and other organizations in that field and will follow the development of the prototype projects.
The need to strengthen and widen the cooperation with other partners like the G3OS Sponsors group was also confirmed. Dr DAHL of UNEP, the current Chair of the G3OS Sponsors Group, noted that the CEOS initiative for an IGOS meets with UN consideration for providing integrated long-term, globally comprehensive data sets, both space-based and in-situ, suitable for the needs of broad user communities, including developing countries. Dr. DAHL reported that the Sponsors Group is working with CEOS to establish means of cooperation at technical and policymaking levels and informed that CEOS has been invited to participate on a regular basis in the Sponsors group meeting, continuing with the next meeting planned in June 1998 in Paris. Dr. STUYCK-TAILLANDIER commented that ICSU as the incoming Sponsors Group Chair will enforce the convergence arising on the political and scientific perspectives towards an IGOS. Dr. GRASSL of WCRP noted that ongoing projects like ISCCP, GPCP, GVaP, ISLCSP and GEWEX, met the IGOS prototype projects criteria and could be considered as the first generation of projects demonstrating the initiative.
The Plenary noted that interactions with the G3OS Sponsors Group will be crucial to CEOS efforts to conceptualize an IGOS and articulate a strategy for the space component of an IGOS.
Delegates had to consider various CEOS partnership issues at several occasions throughout the agenda. The
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