CARBO-OCEAN Holds Kick-Off Meeting in Bergen
Changing "Ocean-Colour" ?: A Survey
New MATLAB routine to calculate CO2 System Parameters
Southeast Asia Regional Committee for START Call for Proposals
IMBER Executive Officer Position Open until 14 February
SOLAS Project Officer Position Open
SOLAS Summer School Open for Applications

To submit an article or announcement, please contact

IOCCP News Issue Number 1, August 2003
IOCCP News Issue Number 2, November 2003
IOCCP News Issue Number 3, February 2004
IOCCP News Issue Number 4, May 2004
IOCCP News Issue Number 5, August 2004
IOCCP News Issue Number 6, November 2004

CARBO-OCEAN Holds Kick-Off Meeting in Bergen

Approximately 100 scientists from 35 institutes gathered last week in Bergen, Norway, to Kick-Off the EU Framework 6 Integrated Project, CARBO-OCEAN. CARBO-OCEAN aims at an accurate assessment of the marine carbon sources and sinks. The ambitious target is to reduce the present uncertainties in the quantification of net annual air-sea CO2 fluxes by a factor of 2 for the world ocean and by a factor of 4 for the Atlantic Ocean. The Integrated Project will deliver description, process oriented understanding and prediction of the marine carbon sources and sinks with special emphasis on the Atlantic and Southern Oceans on a time scale -200 to +200 years from now.

The workshop was organized to include plenary and parallel working sessions on the 5 core themes of CARBO-OCEAN and each theme's 12 month, 18 month, and 5 year deliverables. The core themes and theme leaders are:

• North Atlantic and Southern Ocean CO2 air-sea exchange on a seasonal-to-interannual scale (Andrew Watson)
• Detection of decadal-to-centennial ocean carbon inventory changes (Douglas Wallace)
• Carbon uptake and release at European regional scale (Helmuth Thomas)
• Biogeochemical feedbacks on the oceanic carbon sink (Marion Gehlen)
• Future scenarios for marine carbon sources and sinks (Christophe Heinze)

The workshop also gave the partners the opportunity to meet the Bergen-based administration team and to kick off the management issues of budgets, reporting, and time sheets. As part of the administration team, CARBO-OCEAN will have a technical officer and web-manager who will work closely with the data management team, and will soon develop a new CARBO-OCEAN web site.

Issues of integrating the work of CARBO-OCEAN into the worldwide carbon cycle research community including the terrestrial CarboEurope IP was ensured through an international advisory panel consisting of leading carbon cycle researchers and several US Partners actively participating in the program. CARBO-OCEAN will also contribute to the global research frameworks outlined by SOLAS and IMBER.

Further Reading:

Carbo-Oceans Home Page at Pangaea: http://www.pangaea.de/Projects/CARBOOCEAN/

back to top

Changing "Ocean-Colour" ?: A Survey

(submitted by IOCCG secretariat)

What's in a name?

For some time, the International Ocean-Colour Coordinating Group (IOCCG) has been debating the advantages and disadvantages of the term "ocean colour" as a descriptor for our area of science. It differs from the terms applied in other areas of ocean remote sensing (such as SST, SSH) in that it is rather vague and is not immediately recognisable as a quantitative entity. Some people on the outside perceive it as nothing but pretty pictures from which no quantitative information can be extracted. For example, "ocean colour" as stated has no obvious scientific units. When remote sensing missions contributing to climate studies are listed, ocean colour stands out from the rest in this respect. In the worst case, the result is that ocean-colour work might be taken less seriously than the rest by the earth-observation community, clearly an undesirable outcome.

Against this background, the IOCCG proposes tentatively that from now on what we have been calling "ocean colour" be called Sea Spectral Reflectance (SSR). It would subsume all the principal derived products we are accustomed to using. It has the advantage of being brief (SSR), a description of what we use (spectral reflectance) and is known to be dimensionless. SSR is clearly quantifiable.

The purpose of this communication is to solicit comments from the SSR community. If the comments are generally favourable, the committee will work aggressively to establish this new terminology at the international level. The IOCCG considers that this would represent a beneficial change for our community.

Please send your comments to: IOCCG@mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca, with the subject line "Ocean-Colour Name?"

Thank you

Further Reading:

Presentations from 10th IOCCG Meeting, 19 January 2005: http://www.ioccg.org/Meeting10_presentations.html

back to top

New MATLAB routine to calculate CO2 System Parameters
(sent by Richard Zeebe and Dieter Wolf-Gladrow)

Dear Colleagues,
A beta version of a new MATLAB routine to calculate CO2 chemistry parameter (csys3.m) is available at:
http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/oceanography/faculty_html/Zeebe2/CO2_System_in_Seawater/csys.html

(Note: this is a supplement to book: CO2 in Seawater: Equilibrium, Kinetics, Isotopes by Zeebe and Wolf-Gladrow, 2001)

This beta version features a user interface and allows data input/output from/into files. The ReadMe file only contains brief instructions and will not serve as documentation/manual which may be added in the future.

Please send bug reports and comments to:
zeebe@hawaii.edu
dwolf@awi-bremerhaven.de

Best regards, Richard and Dieter

back to top

Southeast Asia Regional Committee for START Call for Proposals

SARCS is currently inviting research proposals from scientists in the Southeast Asia region to work on the Southeast Asia Regional Carbon and Water Project.

START is an international, non-governmental organization co-sponsored by the Earth System Science partnership comprising the four international global change research programmes, IGBP, IHDP, WCRP and DIVERSITAS. START's principal aim is to encourage and enable regional global change science, while enhancing capabilities of individuals, institutions and developing regions to conduct global change research. The Southeast Asia Regional Committee for START (SARCS) is responsible for coordinating START-initiated global environmental change activities in Southeast Asia. Recently SARCS has initiated activities on the regional carbon and water cycles.

SARCS invites research proposals from scientists in the Southeast Asia region who seek financial support for regional research projects beginning March 2005. For this purpose, SARCS has secured funding from the National Science Council, Taiwan. All proposals must focus on global change and regional carbon and water cycles. Only research activities per se can be included in the proposals. Four to six projects will be selected for funding in February 2005 by a proposal review board. The accepted, peer-reviewed proposals will be financially supported at a modest level not to exceed US$ 30,000 per project to cover a 12-18 month period.

SARCS also plans to hold an "Advanced Training Workshop on Carbon and Water Issues in Southeast Asia" in Taiwan between 15-28 November, 2005. An international team of roughly 20 natural and social scientists/policy makers will be invited to train roughly 35 junior faculty or senior technician/staff with full support from the National Science Council of China-Taipei. Further details will be made available soon.

Further Reading:

SARCS Call for Proposals (Word, 70kb)

back to top

IMBER Executive Officer Position Open until 14 February
(sent by Claire Hamilton)

Announcement of IMBER Executive Officer Position

Executive Officer for IMBER (Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research) international project.

IMBER is a new international research project focussed on marine biogeochemical and ecosystem research (www.imber.info). IMBER is seeking to appoint an Executive Officer to lead the International Project Office (IPO) at the Institut Universitaire Europeen de la Mer, Brest, France. IUEM is a joint institute between CNRS and the University of Western Brittany. The Executive Officer will be assisted by a Deputy Executive Officer and an Administrative Assistant. The tasks of the Executive Officer and IPO staff include assisting the SSC in implementing the IMBER Science Plan and Implementation Strategy, organising and servicing meetings of the SSC, working groups and task teams, liaising with the sponsors (IGBP and SCOR) and other relevant organisations, seeking and managing project finances, representing the project at international meetings, maintaining the project website and interacting with IMBER national committees and groups, as well as other international projects. For this senior post we seek a candidate with a strong track rec
ord in scientific coordination, as well as familiarity, and preferably some experience, in the IMBER research area. Experience of coordination of international science projects would be an advantage. Some international travel will be involved. The successful candidate will have excellent interpersonal and administrative abilities, be fluent in English and have first-class skills in both written and verbal communication. This post is available for three years and will be filled as soon as possible. Starting salary will be in the range of 36,700 to 53,000 Euros, dependent on the relevant skills, knowledge and experience that the post holder brings to the role.

Details of the IMBER project can be viewed at www.IMBER.info

Informal enquiries should be made to Dr Julie Hall,
Tel: +64 7 856 1709; Fax: +64 7 856 0151;
e-mail: j.hall@niwa.co.nz

Applications, to include a CV, and the names and contacts for three referees should be sent to

Dr Julie Hall
NIWA
PO Box 11 115
Hamilton
New Zealand

or: j.hall@niwa.co.nz
or Fax: 64 7 856 0151

By February 14th, 2005.

Further Reading:
IMBER web-site: www.IMBER.info

back to top

SOLAS Project Officer Position Open
(sent by Casey Ryan)

We are pleased to announce that we are looking to recruit a second
member of staff in the SOLAS international project office. The Project
Officer will assist the newly appointed Executive Officer in running
SOLAS on a day-to-day basis.

A person suitable for the post will have a BSc in a relevant discipline,
and appropriate postgraduate experience. They will have excellent
personal and presentational skills. Fluent written and spoken English
are prerequisites, as is a high level of electronic communication ability.

This post is for up to 4 and a half years from mid 2005 and is based in
Norwich, UK. It will involve some international travel. Starting salary
will be in the range of £19,460 to £23,643 per annum, depending on the
experience and qualifications the post holder brings to the role, on the
Research and Analogous 1A salary scale. Interviews for this post will be
held on 4 March 2005.

Informal enquires should be made to Professor Peter Liss, Tel: +44
(0)1603 592563; e-mail: p.liss@uea.ac.uk

Further Reading:
For more details, see http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/solas/PO_ad.html

back to top

SOLAS Summer School Open for Applications
(sent by Casey Ryan)

SOLAS SUMMER SCHOOL 2005
29 Aug -10 Sept 2005, at the Institut d'Etudes
Scientifiques de Cargèse, Corsica, France.

** Online application now open **

The SOLAS Summer School is a biennial, international event that brings together over 70 students and 20 lecturers for a mix of lectures and practical workshops. It aims to teach the skills and knowledge of the many disciplines needed to understand the nature of biogeochemical and physical ocean-atmosphere interactions. It allows doctoral students and early-career researchers to see how their work fits into the broad canvas of SOLAS, and global change research more generally.

We encourage applications from any doctoral students or early-career scientist interested in SOLAS science and have some funds available to support attendance.

Application for the 2005 school is now open. For online application, details of the programme and more information see:
http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/solas/summerschool/

SOLAS (The Surface Ocean - Lower Atmosphere Study) is an international research initiative which has as its goal:
'To achieve quantitative understanding of the key biogeochemical-physical interactions and feedbacks between the ocean and the atmosphere, and how this coupled system affects and is affected by climate and environmental change'. You can find out more about the work of SOLAS, and what is happening in your country at:
http://www.solas-int.org

Further Reading:
For more details, see http://www.solas-int.org

back to top

If you would like to join the IOCCP mailing list, please send a message with "subscribe" (no quotes) as the subject to mailinglist@ioccp.org.