Background
The Third JCOMM "Workshop on Advances in Marine Climatology" (CLIMAR-III), to be held in Gdynia, Poland from 6-9 May 2008, aims to build on the outcomes of the two previous CLIMAR workshops (2003 and 1999); and on the outcomes of the alternating and closely related "Advances in the Use of Historical Marine Climate Data" (MARCDAT) workshops (2005 and 2002). All these workshops have brought together a wide spectrum of marine data users and managers of marine data and products, and have included an underlying focus on the continuing evaluation, utilization, and improvement of ICOADS.
CLIMAR-II took place at Residence Palace, Brussels, Belgium, 17-22 November 2003, together with the 150th anniversary celebration of the Brussels Maritime Conference of 1853. CLIMAR-II focused on key issues of marine climatology such as development of new-generation global and regional climatologies of basic surface variables, and of improved surface air-sea fluxes governing the impact of the oceans on atmospheric climate variability.
An additional workshop goal was to revise Advances in the Applications of Marine Climatology (JCOMM TR No. 13 and WMO/TD-No. 1081)--which constitutes the Dynamic Part of the Guide to the Applications of Marine Climatology (WMO/TD-No. 781)--and the resulting Revision 1 (June 2005) of this publication recently became freely available via the WMO website. Based on the success of these past workshops, JCOMM-II (Halifax, September 2005), agreed to the proposal for a third such self-funded workshop.
Major goals of CLIMAR-III are: (i) to review ongoing developments in the flow and standardization of marine (meteorological and oceanographic) data and metadata under JCOMM, (ii) to foster and coordinate the development of marine (meteorological and oceanographic) climate data and products, including ICOADS, and (iii) to seek and compile appropriate contributions for a second revision of the JCOMM TR No. 13.
Participation
Participation is invited and anticipated from a wide range of professionals involved in the fields of applications of marine climatology, climatological data archival and retrieval, climate research including modeling, and users of marine climate data and products.
Organization and Sponsors
The Workshop is being organized jointly by JCOMM, and by the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW), Poland, and sponsored by the WMO and IOC, the IMGW, the University of Gdansk, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (UK). The International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set project, and the City Hall of Gdynia have also provided some support.
