The implementation plan for Southern Ocean GLOBEC identified modelling and data management as issues important to the success of the overall program and recommended that working groups in these areas be established. These groups were recently formed as part of the ongoing planning for the major Southern Ocean GLOBEC field study in 2001.
The modelling working group is chaired by Eugene Murphy from the British Antarctic Survey, Cambrigde, England and has among its membership (Table 1) representation that provides a wide range of modelling expertise as well as linkages to other programs with Antarctic interests, such as the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and the Committee for Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). An overall goal of the modelling working group is to provide a mechanism for the development of quantitative modelling frameworks that can be used for hypothesis testing and synthesis and integration of the many different data sets that will come from SO GLOBEC efforts.
The data management working group is chaired by Manfred Reinke from the Alfred-Wegener Institute, Bremerhaven, Germany and includes among its representation individuals who have expertise with a range of data systems and data types (Table 2). Southern Ocean GLOBEC must deal with data issues that include melding and maintaining a wide range of biological (phytoplankton to whales) and environmental data types. It is anticipated that the SO GLOBEC data management system will build upon those developed as part of the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS), GLOBEC, CCAMLR, and the IWC. The SO GLOBEC data management system will also need to interface with existing Antarctic data systems, such as the PANGAEA system (http://www.pangaea.de) of the Alfred-Wegener Institute and the Antarctic Environmental Data Centre (AEDC) (http://www.nerc-bas.ac.uk/public/aedc) at the British Antarctic Survey.
Comments concerning issues related to the two working groups should be addressed to the respective Chairperson. Additional information on the Southern Ocean GLOBEC program can be found at http://cbl.umces.edu/fogarty/usglobec/ and http://www1.npm.ac.uk/globec/.
Table 1. Southern Ocean Modelling Working GroupEugene Murphy (Chairperson) British Antarctic Survey Hartmut Helmer Alfred Wegener Institute Eileen Hofmann Old Dominion University Victor Marin Facultad de Ciencias, Univ. de Chile Debra Palka NOAA/NMFS, Woods Hole Tom Powell University of California-Berkeley Dieter Wolf-Gladrow Alfred Wegener Institute Hyungmoh Yih Polar Research Center, KORDI
Table 2. Southern Ocean Data Management Working Group
Manfred Reinke (Chairperson) Alfred Wegener Institute Cherry Allison IWC, Cambridge Lee Blebin Australian Antarctic Division Roy Lowry British Oceanographic Data Centre David Ramm CCAMLR Data Manager, Hobart Claire Swanson British Antarctic Survey