Meetings

The IPY Science Conference in Oslo is now over. The MEOP team was well represented by oral and poster presentations at the meeting, and MEOP received some important and well-deserved attention from the wider polar science community as well as the popular media. The approach of oceanographers and biologists joining forces to address a range of research questions is rapidly gaining recognition.

The representatives of the MEOP team that were present in Oslo also met for an informal meeting on Tuesday evening to discuss a range of issues, such as data archiving and sharing, details regarding analyses and how increased collaboration between the national programs should be stimulated, and the future of MEOP or related programs. More information will be distributed to all MEOP members very soon.
 
Here is a list of presentations held by the MEOP community, with links to the official conference program: 
 

As MEOP is coming towards an end in terms of instrument deployments, this meeting is organised to continue discussions which were initiated at the SMM Conference in Quebec, regarding the use of seal derived hydrographic data by the wider oceanographic community and the long-term prospects of including animal platforms in sustained observational programs.

A meeting of MEOP partners was held during the recent SMM conference (Oct 11th-16th). The meeting provided an opportunity to present the latest results from individual programs, and to exchange ideas and views on a variety of issues related to data processing, linkages, synergies, publications and future deployment plans.

Several researchers from the international MEOP team were present at the OceanObs'09 meeting that was held in Venice, Italy, 21-25 September. The goal of the meeting was: 1) to review the progress over the past decade in implementing a global ocean observing system, and 2) to develop a strategy for the next decade aimed at sustaining this system and to expand it to address not only climate variability but also the effects of this variability on biogeochemical and ecosystem processes as well as on the benefits to society. The biological community was strongly represented, and the approach to ocean observatiuon using animals as oceanographic platforms was highlighted in many presentations.The general feeling is that this approach has now matured to a stage where it should truly be considered as an important component of a future global ocean observing system, and especially the real-time delivery of these data via the GTS was greeted as a huge success.
 
Prior to the OceanObs'09 conference, there was also a workshop on Ocean Biology Observatories organised by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR). The goal of the workshop was to bring together biologists, the observing community, and the technology community to develop ocean biology observatories that could address the challenges of observing ocean life and its response to global change. More specifically, the workshop aimed at providing input to the OceanObs'09 conference specifically on how the observing system can be expanded to include biogeochemical and ecosystem processes.