JCOMM in-situ Observing Programme Support Centre SeaDataNet Technical Meeting II Paphos, Cyprus March 2012 Mathieu Belbeoch & Kelly Stroker

Background 2 JCOMMOPS

3 Infrastructure: office & staff JCOMMOPS comprises two Technical Coordinators (FR / US): –Work priorities are set by panel chairs or steering committee for each program ½ time I.T. resource Students on work experience New for 2012 – hiring a Ship Logistics Coordinator to assist with planning and locating deployment opportunities The OceanSITES reference station network (30% K. Stroker) The Ship Observations Team (30% M. Belbeoch) The Argo Profiling Float Program (70% M. Belbeoch) The Data Buoy Cooperation Panel (70% K. Stroker)

4 Infrastructure: office & staff Hosted by France (CLS/Ifremer), in Toulouse 250 k€ / year of global funding National voluntary contributions (annual or ad hoc) DBCP (maintained) : Australia, Canada, Europe (E-SURFMAR), France, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, India, United Kingdom, USA. Argo (maintained) : Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany (new), Korea (new), United Kingdom, USA. OceanSITES (being increased) : Australia, USA and DBCP SOT (to be increased) : Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, USA Host contribution (logistic contract, I.T. Resource, ~50% covered). Administrative support by IOC and WMO Truly international support

5 Infrastructure: Integration The JCOMM In-situ Observing Program Support Centre is a component of the international coordination mechanism, which aims on behalf of JCOMM to: –assist in the planning, implementation and operations of the observing systems –monitor and evaluate the performance of the networks –encourage cooperation between communities and member states –encourage data sharing –assist in data distribution on the Internet and GTS –relay user feedback on data quality to platform operators –provide technical assistance and user support worldwide –act as a clearing house and focal point on all program aspects –develop synergies between observing systems Assistance, Monitoring, Cooperation... Integration

6 Infrastructure: Information System JCOMMOPS routinely pulls information from different sources: GTS, Global Data Centres, platform tracking data from telecom providers (Argos, Iridium, others) Platform operators feed the system regularly (e.g. deployment planning) and data users feedback on data quality to data producers via JCOMMOPS. Information is then redistributed through different methods via the web. It permits to track the status, development efficiency of the networks but also provide a common interface and visibility for the programmes. Information System is managed by JCOMMOPS at 99.9%: installation, configuration, maintenance, development … JCOMMOPS is a Metadata management and QC center

7 Products & Services: Samples Real-Time Real-time... O n-line interactive GIS–based, real-time tracking tools for ocean platforms Interoperability targeted: Web Map Services, XML metadata exports, etc.

8 Products & Services: Samples Monthly Monthly... Status maps, the JCOMMOPS “signature”, providing an authoritative and up to date status of the arrays, encouraging community to share the data and showing how the programs asses and meet their requirements

9 Products & Services: Samples Products (on-line or on-demand) measuring the growth and efficiency of the arrays. You need information on a platform, a statistic on any national/regional contribution, a map, etc just ask JCOMMOPS,

10 DBCP: ~1300 surface drifters & ~500 moorings

11 Argo: ~3500 profiling floats

12 SOT: ~2500 ships

13 OceanSITES: ~80 reference sites & ~20 transport sites Status 2011

14 JCOMMOPS …

15 Monitoring An authoritative source of metadata for platforms and official status of the arrays Real-time web applications to browse the platform database Real-time GIS/Chart based monitoring and tracking tools aimed at: –providing statistics to program managers who are interested in the progress of the implementation of all programs –ensuring that data is available for use via the correct means and that data providers are supported in sharing their data Daily Metadata export files (Textual, XML, Google Earth outputs). Common and integrated monitoring tools across the networks Common and specific performance evaluation tools for the networks Integration of quality control feedback mechanisms across programs Centralized deployment planning tools Capacity for shared deployment opportunities Management of metadata quality and completeness Detection of problems with data formats, data archives etc in global datasets Various Monthly and yearly products and reports

16 Metadata Entry JCOMMOPS Database: Search through many different parameters Including WMO ID, Agency, Program, Basin, Contact (and role), Country, Ship, etc Export to shapefiles, excel, xml WMS - web map services to display and share images. Moving towards WFS and WCS Redesign of the database and website is underway. Expect changes in 2013!

17 Challenges Standardization of contacts, ship names, etc because we rely on the operators to provide information –it is essential that we take advantage of standard vocabulary lists (BODC) – Instrument and sensor standardization –We rely on manufacturers to provide us with information, but then when users provide information, we have been to flexible about ‘adding a non-existent’ instrument Planning – obtaining information on planning of deployments is often difficult Metadata standards: Incorporate ISO schema? We have all information in a database and it would be beneficial to us to use this on our end –We do not provide data, but I believe we should still follow the standards Observing platform identifiers –This issue is core to many. How do we fix this….

Standardized Platform Names 18

19 Platforms often have several different IDs We have an internal ID The scientist has a local ID WMO ID – if data on GTS No standardization on the identifier! Should there be a registry for observing platforms? Would this work? A platform registry hosted at a JCOMMOPS, under WMO/IOC, using similar concepts as the WMO ID Platform Registry

20 Path Forward Operators would register and could get allocated IDs from JCOMMOPS for their platforms, making them unique and connecting them to many different programs In some sense, there are already many different “registries” SeaDataNet and JCOMMOPS are examples – we define our own identifiers. But if we came up with a global mechanism for obtaining these ID’s, that meant something, would this work? What would be the limitations? Challenges with mobile platforms Collection of different parameters at a single platform Thoughts, Comments?

Thank you!