1. A Short History of JCOMM
JOINT WMO/IOC TECHNICAL COMMISSION FOR OCEANOGRAPHY AND MARINE METEOROLOGY
A Short History of JCOMM
Peter Dexter
Chief Ocean Affairs
Co-President
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2. Outline The back story Climate and ocean observations
The WMO/IOC process
The culmination
Making it work
The future
Thanks
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3. The Back Story 1853 – Brussels Maritime Conference; standardization
of meteorological and oceanographic observations at sea
1873 – First International Meteorological Congress, Vienna, followed by
the establishment of the International Meteorological Organization (IMO)
1907 – Establishment by the IMO of the
Commission for Maritime Meteorology (CMM)
1950 – IMO becomes WMO, as a specialised agency
of the new United Nations Organization
1960 – Establishment of the Intergovernmental
Oceanographic Commission (IOC) as a part of UNESCO
1963 – IOC established a Working Group on
Fixed Ocean Stations, the first manifestation of the Integrated
Global Ocean Station System; WMO expresses interest to be involved
1968 – WMO Executive Council Panel of Experts
on Meteorological Aspects of Ocean Affairs established
1970 – Joint meeting of MAOA Panel and IGOSS Working Group
1971 – Proposal that CMM be renamed Commission
for the Marine Environment, with TORs widened to
encompass CMM, IGOSS Working Group and MAOA rejected
by WMO Congress; however, first hint of a JCOMM-like concept
1977 – IOC establishes an Intergovernmental Committee for
IGOSS, and proposes WMO cosponsors; Congress agrees to this in
1979, and JWC/IGOSS becomes a jointly sponsored intergovernmental body
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4. Climate and Ocean Observations
1979 – First World Climate Conference led to WCRP, and subsequently the TOGA research programme, which depended on close cooperation between meteorologists and oceanographers at the research level in undertaking climate research; as a flow-on from this, the Ocean Observing System Development Panel (OOSDP) was established, to develop a blueprint for an ocean observing system for climate research and prediction
1990 – Second World Climate Conference, resulting
in the establishment of GOOS and GCOS, both jointly
sponsored, inter alia, by IOC and WMO
1995 – OOSDP delivered its final report, when the idea of one or more “Technical Commissions” to manage intergovernmental input into ocean observing systems was first mooted
1995 – OOSDP became the Ocean
Observations Panel for Climate, jointly
sponsored by GCOS and GOOS, and
with a remit as largely an extension of
that of OOSDP
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5. The WMO/IOC Process
1996 – As a way of addressing the need already expressed in the ocean and climate communities for an intergovernmental body to deal across disciplines with the delivery of data required for climate research, and also to reduce costs to both WMO and IOC in the process, Dexter raised with the president of CMM (Shearman) and chairman of IGOSS (Kohnke), the idea of merging CMM and IGOSS into a single body, to also include DBCP, ASAP Panel and GLOSS Group of Experts
1996 – With the agreement of Shearman and Kohnke, Dexter
then approached WMO/SG (Obasi) and IOC/ES (Kullenberg) with the idea;
the president of WMO (Zillman) and Chairman of IOC (Holland) were also
informed, both being supportive
1996 – With the approval of SG and ES, the idea was then presented to the two Executive Councils by Shearman and Kohnke; both ECs agreed to exploring the concept further and requested that reports be prepared for CMM and IGOSS
1996 – Consultants were engaged, Linforth for WMO and Wilson for IOC
1996 – The Joint Scientific and Technical Committee for GCOS endorsed the concept of some form of “joint commission” of both WMO and IOC to address the implementation at intergovernmental level of an ocean observing system for climate, a powerful statement of support for the basic JCOMM concept
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6. The Culmination
1997 – The Linforth report presented to CMM 12 (Havana), which passed a recommendation that a detailed joint study should be undertaken; this recommendation was approved by WMO/EC, which requested that the joint report be delivered to both WMO and IOC ECs in 1998; the IOC Assembly supported this proposal
1998 – A meeting of the heads of all the existing bodies to be potentially involved in some new merged body was convened jointly by WMO and IOC in Sydney in March; this meeting obtained the agreement of all relevant bodies except IODE to become a part of any new intergovernmental body that might be established
1998 – The excellent joint Linforth/Wilson report presented to both ECs, which gave approval for a formal proposal be put to Congress and the Assembly for the establishment of a Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM), together with Terms of Reference
1999 – Both Congress and the Assembly adopted identical Resolutions establishing JCOMM
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7. Making it Work
1999 – A joint meeting of the key members of the component bodies of the new JCOMM was convened in St Petersburg, essentially meeting as an embryo Management Committee; this meeting agreed a proposed structure and organization for JCOMM
2000 – WMO and IOC Secretariats drafted documents detailing the regulatory environment under which JCOMM would operate, plus a set of Standard Operating Procedures; these were approved by SG and ES
2001 – JCOMM 1 in Akureyri, Iceland, with a strong participation by the oceanographic community; session provided a blueprint and work plan for the Commission to move ahead; Johannes Guddal and Savi Narayanan elected as the first co-presidents of JCOMM
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8. Thoughts for the Future
● Key lesson from the JCOMM experience - meteorologists and oceanographers working together.
● Through the process to establish JCOMM we learned how to make this work at the intergovernmental level.
● The support of the oceanographic community was essential to the establishment of JCOMM. Support involves both the ocean research community and the intergovernmental ocean community through IOC.
● IOC must have real ownership of JCOMM in equal partnership with WMO
● JCOMM is the ideal mechanism to encourage and facilitate national cooperation and coordination between meteorologists and oceanographers.
● Operational oceanography is a reality.
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9. Thanks ● WMO and IOC Executive Heads ● WMO and IOC Officers
● CMM, IGOSS and JCOMM
● Secretariat colleagues
● The global ocean community
● Scientists everywhere at the coalface
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10. JCOMM TEAM
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