SOT IV SOOPIP Chair Report

1. SOT IVSOOPIP Chair Report Program Review Steven Cook

2. Terms of Reference • Review, recommend on and, as necessary, coordinate the implementation of specialized shipboard instrumentation and observing practices dedicated to temperature and salinity measurements; • Coordinate the exchange of technical information on relevant oceanographic equipment and expendables, development, functionality, reliability and accuracy, and survey new developments in instrumentation technology and recommended practices; • Ensure the distribution of available programme resources to ships to meet the agreed sampling strategy in the most efficient way; • Ensure the transmission of data in real time from participating ships; ensure that delayed mode data are checked and distributed in a timely manner to data processing centres; • Maintain, through the SOT Coordinator, appropriate inventories, monitoring reports and analyses, performance indicators and information exchange facilities; • Provide guidance to the coordinator in supporting the SOOP; • Prepare annually a report on the status of SOOP operations, data availability and data quality

3. Current SOOPIP Members • Australia • Canada • France (IRD Brest and Noumea) • Germany • India • Japan • Mediterranean Forecasting System Pilot Project (MFSPP) • United Kingdom • USA (AOML and Scripps IO) • Not active 2005 or 2006 • Russian Federation • China

4. Real-Time XBT Transmissions

5. XBT Decline Issues • Implementation of ARGO. • Traditional hard to sample areas are now better sampled (i.e. Southern Ocean, G. of Guinea). • ~ 25% of FRX & HDX Lines not sampled. • ~ 33% of FRX & HDX Lines under sampled. • Fewer observations but better quality?

6. AX- 15 AX- 25 IX- 06 IX- 07 IX- 08 IX-09S PX- 11 PX- 21 PX- 35 PX- 36 PX- 81 Routes that need Attention

7. Review of SOOPIP Action Items from SOT - III

8. Item: IV/1.1.5 • XBT Community to review and comment to the SOOPIP Chair on the Japanese papers comparing TSK and Sippican T-5 probes regarding possible changes to the fall rate equations. • Status?

9. Item: IV/2.2.2 & IV/2.3.1 • Efforts to be renewed to recruit ships on the following lines: • IRD same coverage on AX01,AX05, AX11, AX15 & AX20. • NOAA initiated coverage on AX34 + Drifters. • SIO initiated/modified IX15 & IX21 • SIO PX06/PX31 changed from PX06/PX09. • SIO replaced PX50 with PX08. • BSH changed ships on AX11. • Japan searching for ship on IX06.

10. Item: IV/4.1.1 • Operators to send XBT sampling plans for each route maintained to TC and Chair. • IRD same level as 2004. • JAMSTEC/JMA ceased sampling on PX05 but continued on IX09(N)/IX10(E) & PX40. • OOPC to review N-S vs. E-W line assignment vs. required horizontal resolution.

11. SOOPIP Initiatives • XBT Recorder & Launcher Intercomparison • D. Snowden • IOGOOS/JCOMM NIO XBT Training Workshop • V.V. Gopalakrishna

12. SOT IVSOOPIP Chair Report Program Implementation

13. Status of Current XBT Sampling

14. Estimated HDX & FRX Line Sampling in 2005 • 15 Lines were well sampled. • 2 Lines were sampled at 50%. • 2 Lines were over sampled. • 15 Lines were under sampled. • 11 Lines were not sampled.

15. AX-03 IX-01 AX-07 IX-06 AX-08 IX-07 AX-10 IX-09S AX-11 IX-10 AX-15 IX-12 AX-18 IX-15 AX-20 IX-21 AX-22 IX-22 AX-25 IX-28 AX-29 AX-34 PX-02 PX-34 PX-04 PX-35 PX-05 PX-36 PX-06 PX-37 PX-08 PX-38 PX-09 PX-38 PX-10 PX-40 PX-11 PX-44 PX-13 PX-50 PX-17 PX-81 PX-18 PX-21 PX-26 (TRANSPAC ?) PX-30 PX-31 Upper Ocean Thermal Review Lines

16. Review of XBT Line Responsibilities

17. Since 1990 the global Low Density XBT network has been monitored and coordinated in an effort to more effectively utilize resources and improve sampling, data transmission and processing. National XBT programs evolved over the years to adapt to a changing maritime industry. Today, maritime shipping has evolved to the point that it now emulates the airline industry. To be competitive they must endeavour to keep their ships fully loaded and underway. As the maritime industry becomes more competitive larger companies are buying up smaller companies in an effort to become more efficient in dealing with their cargo demands. The SOOPIP community finds itself burdened with vessels coming and going offline at ever increasing frequency and usually with very little notice. Ships are staffed by fewer and fewer people and the time spent in port is becoming less and less. This means less opportunity for our programs to interact with shipboard personal, install equipment and train operators. Additionally, while at sea ships personnel have less time to devote to our sampling requirements. Placing ship riders on board to collect quality data is becoming more the norm than in the past when we depended almost totally on ships personnel. The burden is on us to continually recruit new vessels and shore side support assistance with the shipping of our equipment and with the installing and de-installing of equipment. There is an enormous amount of scientific/maritime industry experience in the SOOPIP community. Therefore the SOOPIP is invited to discuss these problems and express their collective thoughts concerning just what routes can be realistically maintained.

18. Lines not Sampled in 2005 • AX-15 PX-11 • AX-25 PX-21 • IX-06 PX-35 • IX-07 PX-36 • IX-08 PX-81 • IX-09S

19. Other SOOPIP Partnerships • AutoImet • TSG • Atmospheric CO2 • pCO2 • Drifting Buoys • Argo Floats • CPR

20. SOT-V/SOOPIP-VIIIAction Items • OOPC: Increase communication between SOOPIP and the CLIVAR basin panels for monitoring line performance. (Chair) • OOPC: Priorities in the Indian Ocean and Indonesian Through Flow. (Operators) • Task Team on Instrument Standards: • Investigate the feasibility of developing a new Automated XBT Launcher (add new participants)