LETTER TO NC AND EC

FROM: Lawrence MYSAK, President of IAPSO

OPEN LETTER No. 3 • December 2008

MOCA-09, SCOR, and IAPSO Visibility

Dear IAPSO Colleagues:

As you know, we are soon approaching the abstract deadline for MOCA-09 (see

www.moca-09.org), namely 23 January 2009. We strongly encourage you to

submit your abstracts for this joint assembly well before the deadline, and to pass

on this message to your colleagues. We have scheduled 21 exciting joint

IAMAS-IAPSO-IACS symposia, as well as 10 IAPSO-only symposia on a variety

of physical, chemical and biogeochemical topics for the week 20-24 July, 2009.

In addition, there are 18 IAMAS and 6 IACS symposia. In the next few days, lists

of the plenary and invited speakers will be posted on the conference website for

your perusal.

A highlight of the conference will be the presentation of the fifth Prince Albert I

Medal of IAPSO to Professor Harry Bryden of Southampton University, UK, in

recognition of his fundamental contributions to understanding the ocean's role in

the global climate system. The Medal ceremony and Prince Albert I Memorial

Lecture will take place on the morning of 22 July. We hope you will be able to

attend this event.

IAPSO continues to actively participate in SCOR programs and meetings. This

October, Johan Rodhe, IAPSO Secretary General, and I attended the SCOR 50th

Anniversary Conference in Woods Hole, MA, as well as the annual meeting of

SCOR National Members. In the attachment, you will find a full report of these

meetings. However, I would like to especially draw your attention to item 4 of this

attachment, which notes that a new joint SCOR/IAPSO Working Group (WG) has

just been approved. It is entitled OceanScope, and the WG is under the

leadership of Tom Rossby from URI, USA. The long-term goal of OceanScope is

to help the Merchant Marine to put in place an observing system to regularly

monitor the physical, chemical and biological properties of the global surface and

subsurface ocean. The formation and IAPSO support of this WG nicely fits into

one of the priority areas that were described in the IAPSO Strategy Document,

which I spoke about in my Open Letter No. 2 (November 2007).

Current SCOR/IAPSO WGs 127 (Thermodynamics and Equation of State of

Seawater) and 129 (Deep Ocean Exchange with the Shelf) have been very

successful, and their accomplishments will be presented at MOCA-09. In

particular, WG 129 has produced an extensive bibliography of DOES-related

papers, which is accessible on the following website:

http://www.mth.uea.ac.uk/~h080/WG129.classified.bibliography2.doc

IAPSO and IUGG, our parent organization, continue to be challenged by visibility

and financial issues. Unlike SCOR, which has substantial NSF (USA) as well as

ISCU support (and hence can hire a full time Executive Director), IAPSO has

limited funds and no permanent staff. However, I am very grateful to the

extensive work being performed by our Secretary General Johan and the support

that he has received from Gothenburg University. Among other things, this

support has enabled Johan to produce an attractive IAPSO pamphlet and a new

IAPSO website set up in Sweden. I am sure that all of you have seen both, but

we would welcome comments on how these might be improved in the future.

In order to promote the visibility of IAPSO further, we shall continue to work

closely with SCOR and IUGG. I learned from the last IUGG executive meeting

that IUGG is exploring the possibility of a name change to reflect the increasing

role of the biogeosciences in the geophysical/earth sciences. A name change

may also affect the names of some of the sister organizations of IUGG.

On a historical note, Fred Camfield, the IAPSO Treasurer and Archivist, has

informed me that he has a number of proceedings of earlier IAPSO assemblies.

If you would like any of these proceedings, please contact Fred, who will be

happy to send them to you on a cost-recovery basis.

Looking into the future, please note that the next IUGG General Assembly will

take place in Melbourne, Australia, for the period 27 June - 8 July, 2011. In the

new year, I would like to hear your ideas for IAPSO symposia at this assembly.

Your suggestions can then be discussed at the General Business Meeting of

IAPSO, scheduled for 22 July, 2009 at 8.30.

In 2013, IAPSO will hold its next solo assembly, or perhaps have an assembly

joint with another association of IUGG. Our Secretary General is currently

working on a proposal for this assembly, and I will report on these developments

in the new year.

I look forward to hearing from you, and I send you best wishes for the holiday

season.

Sincerely yours,

Lawrence A. Mysak

President, IAPSO

and Canada Steamship Lines Professor

Dept. of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences

McGill University

805 Sherbrooke St. W.

Montreal, QC H3A 2K6

Tel: 514-398-3768 FAX: 514-398-6115

E-mail: lawrence.mysak@mcgill.ca

website: http://www.esmg.mcgill.ca

IAMAS-IAPSO-IACS Joint Assembly-2009: http://www.moca-09.org