2011 IAPSO Activities
Administration
The General Business Meeting and two EC Meetings were held during the IUGG General Assembly in Melbourne.
The IAPSO President attended the annual meeting of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic research (SCOR) in Helsinki in September 2011. The SCOR meetings review the progress of current SCOR working groups, evaluate proposed new WGs, decide which of them will be funded, and discuss a number of international scientific programs that are SCOR-related. Details can be found at the SCOR website (www.scor-int.org). SCOR is an important partner of IAPSO.
Activities
2011 IUGG General Assembly in Melbourne
IAPSO participated in the IUGG GA 2011 in Melbourne, Australia. Twelve IAPSO-only symposia and 3 joint symposia were organised by IAPSO. IAPSO organized 7 association-specific symposia, and led the organization of 3 association-joint symposia and 1 union symposium. A total of 476 submitted abstracts were accepted for oral or poster presentations in these symposia. IAPSO also co-sponsored 19 symposia led by other associations, to which about 800 abstracts were submitted.
323 delegates registered as IAPSO participants. Among them 20, mainly scientists from developing countries, received travel grants. The registration fee was paid for additional 10 participants. The number of IAPSO participants was thus about the same as at the joint assembly in Montreal 2009 and somewhat higher than in Perugia 2007. The new EC expects that even more IAPSO delegates will attend the IAHS/IAPSO/IASPEI Assembly in Gothenburg in 2013.
SCOR/IAPSO Working Groups
The following SCOR working groups (WGs), which have received funding from IAPSO, have been active during this period and have published important books and/or special journal issues:
SCOR/IAPSO WG 127 (Chaired by T.J. McDougall): The Thermodynamics and Equation of State of Seawater. This WG has now completed their extensive work, which involved the introduction of the Gibbs potential function for seawater and a new salinity formulation called Reference Salinity (SR), expressed in g/kg. The new formulation for the thermodynamics of sea water is published as: IOC, SCOR and IAPSO, 2010: The international thermodynamic equation of seawater – 2010: Calculation and use of thermodynamic properties. Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, Manuals and Guides No. 56, UNESCO (English), 196 pp. It is also available electronically from http://www.TEOS-10.org. Wg website: http://www.scor-int.org/Working_Groups/wg127.htm
SCOR/IAPSO WG 133 (Co-chaired by T. Rossby and K. Kim): OceanScope. This WG held its second meeting in London 12-14 April 2010, and is currently writing up a public document outlining the work plan for this ocean measurement program. Webbsite: http://www.scor-int.org/Working_Groups/wg133.htm
SCOR/WCRP/IAPSO WG 136 (Co-chaired by L. Beal and A. Biastock): The Climatic Implications of the Greater Agulhas System. The WG conducted their second meeting in May 2011, joining with a meeting and capacity building workshop in Mauritius. A grant from IUGG was helpful. Publication: On the role of the Agulhas system in ocean circulation and climate. Nature, vol 472, 28 April, 2011. Website http://www.scor-int.org/Working_Groups/wg136.htm
IAPSO Commissions and Services
Commission on Mean Sea Level and Tides (CMSLT), hosted by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, UK. President: Gary T. Mitchum, Vice President: Simon Holgate. Website: http://www.psmsl.org/
An IAPSO co-sponsored publication related to the above Commission: Sea-Level Rise and Variability. Edited by John A. Church, Philip L. Woodworth, Thorkild Aarup & W. Stanley Wilson. 2010. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Old publication from 1931 and onwards are now available at the IAPSO website http://iapso.iugg.org/home-iapso/publications
Tsunami Commission (Joint with IASPEI and IVACEI). Chair: Dr. Vasily V. Titov. Website: www.iaspei.org/commissions/JCT.html
GeoRisk Commission (Joint with IAMAS, IAHS, IASPEI and IAVCEI). Website: www.iugg-georisk.org/
Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level, hosted by Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, UK. Contact: Dr. Lesley Richard. Website: www.pol.ac.uk/psmsl/
IAPSO Standard Seawater Service, hosted by OSIL, Havant, Hampshire, UK. Director: Paul, Ridout; Website Website www.osil.co.uk
The working groups commissions and services report to IAPSO. These reports are posted on the IAPSO website http://iapso.iugg.org/working-groups
Prince Albert I Medal
In connection with the assemblies IAPSO selects a winner of the Prince Albert I Medal for excellence in physical and/or chemical oceanography. Dr. Trevor McDougall from CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Hobart, Australia was presented the Medal in Melbourne 2011 for “his outstanding work on (1) important and fundamental problems of ocean fluid dynamics over the full range of ocean scales, and (2) the thermodynamic properties of seawater".
Eugene LaFond Medal
This Medal, created in honour of Eugene LaFond who was a former SG of IAPSO, is awarded to a scientist from a developing country for a paper, oral or poster, presented at an IAPSO Assembly. In 2011 this Medal was awarded to Towhida Rashid from Bangladesh for her presentation about the sea level change in the Holocene.
Planned and future activities
The planning for the Joint (IAHS, IAPSO and IASPEI) Assembly in Gothenburg, Sweden, 22-26 July 2013 is under way. The Local Organization Committee (LOC) met four times during 2011 with Professor David Turner in the chair. He is Dean of the Faculty of Science, Gothenburg University. Professor Leif Andersson, Gothenburg University and the Royal Academy of Sciences, is chairing the Science Programme Committee (SPC) and is member of LOC. IAHS SG Christophe Cudennec, IAPSO SG Johan Rodhe and IASPEI SG Peter Suhadolc are the other members of SPC. Johan Rodhe was co-opted to the LOC meetings, and the other SsG were kept in contact using e-mail. Assembly website: http://iahs-iapso-iaspei2013.com/. Congrex is the official congress organizer.
SCOR/WCRP/IAPSO WG is arranging a Chapman conference in October 2012 in Stellenbosch, South Africa: The Agulhas system and its role in changing ocean circulation, climate, and Marine Ecosystems.