2010 IAPSO Activities
Administration
2010 was a year-in-between assemblies. In such years most of the Secretary General’s time is spent with the planning of the scientific symposia for the next assembly (IUGG2011 in Melbourne).
In September, the IAPSO President and Secretary General attended the annual SCOR meeting in Toulouse, France, where they reported on IAPSO activities, reviewed the accomplishments of current SCOR and SCOR/IAPSO Working Groups (WGs) and evaluated the proposals for six new SCOR WGs. While several of the proposed WGs were rated quite highly, there were only sufficient funds in the SCOR budget to support one new WG, namely, Modern Planktic Foraminifera and Ocean Changes. IAPSO does not co-fund the WG.
In December the LOC for the Joint (IAPSO, IAHS and IASPEI) Assembly in Gothenburg, Sweden, 22-26 July 2013 was formed. The three Secretaries General visited the venue and had a first meeting with representatives for LOC.
Activities
The IAPSO activities during 2010 were within the working groups. The SCOR/IAPSO WG 127 (The Thermodynamics and Equation of State of Seawater) 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 Gibbs function makes it possible to obtain accurate representations of many thermodynamic properties of seawater (e.g., density, enthalpy, entropy, heat capacity, and sound speed). The Reference Salinity more accurately represents the chemical composition of seawater over a wide range on concentrations, and it replaces the familiar Practical Salinity (SP), which has been used by the oceanographic community for the past 30 years. However, we note that Practical Salinity will continue to be recorded in national and international data bases to maintain continuity with past practice. The new formulation for the thermodynamics of sea water is now 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. This WG was chaired by Trevor McDougall (Australia).
SCOR/IAPSO WG 133 (Ocean Scope) held its second meeting in London 12-14 April 2010. The WG is chaired by Tom Rossby (USA) and Kuh Kim (Korea).
SCOR/WCRP/IAPSO WG: The Climatic Implications of the Greater Agulhas System held its first meeting 20 – 21 February 2010 in Portland, Oregon, USA. This WG is chaired by Lisa Beal (USA) and Arne Biastoch (Germany).
A IAPSO co-sponsored publication: Sea-Level Rise and Variability. Edited by John A. Church, Philip L. Woodworth, Thorkild Aarup & W. Stanley Wilson. 2010. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Four prominent scientists were nominated for the Prince Albert Medal for 2011. Trevor McDougall (CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Hobart, Australia) was selected 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". The award ceremony will take place at the IUGG2011 General Assembly in Melbourne, 1 July, at 10:30.
Planned future activities/announcements
The main activity in 2011 will be the IUGG General Assembly in Melbourne.
The SCOR/WCRP/IAPSO WG Climatic importance of the Greater Agulhas System will meet 21-25, March Mauritius. The theme is “Towards an Observing System for the Greater Agulhas System: Building links and capacity for East African participation” IUGG sponsors student participation in this workshop.