1996 IAPSO Activities
During the period 1 January - 31 December 1996 the Secretary General established the IAPSO Web page at www.olympus.net/ IAPSO/ to provide a valuable resource to the international oceanographic community. This Web page provides information on IAPSO and its activities and also provides direct links to IUGG, ICSU, various other scientific organizations of interest to oceanographers, universities, institutes, laboratories, government agencies, data sources, and other Web pages of interest. In addition to the Web page, direct responses were provided to various inquiries received by letters, e-mail, and FAX.
Activities continued to formulate the IAPSO Program for the upcoming IAMAS/IAPSO Joint Assembly to be held in July 1997 in Melbourne, Australia. The Joint Assembly has a Web page at www.dar.csiro.au/pub/events/assemblies/info.htm
The IAPSO Commission on Sea Ice has organized a symposium and a separate workshop at this Assembly, and the Commission on Natural Marine Hazards and the jointly sponsored Tsunami Commission have also organized symposia. The final program was advertised and abstracts of proposed papers were accepted.
An initial solicitation for proposals was issued for IAPSO symposia to be held at the upcoming 1999 IUGG General Assembly to be held in Birmingham, England, UK. Formulation of a proposed program was in progress during the later part of the year.
The IAPSO President continued to serve as IAPSO's representative to ICSU's Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR). In that capacity he attended SCOR's meeting in Southampton, England, UK.
The IAPSO Commission on Natural Marine Hazards co-sponsored and was a primary organizer of three scientific meetings. These were Hazards '96 held in Toronto, Canada, in July 1996 as a continuation of a series of international meetings on hazards, Coastal Zone Canada '96 held in Rimouski, Quebec, in August 1996, and Natural and Technological Coastal Hazards held in Tirupati, India, in December 1996. The meeting in India was part of an initiative to hold scientific meetings in countries in need, recognizing that scientists in those countries often have difficulty in obtaining travel funds to attend meetings outside their immediate geographic area.
The IAPSO Commission on Mean Sea Level and Tides, and IAPSO's Permanent Service on Mean Sea Level, provided scientific support and co-sponsorship of a meeting, Tidal Science, at the Royal Society in London in October 1996. The Permanent Service on Mean Sea Level continued to provide data and provides the GLOSS Bulletin which is available on the World Wide Web.
The IAPSO Standard Sea Water Service also continued service to the international oceanographic community.
The IAPSO Commission for Cooperation with Developing Countries completed a draft of an IAPSO publication on Oceanography in Developing Countries. Present Plans are to publish that in cooperation with a university in India. The publication incorporates papers presented at the IUGG General Assembly in 1991 and the IAPSO General Assembly in 1995.
The Tsunami Commission is now jointly sponsored by IAPSO, IASPEI, and IAVCEI. The IAVCEI sponsorship was added in 1996. That Commission will report separately to IUGG.