Cabell called the meeting to order at 1:15. He reviewed the recent national Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) meeting, where he had presented an update of the Georges Bank program. The SSC stressed the importance of the Georges Bank program making the connection to the basin scale and to climate as part of Phase IVb. Two of the Phase IVb programs directly involve basin scale modeling - Werner et al. and Gangppadhyay et al. - and the other three (Davis et al., Greene et al., and Runge and Leising) also consider the influence of basin-scale or external forcing on the local physical and biological conditions on Georges Bank. As a program it will be important for us to know how well those modeling efforts will be able to represent the variability observed in the Bank region, particularly the low salinity event that occurred, as it seems to be related to a lot of the biological variability. As the modeling projects are just starting, it may take a while before this is known. The Scientific Investigators ( SI) meeting scheduled for October 2-3, 2006 will be a good opportunity to see how successful the modeling efforts are in reconstructing the physical conditions. In the meantime, it was suggested that the modelers in the different groups begin communicating about how well the various efforts are doing.
The SSC is planning for the first pan-regional synthesis meeting to take place at NCAR in late November. When more information is available about this meeting, the information will be circulated to the investigators. Our SI meeting in October will be a good opportunity to prepare, as a program, for the synthesis meeting.
As many projects are just beginning, it was recommended that each project submit an update of how they are doing and of any important results or issues that have arisen. A request to the projects will be sent out.
At the SSC meeting the topic of GLOBEC books was discussed. The SSC did not feel it should determine the type of book or audience the different regional programs should target. Instead, each program should decide what type of book it would recommend for its program. This will be discussed again at the fall SSC meeting and the ExCo will need to develop a consensus approach for the Georges Bank synthesis book. The funding source that will support the book activities has not been identified. These activities might need to continue after the rest of the GLOBEC program has come to an official end.
The continuation of NOAA funding for final years of the GLOBEC program are uncertain. There is disagreement between the NOAA line offices as to where the funds should come from. To promote the value and importance of GLOBEC to NOAA and encourage continued support, it was decided at the SSC that Dale Haidvogel, as chair of US GLOBEC, should make a trip to DC and talk with/make a presentation to high level persons in NOAA. A trip this summer is being planned.
Cabell will talk to Bob Groman about setting up a Phase IVb website where information for this component of the overall program can be placed. To this end, each project was requested to submit a copy of its proposal (text and figures) to Bob Groman so that these may be put on the website.
The meeting adjourned at 2:40.