ION Minutes
AGU Breakfast Meeting
December 14, 2009
7:00-8:00AM, Garden Terrace
Restaurant
Attendees:
Stephen
(Chairman)
Dziewonski
Kaneda-san
Montagner
Rogers
Romanowicz
Schultz
Tsuboi-san
1) The minutes of the 2008 AGU Breakfast
Meeting were accepted.
2) Stephen presented an overview of the
ION Meeting at the IASPEI General Assembly in Cape Town in January 2009
(Appendix A) and the proposed ION sponsored sessions for the Spring 2010 EGU
meeting in Vienna (Appendix B) and the 2011 IUGG (Appendix C). There will be an ION meeting this year
at the Spring EGU in Vienna.
3) Reports from Members
a) Garry Rogers - Neptune Canada (Appendix D) - The seismic data from
Neptune Canada will be available through IRIS starting in early 2010. It is anticipated that the data will be
available continuously for the band below 1Hz but will be "security
filtered" for the band above 1Hz.
b) Kaneda-san - DONET (Appendix E)
c) Tsuboi-san - IFREE
d) Romanowicz - MARS/MOBB
e) Montagner - EMSO and ESONET (Appendix F)
4) Adam Dziewonski lead a discussion on
the future of broadband seismology on the ocean floor from the US
perspective. It is rumored that
there will be a workshop in Spring 2010 lead by Doug Toomey to build on the
ocean-related recommendations from the LRSPS (Long-Range Science Plan for
Seismology) workshop in 2008.
[This meeting is now, March 2010, delayed until the Fall of 2010.] This workshop will address US seafloor
observatories from the perspective of mantle geodynamics and large numbers of
autonomously recording Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBSs) with durations of about
two years.
5) Membership: Expansion of the ION membership to include a representative
from the CTBTO. Further it is
proposed that ION members who do not reply to the Chairman for two years, lose
their membership.
6) In March 2008 there was a workshop in
Japan to discuss a funded office for coordinating standards and best practices
in seafloor observatory networks.
Kaneda-san is leading this effort.
Proposals have been submitted for the necessary funding and the first
office will either be at JAMSTEC or IFREMER. A name for this office has not yet been given. It was recommended that that the ION
breakfast meeting at the 2010 Fall AGU be held jointly with this new
organization
7) It was resolved that ION should write a
letter to the Japan Ministry of Education supporting the international impact
of work by JAMSTEC and IFREE.
[This letter was prepared after the meeting (Appendix G), but was not
sent because the funding decisions in Japan had already been made. The rumored drastic and dramatic cuts
were only 6%.]
Appendix A: ION Meeting at the IASPEI General Assembly – January
2009
The two sessions
originally proposed by ION for the 2009 IASPEI General Assembly were combined
in the final program into ÒS9 - Extending land networks into the sea and
oceansÓ. There were five talks by
Yamada (invited), Shinohara, Favali and Stephen (2) on Monday morning (January
12). Although this was a small
session with only five presentations we had a good audience, about thirty, with
good questions and good follow-up with the speakers after the session. In his invited talk, Yamada gave an
excellent overview of the scientific results from the various seafloor cabled observatories
in the Nankai trough and Japan Trench.
Shinohara presented a summary of the scientific results from the
broadband seafloor borehole observatory in the Western Pacific. Favali presented an overview of the
European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observatory (EMSO) program. Stephen gave two presentations, one on
the characteristics of ambient seismic noise on the seafloor in the Pacific and
one on the SeisCORK concept, a strawman vision for high frequency borehole
seismic observatories.
There was also an ION
meeting on Wednesday, January 14 (Stephen, Favali, Montagner, (Tsuboi-by
email)). a) The 2008 Activity Report from ION to
IASPEI was approved. The report,
ION_Report_2008_Rev1.doc, is available from Ralph Stephen. The report consisted essentially of
three parts: i) the minutes from the 2007 and 2008
breakfast meetings, ii) a draft
ION proposal for a Joint Session at the IUGG Melbourne 2011 General Assembly
(see below) and iii) a summary of EMSO (the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor
Observatory). b) We discussed having ION sponsored sessions at the 2009
Fall AGU (Ralph leading) and the 2010 Spring EGU (Paolo leading). We will also
stay in touch with plans for another Scientific Use of Submarine Cables
workshop and co-sponsor this if possible.
[Ralph is co-convening the special session at the 2009 Fall AGU on
"Marine seismology and bottom-interacting ocean acoustics". See below for the proposed session for
the 2010 Spring EGU.) c) Ralph
will look into the possibility of a funded ION office, similar to the
InterRidge office. The first ION office could be in Japan. We could call this
the Cabled Observatory Organization (CO2). d) Although it is unwieldy at times, we decided to continue
to represent the broader geophysics community including geomagnetism, EM,
gravity and physical oceanography, for example.
ION was represented at
the IASPEI Executive Meeting on Thursday, January 15 by Stephen and Favali.
[Information on ION is
available at http://msg.whoi.edu/ION/index.html . In 2004 ION was awarded Inter-Association Committee status
by IUGG, and since 2005 has been hosted by IASPEI (International Association
for Seismology and the Physics of the Earth's Interior), IAPSO (International
Association of the Physical Sciences of the Ocean) and IAGA (International
Association of Geodesy and Aeronomy).]
Appendix B: Special Session for the 2010 EGU General Assembly, Vienna,
(2-7 May, 2010)
Convener: Christoph Waldmann, Co-Conveners: Ingrid Puillat-Felix,
Laura Beranzoli, Ralph Stephen
Achieving
a thorough understanding of major physical, biological, chemical, and
geological processes in the world oceans is a major challenge of the 21st
century in particular against the background of climate change and the need to
establish early warning systems for geo-hazard mitigation
In
order to accomplish these goals international programmes are running worldwide
to establish networks of ocean observatories, to measure multi-disciplinary
parameters over long intervals (> 1 year) continuously on the seafloor and
in the water column.
In
Europe, the scientific community, supported by the European Commission, is
presently engaged in the construction of EMSO, the European Multidisciplinary
Seafloor Observatory research infrastructure and through the ESONET- Network of
Excellence projects. In the US the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) is
underway and observatory design and construction has begun based on the
program's science goals. As part of an invited lecture essential elements like
pilot experiments, including Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSE,) to
explore practical designs will be described.
This
session solicits contributions covering both technical and scientific topics
related to consolidated activities, experiments, trials and tests with ocean
observatories to provide perspectives on the upcoming multidisciplinary
infrastructures. Contribution on monitoring instruments and strategies
addressing aspects of basic and applied research, interoperability and
networking of instruments into larger infrastructures, data processing,
assimilation and dissemination are encouraged.
This
session will also function as a community forum for presentations on new
observational capabilities, novel measurement strategies and new research
directions in the ocean observatory sciences.
Appendix C: ION
Proposal for a Union Session (joint with IASPEI, IAPSO amd
IAGA) at the IUGG 2011 General Assembly (27 June - 8
July, 2011) in Melbourne, Australia
Scientific
Results from Seafloor Networks, Conveners:
M. Best, P. Favali, Y. Kaneda, P. Grenard and R.
Stephen
Coastal, regional and global
permanent cabled seafloor observatories are under development and installation
in many countries. These systems
have the goal of providing continuous, real-time data from the seafloor and up
through the water column for durations longer than five years. At the same time, the duration of
traditional temporary, autonomously recording, seafloor geophysical experiments
is being extended to a year or more, resulting in quasi-permanent observational
systems. This session will focus on the scientific results from permanent and
quasi-permanent seafloor observatories.
Appendix E: Roger's Report on Neptune Canada
Appendix E: Kaneda-san's report on DONET
Appendix F: Montagner's report on ESONET and EMSO
Appendix G: DRAFT ION Letter to MEXT - JAPAN
*********************** DRAFT - NOT SENT ********************
To the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and
Technology (Japan):
I
am writing on behalf of International Ocean Networks (ION -
http://msg.whoi.edu/ION/index.html ) to express our concern regarding dramatic
reductions in support for JAMSTEC and IFREE (as outlined for example in the
News Article in the 19 November, 2009 issue of Nature, Vol. 462, pages
258-259). ION is an Interagency
Commission of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG -
http://www.iugg.org/associations/iaspei.php ). The ION Charter states:
"The ocean is an essential key to
understand the interactions between the physical, chemical and biological
processes governing the earth's system. Furthermore, to understand the dynamics
of the earth's interior, it is necessary to instrument the 2/3 of the earth's
surface covered by oceans. The international earth and ocean sciences community
recognizes the need for long-term observatories in the oceans, at fixed
locations, in order to provide optimally sampled observations of global scale
processes, in real-time when appropriate, and for the long-term monitoring of
time dependent processes on the regional and local scales.
"In view of the above, and to take
advantage of on-going efforts in several countries, the International Ocean
Network (ION) was formed to foster synergies among different disciplines, and
to facilitate cooperation in the development of critical elements of the
observing systems, harmonization of those elements of the system that would
allow shared maintenance of the observatories, development of common plans for
the use of international resources (e.g. Ocean Drilling Program, Global Ocean
Observing System,...), timely exchange of data, coordination of siting plans.
"
At
our recent meeting in San Francisco ION voted unanimously that we send a letter
to MEXT supporting the scientific programs of IFREE and JAMSTEC. Japan is leading the world in
scientific ocean drilling, in seafloor cabled and autonomous observatories, in
the application of super-computing to earth science, and in ocean bottom and
seafloor borehole seismology.
Japanese scientists, engineers and technicians in these programs are
among the best in the world as demonstrated repeatedly through successful field
installations, superb on-line data sets, presentations at international
meetings and publications in the peer reviewed literature. It would be a considerable blow to the
world-wide ocean seismic community if Japan were to lose this leadership
through budget cuts.
As
one example of an important program, the JAMSTEC/IFREE efforts to monitor the
seismogenic zone around the Tonankai Sea over the Nankai trough have the
potential to detect, forecast and warn the Japanese population of the next
major, magnitude 9 or greater, earthquake and possible tsunami. The components of this program
(including a permanent ocean bottom seismic network, deep drilling and a
permanent borehole seismic installation in the "earthquake nest") are
at the very cutting edge of scientific knowledge and engineering
expertise.
We
understand that these are difficult economic times worldwide, but we feel that
dramatic cuts to the JAMSTEC/IFREE budgets will negatively impact the
development of earthquake science and technology necessary to minimize the
effects of catastrophic disasters in Japan. The leaders of these programs are dedicated, intelligent,
responsible people with the best interests of Japan at heart.
Yours
sincerely,
Ralph
A. Stephen
ION members at
the December 14, 2009 meeting:
Dr. Ralph Stephen, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA
Prof. Adam
Dziewonski, Harvard University,
USA
Prof. Jean-Paul
Montagner, IPG,
Paris, France
Dr. Garry
Rogers, Natural Resources Canada, Sidney, BC, Canada
Prof. Barbara
Romanowicz, University of California
at Berkeley, USA
Prof. Adam
Schultz, Oregon State University,
USA
Dr. Seiji
Tsuboi, JAMSTEC, Japan
Dr. Yoshiyuki Kaneda,
JAMSTEC, Japan