Minutes of the I.O.N. meeting on Dec. 13, during AGU fall meeting.

Present : Chris Moers, Rhett Butler, Jason Phipps-Morgan, Barbara Romanowicz, Adam Schultz, Keir Becker, Adam Dziewonski, Heinrich Villinger, John Orcutt, Kiyoshi Suyehiro, Jean-Paul Montagner.

Rhett Butler : H2O (Hawaii2-Observatory) has now operated for 2 years. Funding is secured for the next year. Replacement of the power system. Alan Chave should install geomagnetic sensors in 2003. Ralph Stephens is on the site for drilling. No funding yet for sensors in the borehole.. The seismic station is very good at high frequency and correct at long period.

Chris Mooers : Acts as unofficial representative for the Coastal service system. Activity in USA. 2 dozens of observatories. A move is observed towards standardization. 3 workshops will be organized in the next future. Links with ION must be improved.

Jean-Paul Montagner : Main activity focussed on portable broadband ocean bottom station named GEODIS equipped with a seismometer derived from space technology.. This station is partially funded by European program GEOSTAR2. A first expriment will take place in 2002 in the Mediterranean sea. At the European level, GEOSTAR did a successful experiment in installing and recovering the station by Ustica island, ,though no seismometer was operating during this experiment. The group of UBO( Brest, headed by Pascal Tarits) will participate to the Geo ;agnetic experiment at H2O. Since 1998, funding for instrumenting NERO (Ninety East Ridge Observatory) is still pending. A Japanese-French program has been launched, involving Jamstec, Ifremer, IPGP and UBO.

Kiyoshi Suyehiro : OHP (Ocean Hemsphere program) ends next march. Jamstec will build a joint data center for OHP+ Superplume program. 4 ION stations (WP-1, WP-2, JT-1, JT-2) have been installed and are presently operating.

-1 cable system (10km of optic cable, 1 CMG1) in operation insouthern Hokkaido.

-In the framework of OHP, long seismic profile across the Philippinesea have been done.

-Jamstec is in charge of the reentry system for NERO program.

John Orcutt

-Ralph Stephens is drilling at H20 site (in the framework of ODP)

- June 2002 : equatorial ION site will be drilled

-Proposal with WHOI for developing CMG in borehole.

New seismometer for ocean bottom purposes is under development with Kinemetrics Company. Mooring system has been tested in New Zealand, for different sea states. The future of IODP programme is presently discussed and concerns I.O.N..

Heinrich Villinger : No program at large scale in Germany, but many projects at small scales (for example borehole 305 off Costa-Rica with different sensors in october 2002). GEOMAR coordinator of EurOSNet.

Keir Becker : New corks in 2003 (Marianna, subduction zones ; corks in Costa- Rica, packers to avoid fluid circulation) IODP 2003 ? an initiative from ION should be welcome.

Barbara Romanowicz : Next priorities for I.O.N. must be defined. Discussion for specific actions can be done through e-mail. From a practical point of view : ION Proposal ? for new sites ? Monterey bay expriment (MBARI, UC Berkeley) next march 2002. Barbara is co-convenor for a special session during IUGG 2003, representing ION.

Adam Schultz : Coastal observatory. BP-AMOCO will fund an optic cable from Iceland to North sea. Junction box avalaible. Plug-in possible. B-DEOS launched (NERC proposal). Successful International workshop in Cardiff in July 2001. For IODP, minimal funding is secured. B-DEOS is not yet funded but is now in the system. Though in competition with IODP, good hope to get funded in the next years.. B-DEOS proposed multi disciplinary observatoires with possible targets (Lucky strike, Iceland, Southern ocean Drake passage). For studying climate change, oceanographic array. At the European level, the 5th framework was very bad for observatoires, the 6th framework should be more favourable. John Orcutt presents Neptune for John Delaney. Funding got for preliminary observatory. mooring, multisensor.

Jason Phipps-Morgan : Coordinator of EurOSNet (European Ocean Seismic network), infrastrucutre program. The goal of EurOSNet is to coordinate the development and operation of ocean bottom observatories along plate boundaries around Europe. Groups in Germany (GEOMAR, Kiel), in Holland (ORFEUS), in Italy (INGV), in France (IPGP) in Norway and Greece are involved.

Discussion of the next chair : -Adam Schultz (chair) -Villinger (secretary).