NATO SfP-971818 ODBMS Black Sea Project, Second Scientific Committee Meeting
January 13-14, 2000 Venue: Anadolu Üniversitesi Aksaray Konukevi, Cerrahpasa Caddesi,Sancaktar Müezzin Sokak, No 2, Istanbul

  Dr.Vladimir Vladimirov and Prof. G. Korotaev from Marine Hydrophysical Institute (NASU, Sevastopol, Ukraine), Academician Mikhail Vinogradov and Dr.Alexander Mikaelyan from P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (RAS, Moscow, Russia), Prof.Viktor Zaika from Institute of Biology of Southern Seas, (Sevastopol, Ukraine), Prof.Ruben Kosyan from P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (Gelendzhik, Russia), Dr.Alexandru Bologa from Romanian Marine Research Institute (Constanta, Romania), Dr.Snejana Moncheva from Institute of Oceanography (BAS, Varna, Bulgaria), Dr.Kakha Bilashvili from Tbilisi State University, (Tbilisi, Georgia), Prof.Temel Oguz and Prof.Ilkay Salihoglu, METU Institute of Marine Sciences, (Erdemli, Içel, Turkey) met in Istanbul for the second Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) meeting of the ODBMS Black Sea Project during 13-14 January, 2000.

The purposes of the meeting were to:

discuss the 1999 activities, concerning with the field studies performed by RVs Bilim and Akvanavt, and with the modeling and data base management studies,

to develop annual implementation plan for the year 2000,

discuss active participation to the Black Sea GOOS program in 2000.

  Welcome and opening statements: Prof. Salihoglu presented a brief introduction of the 1999 activities, and provided an overview of achievements since the start of the project. He then went on presenting milestones envisaged for the next six months.

Process studies 1999 activities:

  Dr Alexander Mikaelyan gave an overview of the tasks related with the process studies which were decided on the March 1999 meeting. He then informed the SSC on the meetings of TASK II.3A and TASK II.4 made during October 1999. He also presented some principal results from the RV Akvanavt September-October 1999 survey. Dr. R. Kosyan and Acad. M. Vinogradov, who were the two other group leaders actively participating to the survey, also contributed to Mikaelyan’s presentation. Prof. Salihoglu summarized the RV Bilim September-October 1999 survey plan and its important findings.

DBM 1999 activities:

  Dr. V. Vladimirov described the work done by the DBM group on the improvement of the existing DBM system and distribution of the demo version to the participating institutions. He gave some details on the new version of the data base which they will start implementing by March 2000. He specifically pointed out that the new operating system of the data base will allow users to upgrade, insert and modify the data in the DBM system. He also briefly presented a document describing the rules for the use of this new data base.

Modeling group 1999 activities:

  Prof. T. Oguz gave a brief outline of the modeling studies performed on the physical and biogeochemical characteristics of the Black Sea. He described brief findings from the four specific modeling work which are in the publication process in the major international journals. He then gave the year 2000 activities planned by the modeling group. He pointed out that the major effort of the modeling group for the near-future is to develop a practical three dimensional coupled physical-biogeochemical model which will be able to represent major features of the ecosystem as given by the satellite (SeaWIFS and AVHRR) data. One major aspect of the physical modeling was to assimilate the altimeter (Topex-Poseidon and ERS) measurements into the models.

Black Sea GOOS initiative:

  Prof. G. Korotaev presented a brief history of the development of the Black Sea GOOS program and initiatives made up to now for this purpose, particularly during the first meeting organized in Varna last October. He emphasized that IOC has recognized the Black Sea GOOS as a part of the Black Sea Regional Programme. He further pointed out two potentially important meetings which were scheduled for the next May and October to prepare “the memorandum for understanding” and “programme outline” of the Black Sea GOOS.

Implementation plan for the year 2000 activities:

The following items were discussed and decided to implement during the year 2000 within the framework of the ODBMS Project.

1. Workshop on the scientific results of the year 1999 initiatives: A workshop was proposed by Dr. Mikaelyan during 2000 in order to evaluate the results of the September-October 1999 surveys and modeling activities. His proposal was supported by all members of the SSC since this will allow to design a better cruise plan for the year 2000 survey on the basis of experience and outcome of this past survey. The workshop will also help for generating new ideas and scientific problems to be dealt with within the framework of the interdisciplinary models. It was agreed that the best period for the workshop is 3-5 May 2000. Acad. Vinogradov proposed Crimea as economically cheapest location for the workshop. Prof. Salihoglu also raised other possible places such as Varna or Constantza. The final decision for the venue was left to be decided by the Project co-directors.

2. Summer Training Course: Prof. Salihoglu proposed a two-weeks-long training course on “Processing-Analysis and Use of Ocean Color Data” to be held in Erdemli during autumn 2000. This was one of the activities present on the “Project Time Schedule”. It was accepted that not more than 2-3 graduate students from each institution participating to the project should attend the workshop. Prof. Salihoglu took responsibility to get in touch with potential lecturers from the leading western oceanographic institutions. The exact dates of the workshop will be decided according to the schedules of lecturers.

3. Process-oriented Field Studies: A process-oriented field study, similar to the one performed during 1999, was decided to be carried out during autumn 2000. The discussion among the committee members led to the conclusion that the RV Bilim of the Institute of Marine Sciences, Turkey, the RV Akvanavt of the Russian Academy of Sciences and RV Akademik of the from Institute of Oceanography, BAS, Varna, Bulgaria will be able to participate to these field studies. Other institutions will not be able to join to the field measurements due to the lack of funding from their national resources. The members of the committee from these countries, however, expressed their willingness to send some scientists to the Bilim and Akvanavt surveys. . Dr. Mikaelyan told that the RV Akvanavt will cover approximately the same region as they did during their 1999 survey. This is the polygon off Gelendzhik along the Caucasian coast of the Black Sea. Prof. Oguz proposed that the RV Bilim should cover the western-northwestern shelf region and its extention towards the western interior basin. Realisation of this survey however requires to work on the exclusive economical zones of Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine. Prof. Salihoglu took the responsibility to ask permission from the governments of these countries and to initiate formalities for this purpose. Dr. Moncheva, representing Bulgaria in the present SSC meeting, talked about the details of their national biogeochemical measurement program carried out in Bulgarian waters. She expressed her desire to explore possible ways of including this data set into the DBM system of the SfP project. As agreed by the SSC, further details of the year 2000 field survey will be discussed and decided on the next SSC meeting which will be held during May 2000, immediately after the workshop.

4. Ship of Opportunity Measurements: The SSC members discussed the possibility of initiating a ships of opportunity program within the framework of the Project. Prof. Oguz mentioned some previous and/or existing independent initiatives of a similar nature using the passenger ships operating regularly between Sevastopol and Istanbul. Prof’s. V. Zaika and G. Korotaev kindly accepted to explore details of these programs and to get in touch with the scientific groups having similar experience.

5. Project evaluation meeting: Prof. Salihoglu distributed to the SSC member the e-mail message sent to him by Dr. Wispelaere, SfP Programme Director. Dr. Wispelaere’s message was about the intention of NATO-SfP to organise a meeting for an evaluation of the progress of the project during the year 2000. The SSC committee decided to organise a one-day meeting during May 5, 2000 which follows the workshop described above in item 1. The Members of the SfP Steering Group and Director and associate Director of the SfP Programme, NATO consultants as well as selected groups from the end-users community will be invited not only for this “project evaluation meeting”alone but also for the two-days workshop prior to this.

6. Participation to Black Sea GOOS Programme: It was agreed by the SSC that the SfP project should provide a strong support for the initiation of the Black Sea GOOS Programme.

7. Defining specific activities of TASK Teams: One particular concern raised by some SSC members was the generality of the tasks assigned for the Task teams shown in TABLE of the original project document. It was therefore decided that the TASK Team leaders (Dr. Mikaelyan for the Process Studies group, Dr. Vladimirov for the Data Base Management Group and Prof. Oguz for the Modeling group) should soon contact with the Task groups and decide specific scientific issues which they intend to concentrate during the year 2000. They are asked to eliminate the task groups which are not functioning properly, and/or to modify the task groups if necessary. The Task Team leaders will inform the result of these initiatives to the SSC and the NATO SfP Programme Director

8. Preparation of an end-users oriented CD: Some committee members suggested usefulness of a CD prepared particularly for the end-users community to provide them an outline of the project, its objectives, achievements, major products and findings, etc. Dr Vladimirov and his DBM group took the responsibility of generating such a CD until next May. They will collaborate with other Task Team leaders to decide the content of the CD. It will be distributed to the NATO and end-users communities during the next Project Evaluation Meeting.

9. Preparation of a new data inventory: The DBM group will prepare a new version of the data inventory in order to document all the available data owned by the institutions participating to the Project. This data inventory will constitute the basis for the new data base management system which will be developed within the framework of the Project. The DBM group will also carry out necessary initiatives to include the SeaWIFS and AVHRR data, released as the standard products by NASA. Prof. G. Korotaev will supervise the DBM group for developing a special dedicated data base system for this purpose.

10. Developing a drifter programme: As pointed out by Prof. Korotaev and  Prof. Kosyan, the drifter measurements carried out during Akvanavt 1999 survey program had a tremendous success and provided very important information on the circulation features. They expressed a strong desire to carry out a more extensive and a one year-long drifter measurement program in the near-future. Prof’s Korotaev and Oguz agreed to write a scientific program and proposal for this purpose to look for an independent funding from various sources.

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