GEOTRACES

To help characterize and understand the dramatic changes occurring throughout the Arctic region, the US GEOTRACES SSC has launched a planning effort for a US Arctic GEOTRACES initiative, with a cruise tentatively planned for 2015.  In preparation for this initiative, several information and planning meetings are scheduled.  Initially, three events are planned to update the community as to the status of the planning process and to solicit input from attendees.

The second of these three events will be a town hall meeting at the Ocean Sciences meeting in Salt Lake City (Wednesday, February 22 at 6pm, Room 151 A,B,C,G at the Salt Palace). The objective of this event is to update the community as to the status of the planning process and to solicit input from attendees. Information for this event is available online at http://www.sgmeet.com/osm2012/workshops.asp#EVW09.

General information regarding the 2012 Ocean Sciences Meeting (20-24 February 2012, Salt Lake City) is also available online http://www.sgmeet.com/osm2012

Thirdly, a community implementation workshop will be scheduled for the late spring-early summer time frame.  Further information will be distributed via email, and posted on the US GEOTRACES web site http://www.usgeotraces.org/ when a venue has been secured.

The Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) Secretariat will accept proposals for new working groups from now until 15 April 2012. 

SCOR approves new working groups each year at its annual meeting. The number of proposals funded each year depends on both the results of the proposal review process and the availability of funding. In recent years, 1-3 proposals have been funded in any given year. SCOR is an organization that promotes science that comes from the "bottom up" from the ocean science community and working groups are an important vehicle to bring attention to the important ocean science issues identified by the global community of ocean scientists.

Model proposals and other information about working groups can be found at: http://www.scor-int.org/wkgrpinfo.htm
For further information, please see the Call for proposals document.

It is very important that individuals wishing to submit a proposal submit a draft before the deadline so that obvious problems in the proposal can be identified before the proposal is officially submitted.

The first half of the UK GA10 cruise (2011-12-24 — 2012-01-27, Atlantic - 40ºS) has been successfully completed with all the science achieved. The cruise is on schedule to arrive at Montevideo (Uruguay) with a complete zonal across the South Atlantic. Cruise members are working hard (and very well!), facing heavy seas, the price for working at 40ºS! They have been refreshed with high quality food and drink for Christmas and New Year, and with sights of Gough Island - an amazing rock in the middle of nowhere.
PI: Gideon Henderson