U.S. GEOTRACES Pacific Section Implementation Workshop

U.S. GEOTRACES Pacific Section Implementation Workshop
Dates: 1 – 3  October 2008
Location: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

For further information: http://www.usgeotraces.com/html/pacific.html 

The Report of the Workshop is available to download.

Overview

The US GEOTRACES Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) is beginning to develop implementation plans for the initial sections in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and invites community involvement  in the process. Workshops will be held this fall to draft implementation plans for these sections:
Atlantic 22 – 24 September, 2008; WHOI
Pacific 1 – 3 October, 2008; University of Southern California

In preparation for these workshops, the SSC solicits recommendations as well as expressions of interest from individuals who wish to participate in the development of the implementation plans.

The implementation plans will be reviewed by the SSC and by NSF program officers. Once approved, the plans will serve as the basis for proposals to NSF to support research on each section.

Download the full announcement.

Objectives

There are two important objectives of the Pacific Basin Workshop. 

The highest priority is to develop a plan for a meridional section from Hawaii to the Gulf of Alaska that could become the first GEOTRACES cruise in the event that an Ocean Class ship is not available in the North Atlantic for us in 2010.

Secondly, we must design a feasible plan for two sections in the Pacific.  One is the meridional section described above, while the other is a zonal section (approximately) from the Peru coastline to the East Pacific Rise, followed by an WNW transect along the axis of the 3 He plume. We will examine the feasibility and logistics of conducting these sections as a coordinated effort in 2013.  As an alternative, we will consider staging these sections separately in 2012 and 2014.

The meeting will enable us to evaluate what we can and cannot accomplish in these sections, especially regions where we will encounter strong concentration gradients in core parameters over small distances.  What sampling intensity is realistic over these gradients? What sampling might be best left for a process study?

A principal consideration of our logistical planning will be full and meaningful integration of the trace element and isotope parameters, leading to complimentary data sets that will fulfill the core missions of the program.  Progress made on the intercomparison cruise will be an important part of the planning process.

Convenors

James Moffet and Chris German.

Agenda

The Agenda of the Workshop is available to download.

Participants List

The Participants List is available to download.

Other information

Please, visit the Workshop web site.