More detailed meeting information including registration and the call for abstracts is available at the GODAE site. Local logistics information is also available. The GODAE initial requirements and a strategy for an initial sustained global observing system have been described in the OceanObs99 conference book. The recommendations for the ocean observing system were more recently updated in reports by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS-92 and GCOS-107). This system was primarily designed for climate monitoring, forecasting, and research, but also serves as the backbone for global operational oceanography. One of the aims of GODAE is to formulate more specific requirements on the basis of improved understanding of data utility and to deliver a series of recommendations for an improved design of the global ocean observing system.

Global ocean state estimation systems are a powerful means to assess the impact of the observing system, to identify gaps and to improve the efficiency/effectiveness of the observing system. OSEs (Observing System Evaluations) or OSSEs (Observing System Simulation Experiments) are, in particular, useful tools which have been applied to high-resolution ocean forecasting (the current primary focus of GODAE), seasonal-to-interannual prediction, and climate analysis and reanalysis. OSEs are flexible tools as they can be used to examine the impact of observations on a particular application (e.g. surface current forecasts for marine safety applications) or to give insight into the effectiveness of the data assimilation systems that are being used.

Objectives for the GODAE/OOPC meeting:

• Review work done on impact studies, OSEs and OSSEs over the past years
• Identify robust and common features
• Understand differences in assimilation systems
• Provide good examples of the contribution of observing systems
• Provide preliminary recommendations on observing system design
• Define and agree on activities to be carried out before the GODAE final symposium
• Develop new ideas on the way to assess and design the ocean observing systems and propose new experiments to be carried out in the coming years