The Fourth Session of the Joint WMO-IOC Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) was held in Yeosu, Republic of Korea, from 23 to 31 May 2012, at the kind invitation of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), the JeollaNamdo provincial government, Yeosu City, and the EXPO 2012 Yeosu Korea organizers.There were some 140 participants in the session, from 47 Members/Member States and 4 international organizations. All final approved session documents are available on the JCOMM website. Session highlights were: (a) Despite the intersessional period being shortened from the normal four years to two and a half years, a number of substantial achievements against the agreed work plan had been realised by the Commission. All Programme Areas (PAs) had developed realistic forward programmes for the next intersessional period, which was likely to be longer than usual; (b) That the ocean observing system being coordinated through the JCOMM Observations Programme Area has reached 62% of the requirements specified in the Global Climate Observing System Implementation Plan (GCOS-138, revised in 2010), and recognized that new initiatives would be required by the Commission and Members/Member States to continue its growth. In this regard concerns were expressed that the current global economic slowdown may make this a very challenging task; (c) Appreciation was expressed for the excellent work being accomplished by JCOMMOPS in support of JCOMM and the ocean observing system, including the provision of an expanding range of operational system performance metrics, and the innovative ship chartering activities to support platform deployments. (d) The successful completion of the JCOMM Pilot Project for WIGOS, and that the JCOMM Data Management Programme Area, working closely with the IOC International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE), had embarked on the implementation of many of the legacy recommendations from the project, including two Regional Marine Instrument Centres, which had already been implemented (in China and USA), and a third proposed in Morocco. (e) The coordination, facilitation and standardization of marine and ocean product preparation and service delivery (including services for maritime safety and DRR) were a major part of the work of the Commission. The major thrust areas for the Services and Forecast Systems Programme Area (SFSPA) during the past intersessional period: • Ensure maritime weather and sea ice safety including the operational implementation of five (5) new Arctic Ocean Metareas by July 2011; • Implement operational ocean forecasting capability by initially developing a Guide to Operational Ocean Forecasting; Reduce risks of marine hazards on coastal communities in response to expected consequences of global climate change by implementing the recommendations of the first JCOMM storm surge symposium. (f) JCOMM was directly involved in all the major WMO cross-cutting activities, including Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), WIGOS, WIS and the Quality Management Framework (QMF). In addition to the joint JCOMM/CHy CIFDP now underway, another significant new joint activity recently initiated joined the expertise of CAgM and JCOMM in a project to develop, as a contribution to the GFCS, data sets and tools to enable NMHS and other agencies, in particular in SIDS, to assess and respond appropriately to the impacts of climate variability and change on oceanic fisheries. JCOMM also contributed to several of the IOC High-Level Objectives. (g) JCOMM Capacity development had been undertaken in accordance with a set of JCOMM Capacity Development Principles. The Commission expressed appreciation for the major events in the past intersessional period, which included three training workshops on wave and surge forecasting; courses and workshops on ocean data buoys (and the applications of buoy data) and tide gauges; a maritime safety services enhancement workshop; an ice analysts workshop; two training courses to enhance marine forecasting; and workshops on ocean data management, in conjunction with IODE. The Session agreed that the future priority challenges of JCOMM, in response to the priorities of WMO and IOC, included: • Long-term maintenance of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and its continued growth in accordance with GCOS identified requirements, encouraging the diversification of Members / Member States contributions to observing networks and to JCOMMOPS, and establishing practical ways of seeking routes for funding new observing requirements; • Input to Global Framework of Climate Services (GFCS) implementation; • Promoting standards and best practices in observations and data management, and assisting the further development of the Ocean Data Portal and its interoperability with the WMO Information System (WIS); • underpinning the development of operational ocean forecasting services; • Supporting disaster risk reduction in coastal zones and improving safety-related marine meteorological services; • The implementation of quality management systems in national services, within an overall Quality Management Framework; • Ongoing overall WIGOS implementation; and • Capacity development and resource mobilization in marine meteorology and oceanography. The Session elected Dr Johan Stander (South Africa) and Dr Nadia Pinardi (Italy) as meteorology and oceanography co-presidents, respectively. It also paid tribute to Dr Peter Dexter (Australia) and Dr Alexander Frolov (Russian Federation) for their excellent work in support of JCOMM over the past intersessional period. Click on the links below to see photos: May 23, May 24, May 25, May 26, May 28, May 29, May 30, May 31