Draft Minutes of the first ESEAS Research Infrastructure (ESEAS-RI) Project Team Meeting Place and date: IESSG, School of Civil Engineering, Nottingham, U.K., 15-16 May 2003.

1. Welcome
2. Discussion of the Agenda
3. Report from the Coordinator
4. Reports from the WP leaders and discussions (including discussion of the progress, critical items, and changes with respect to DoW. The mentioned external experts are asked to critically question the WP progress)
   1. Lesley Rickards reports on WP1: external reviewer: Hans Dahlin
   2. Richard Bingley reports on WP2: external reviewer: nn
   3. Per Knudsen reports on WP3: external reviewer: Christian Le Provost
   4. Dov Rosen and Hans-Peter Plag reports on WP4: external reviewers: nn/Hans Dahlin
5. Management report
   1. Hans-Peter Plag: Presentation of the draft report (to be sent out before the meeting)
   2. Discussion and finalising of the report (all)
6. Technical Implementation Plan (TIP)
   1. Hans-Peter Plag: Presentation of the updated TIP
   2. Discussion of the TIP (all)
7. Recommendations for the next six months (external experts)
8. List of action items
9. Any other business
10. Date and place of next meeting

1. Welcome
   
   A. Dodson welcomed the participants.
   
   
2. Discussion of the Agenda
   
   The following points were added to the agenda:
   
   4.5 WP5 added
   7.1 Further developments of external relations added
   7.2 Newsletter
   
   
3. Report from the Coordinator
   
   HPP pointed out that the project is in a good state, due to active partners, task leaders, and WP leaders.
   
   The three external experts for the Project Team have been identified. However, the experts were not able to participate in the meeating.
   
   The ESEAS Corresponding Members proposed in the ToR,have been addressed by letter and asked whether they accept to be corresponding members. Most suggested corresponding members have responded positively.
   
   In a meeting with Dick Schaap representing Sea-Search, mutual links to the projects on the respective web pages were agreed. The data models used by Sea-Search and anticipated for ESEAS were also discussed and more information is to be exchanged.
   
   IOC and the EC have indicated that ESEAS and MedGLOOS should enter into a dialog of how to increase cooperation. As a first step, HPP will give a presentation on both MedGLOOS and ESEAS at the upcoming meeting of the IHO in June in Brest.
   
   For GLOSS, a new status report has been produced, which also includes a draft proposal for the further implementation of GLOSS. The PT agreed to closely follow the further fate of the proposal in order to see whether support can be given.
   
   Action item PM-1-1: Send an e-mail to all ESEAS members to support the GLOSS proposal through their national IOC members. CB, 20 May 2003.
   
   A potential proposal to FP6 with the goal to include non-ESEAS-RI members and North African Coastal countries was also discussed. HPP will attempt to make progress on that in June.
   
   Ben Chao has sent a proposal for a research project concentrating on the reference frame for sea level studies to NASA. The ESEAS CB is an external partner with the task to coordinate cooperation between primarily ESEAS-RI WP2 teams and the U.S. group.
   
   LR informed about the European Directory of the Initial Ocean Observing System (EDIOS), which is a directory of ongoing operational measurements relevant to EuroGOOS. Coordinator is Jennifer Weaduin. ESEAS should establish a cooperation.
   
   Action item PM-1-2: HPP to take contact with the coordinator of EDIOS. 30 May 2003.
   
   DR pointed out that there is a MedGOOS with Silvana Valerga being the president. MAMA is a key project under MedGOOS and Nadja Pinardi is the coordinator.
   
   A Mediterranean Forecasting system is running operational. DR emphasised that ESEAS should make an attempt to strengthen the cooperation.
   
   HPP pointed out that the ESEAS should also look for contributions to pratical and potentially urgent problems, which would, besides being useful, also make ESEAS known to non-scientific users.
   
   HPP reported that the EUREF TWG has been informed about the status. Points for potential cooperation are the decision on a time series format and a processing strategy.
   
   HPP also reported that the IERS is considering to organise a workshop in Matera on local ties at colocated stations. HPP has suggested to use the occasion to have a workshop on site documentation with all key players (IERS, IGS, EUREF, ILRS, IDS, ESEAS, TIGA) being present.
   
   Concerning the IGS TIGA project, HPP reported that he gave a presentation at the IGS TIGA workshop held prior to the EGS meeting in Nice. The issue of how IGS TIGA and ESEAS can cooperate is still not clarified.
   
   Action item PM-1-3: HPP to contact J. Dow to find out about the ESEAS proposal. 30 May 2003.
   
   PK pointed out that the ESEAS needs to be active in respective with other organisations in order to clarify relations between the ESEAS and partly overlapping activities and projects.
   
   The role of the WP leaders, the ESEAS-RI coordinator, the TEC chair and also the ESEAS GB chair was discussed and it was pointed out that all need to take an active role.
   
   The ESEAS GB and ESEAS TEC meeting in Nov. need to be prepared and the membership in the two committees needs to be reviewed. Therefore,
   
   Action item PM-1-4: HPP to send an e-mail to ESEAS GB to prepare the meeting and ask for changes in the membership. 30 May 2003.
   
   Action item PM-1-5: RB to send an e-mail to ESEAS TEC to prepare the meeting and ask for changes in the membership. 30 May 2003.
   
   
4. Reports from the WP leaders and discussions (including discussion of the progress, critical items, and changes with respect to DoW. The mentioned external experts are asked to critically question the WP progress)
   
   
   1. Lesley Rickards reports on WP1: external reviewer: Hans Dahlin
      
      LR reported on WP1.
      
      Some of the work was under in the ESEAS TEC when the project started, e.g. quality control.
      
      D1.1 is more or less final.
      
      D1.3 is also available as draft.
      
      HPP (taking the role of a very critical external reviewer) asked for the rationals to go from four applications accepted by GLOSS and EOSS to ten applications, and he also questions the process of making this decision within the ESEAS-RI team.
      
      RB explained that for some tide gauges, all four applications were not met. However, for storm surge modelling, some sites may need to be available in real time, while others might be used for quality control or model validation in post-processing. Therefore, a more diverse application structure was needed, i.e. storm surge in real-time and in post-processing. Same is true for the three others.
      
      HPP recommended to revisit the classification of the tide gauges in order to get a more inclusive set of classes instead. This should be closely oriented on the three GLOSS applications plus one identified by EOSS and have some overlapp.
      
      It was suggested to start the discussion with something like:
      
      
      • A: absolute sea level variations
        
      • B: hourly, quality controlled data for various applications including tides, ocean circulation, sea level extremes,
        
      • C: satellite altimetry calibration,
        
      • D: operational oceanography, including storm surges.
      
      There is considerable overlap of all applications with application B, but for A and D, there may be sites or parts of the data not included in B.
      
      Action item PM-1-6: RB to produce a new version of the requirements and classification based on a lower number of applications. 15 June 2003.
      
      LR continued her report on Task 1.2. D1.2 was delayed in order to discuss it at the WP1 workshop. The draft document was discussed at the WP1 meeting and LR agreed to review the document while Philip Woodworth would add something concerning filters. The status is that there is a draft but not the final delivery.
      
      HPP asked whether the draft written by Maria and others is based on the document provided by Fabio. That seems not to be the case and LR will assist in upgrading the draft.
      
      HPP also pointed out that there needs to be a clear distinction between the quality control done in real time or near-real time more in order to monitor the tide gauge operation and that done in post-processing to assure the quality of the hourly data.
      
      PK asked whether the draft also includes quality control of the equipment. Currently, T1.2 is restricted to quality control of the data. HPP suggested that quality control of the equipment is handled by the TEC. LR points out that the GLOSS meeting will address this issue and maybe ESEAS can point to the results of the GLOSS workshop.
      
      It may be important to ask for an error budget for each ESEAS Observing Site addressing at least the three classes of instrumental errors, data quality, and analysis errors.
      
      Action item PM-1-7: LR to revise the quality control document and to distribute it to the task members. 15 June 2003.
      
      Concerning T1.3, M1.3 has been reached. The design was discussed at the WP workshop. Dick Schaap from Sea-Search also contributed ideas and the question is whether the page should be made compatible with the Sea-Search approach, which would delay the process.
      
      PK raised the question whether the ESEAS data server can be built on existing products or needs to be developed from scratch within ESEAS.
      
      HPP explained that the final website and the should place minimum requirements on software, hardware and procedures at the data centres and users. This requires a heterogenous system, which most available systems do not allow for.
      
      ESEAS web pages are built in Python, php and html. Python is server-side based (unlike Java) and not client site dependent. A goal is to make the web site as far as possible independent of the user installation.
      
      Action item PM-1-8: HPP and HH to define the structure of the data flow from Data Centres to User through the Web Page to ask the Data Centres to start uploading. 31 May 2003.
      
      T1.4: An e-mail survey has been initiated to built up an inventory of analog records. Five partners have started to digitise records.
      
      T1.5: The quality control procedures should be installed at a central server and made accessible through an interactive web interface. HPP pointed out that the development of this interface could be part of a proposal for information society technologies, maybe led by POL.
      
      
   2. Richard Bingley reports on WP2: external reviewer: nn
      
      RB provided documents giving the overview of the work in the WP (see the Review of DoW (pdf), Review of Man-Months (pdf), and Progress on Action Items (pdf). He went through the progress in detail based on a powerpoint presentation (see the pdf presentation).
      
      In the discussion of T2.3, the following AIs were agreed upon:
      
      Action item PM-1-9: HH with help from Halfdan Kierulf and others to establish the CGPS archive at the ESEAS CB server. 31 May 2003.
      
      Action item PM-1-10: HPP to send information to Guy Woppelmann/TIGA about the ESEAS CGPS archive. 31 May 2003.
      
      2nd Day, 16 May 2003
      
      RB continued to present WP2. The status of several AIs were not known. Only those are mentioned below:
      
      Concerning AI WP2/WG2-1-11, HPP reported that no information was received so far. Therefore, the following AI was agreed:
      
      Action item PM-1-11: HHP to send out an inquiry to get input concerning the contents of the time series files. 31 May 2003.
      
      AI WP2/WG2-1-12 is closed since HPP has asked EUREF and they in principle are interested in a dialog. Concerning AI WP2/WG2-1-13, HPP will come with a draft soon and thus prepare an input to the anticipated IERS workshop on site documentation in October.
      
      HPP pointed out that the time series analysis strategy discussed in T2.2 should also be commented on by WP3.
      
      Concerning AI WP2/WG2-1-13, HPP reported that common mode errors (CME) can easily be determined on the basis of a scarce network of reference stations and thus be removed from the precise point positioning results.
      
      PK asked whether the ESEAS CGPS analysis strategy is aligned to the EUREF and IGS strategy. HPP explained that the principle separation of the estimation of global parameters realising the reference frame and local parameters to be determined in a stable reference frame as agreed by WP2 for the processing of the ESEAS CGPS sites is in deviation from the other activities aiming at only the realisation of a reference frame. However, the ESEAS strategy is being discussed with e.g. EUREF.
      
      
   3. Per Knudsen reports on WP3: external reviewer: Christian Le Provost
      
      PK gave an overview of the WP based on the powerpoint presentation.
      
      There was considerable discussion concerning the results obtained so far for the control stations. For the different spectra produced for the control stations, a plot combining the spectra should be produced for comparison. For that, the partners should submit the data used to produce the plots.
      
      Action item PM-1-12: HH to send out an inquiry to get the data for the spectra of at least two (tbd) of the control stations for combined plots. 31 May 2003.
      
      Action item PM-1-13: HPP to produce combined plots of the spectra of control stations for comparison. 15 June 2003.
      
      The results concerning the comparison of the spectra for the control stations (SPECCOM) reveal serious problems. The comparison shows that some spectra are similar while others show discrepancies. This needs to be rectified. HPP suggests in order to do so, that spectra of theoretical time series should be computed and compared. However, it was agreed to leave it to the task leader to decide how to resolve the discrepancies. This resulted in the following AI:
      
      Action item PM-1-14: PK to ask the task leader to take immediate action to resolve the discrepancies in the spectra of the control stations computed by different partners in order to be able to start the sea level data analysis as soon as possible and meet the first deadline of June 2003. Soon.
      
      
   4. Dov Rosen and Hans-Peter Plag report on WP4: external reviewers: nn/Hans Dahlin
      
      DR gave a report on WP4 and task 4.1-4.4. RB identified problems with the plans of P8, where the CGPS is installed for satellite calibration on a platform. It is planned to move the receiver after about two years to a different site. Moreover, the sampling interval of 10 min. is not practical for geodetic purposes.
      
      Action item PM-1-15: RB to contact P8 to inform that the experiment is not suited to determine the altimeter drift but only a calibration of the bias. For this purpose, a week of GPS observations would be enough and the CGPS receiver could be used to the final location soon after that period has been recorded. 31 May 2003.
      
      
   5. Hans-Peter Plag reports on WP5: external reviewers: all
      
      HPP gave a brief overview of the status of each task in the WP as it is also reflected in the Management Report.
      
      
5. Management report
   
   
   1. Hans-Peter Plag: Presentation of the draft report (to be sent out before the meeting)
      
      HPP gave a very brief overview of the draft and identified the missing parts.
      
      
   2. Discussion and finalising of the report (all)
      
      The tasks to finalise the report were distributed. The WP leaders take the lead in finalising the sections of their respective WPs.
      
      All required input has to be sent to HPP by e-mail during 19 May 2003 in order to allow him to finalise the draft. This document will then be sent to the external experts for review.
      
      
6. Technical Implementation Plan (TIP)
   
   
   1. Hans-Peter Plag: Presentation of the updated TIP
      
      HPP briefly mentioned that the draft TIP included in the DoW needs to be updated after two years. Therefore, currently there is no need to proritise the TIP.
      
      
   2. Discussion of the TIP (all)
      
      Postponed.
   
   
7. Recommendations for the next six months (external experts)
   
   N.A.
   
   
8. Further developments of external relations added
   
   Most of the relevant points were already covered in the preceeding discussions. The integration of ESEAS into GMES and the support of the GLOSS proposal were emphasised. Concerning GMES, a dialog with the relevant officers in Brussels will be continued during summer in order to clarify potential proposals for FP6 to be submitted in response to the next call in autumn.
   
   
9. Newletter
   
   It was agreed to aim for a newsletter to be published on the web page by 30 June 2003. As potential contents, the following points were listed:
   • Lesley Rickards: Introduction to Sea-Search and its potential importance for ESEAS.
   • Dov Rosen: Status of MedGloss and introduction to MAMA
   • Begona Perez: Status of the Test site
   • Philip Woodworth: Information concerning GLOSS, namely status report, G8/Paris.
   • Hans-Peter Plag: Status of the ESEAS-RI project
   • Halfdan Kierulf et al.: GPS analysis strategy
   • Simon Williams et al.: Time series analysis strategy
   • WP/WG leaders: short reports on deliverables
   • Hanne Heiberg: Web page and future delevelopments
   • Richard Bingley: Classification of the tide gauges
   • nn: The ESEAS Observing Network
   • Hanne Heiberg et al.: The ESEAS data portal: philosophy and basic structure
   • Information concerning relevant meetings
   The newsletter is open for more contributions.
   
   Action item PM-1-16: HPP to invite articles to the newsletter according to the list established at the meeting. 30 May 2003.
   
   
10. List of action items
    
    Action item PM-1-1: Send an e-mail to all ESEAS members to support the GLOSS proposal through their national IOC members. CB, 20 May 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-2: HPP to take contact with the coordinator of EDIOS. 30 May 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-3: HPP to contact J. Dow to find out about the ESEAS proposal. 30 May 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-4: HPP to send an e-mail to ESEAS GB to prepare the meeting and ask for changes in the membership. 30 May 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-5: RB to send an e-mail to ESEAS TEC to prepare the meeting and ask for changes in the membership. 30 May 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-6: RB to produce a new version of the requirements and classification based on a lower number of applications. 15 June 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-7: LR to revise the quality control document and to distribute it to the task members. 15 June 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-8: HPP and HH to define the structure of the data flow from Data Centres to User through the Web Page to ask the Data Centres to start uploading. 31 May 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-9: HH with help from Halfdan Kierulf and others to establish the CGPS archive at the ESEAS CB server. 31 May 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-10: HPP to send information to Guy Woppelmann/TIGA about the ESEAS CGPS archive. 31 May 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-11: HHP to send out an inquiry to get input concerning the contents of the time series files. 31 May 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-12: HH to send out an inquiry to get the data for the spectra of at least two (tbd) of the control stations for combined plots. 31 May 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-13: HPP to produce combined plots of the spectra of control stations for comparison. 15 June 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-14: PK to ask the task leader to take immediate action to resolve the discrepancies in the spectra of the control stations computed by different partners in order to be able to start the sea level data analysis as soon as possible and meet the first deadline of June 2003. Soon.
    
    Action item PM-1-15: RB to contact P8 to inform that the experiment is not suited to determine the altimeter drift but only a calibration of the bias. For this purpose, a week of GPS observations would be enough and the CGPS receiver could be used to the final location soon after that period has been recorded. 31 May 2003.
    
    Action item PM-1-16: HPP to invite articles to the newsletter according to the list established at the meeting. 30 May 2003.
    
    
11. Any other Business
    
    There was no other business.
    
    
12. Date and place of next meeting
    
    The next PT meeting will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, 5-6 November, at the premises of EARS (P10) in Lubljana.
    
    It was agreed to postpone the ESEAS-RI Workshop until June or September 2003. No final decision on date and place was made.

Minutes written by Hans-Peter Plag

Hønefoss, 20 May 2003.