COspar capacity Building RAbat Workshop on Oceanography: COBRAWO

A COSPAR Initiative

Regional workshop for african oceanographers
Ocean remote sensing: a tool for ocean science and operational oceanography

To be held in Rabat, Morocco 19-30 September 2005, Royal Centre for Remote Sensing

Space oceanography

Nearly 50 years after the launch of the first artificial satellite, space research has contributed significantly to changing our vision of the Earth and the far universe.

Progress in the means of observation, in particular from space, has played a central role in furthering our knowledge of planet Earth, leading to an improved understanding of the multi-scale processes in the atmosphere, ocean and biosphere. Increased power of computing systems initially allowed for the development of numerical weather prediction, then of ocean general circulation models.

Like meteorologists before them, oceanographers are now on their way to establishing a network of operational forecast centres at global, regional or local scales. This is the challenge of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), a joint program of the IOC, the WMO, and of their regional components like Euro-GOOS, MedGOOS, and GOOS-Africa.

Cospar initiative

COSPAR's programme of Capacity Building Workshops is now in its fifth year. Workshops on Xray astronomy have been held in Brazil (2001), India (2003), and South Africa (2004), and one on magnetospheric physics was organized in China (2004).

Workshop objective

The objective of the workshop is to encourage and develop use of ocean remote sensing and associated in-situ data by scientists from Africa. The scientific themes are intended to foster use of altimetry, scatterometry, thermography and ocean colour data related to existing research and potential applications in the region. The workshop will focus on science for which ocean satellites are proving especially effective such as ocean currents, surface winds and waves, air-sea fluxes, marine biology, etc. The proper management of a series of threats mankind is or will be facing in the future depends on a better description of the ocean, and the consciousness of such challenges owes much to space research and in particular to the data gathered by weather and ocean observing satellites. For instance:

• ocean circulation plays a regulating role on climate evolution at all scales, e.g., at basin scale, the ENSO phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean has global impacts. Slower evolutions, like the variation of the mean sea level or the absorption of a large fraction of the carbon dioxide, will strongly influence the future of life on our planet,
• maritime transport of oil and other dangerous products, often involving badly maintained cargo ships, is subject to frequent accidents and ecological catastrophes,
• marine leisure activities are developing rapidly and have a significant economic impact,
• fisheries face the challenge of more rigorous stock management in order to protect various species,
• offshore petroleum industry exploitation reaching ever deeper ocean fields,
• and alternative energy sources using ocean wind, waves, tides, and deep cold water are being considered.

Organising committee

• IFREMER: J.-L. Fellous (Chair)
• COSPAR: A.P. Willmore, R. Zaharia
• CRTS: D. El Hadani, A. Layachi, A. Atillah, A. Alaoui, S. Riffi, H. Arid
• ESA: P.-P. Mathieu
• IFREMER: A. Bentamy
• INRH: A. Orbi
• MEDIAS FRANCE: Y.M. Tourre
• MERSEA: Y. Desaubies
• UNESCO/IOC: J. Ahanhanzo, E. Desa, R. Folorunsho

Venue

Address: Secteur 21, Angle Av. Allal El Fassi et Av. Assanawbar, Hay Riad, Rabat
Tel.: (212) 37 71 54 48/98
Fax: (212) 37 71 14 35
Website: http://www.crts.gov.ma/

Practical details

The working language of the workshop will be English, but a good knowledge of French will be useful.

Milestones for workshop

• 30 Nov. 2004 Website open
• 31 Mars 2005 Deadline for applications
• 01 June 2005 Final selection of participants

Contact

• Cobrawo team