The preliminarily called 'OceanSAfrica' initiative aims to develop operational oceanography activities in southern Africa, its vision:

'Through a combination of modelling and observations we will deliver regular and systematic information on the state of the ocean that is of known quality and accuracy on open ocean to shelf-scales.'

OceanSAfrica is made up of four working groups: in situ observation,remote sensing, modelling and dissemination. It is essential that these four working groups work in close collaboration in order to achieve this goal. To initiate open dialogue between these groups a meeting has been arranged on 30 April at the Marine & Coastal Management aquarium in Sea Point (please find the agenda attached). An overview of OceanSAfrica will be followed by presentations by each of the four working groups.

 

We are fortunate that our meeting coincides with Dr. Lisa Beal's visit to South Africa. She is a visiting scientist from the University of Miami and will have returned from a 20 day cruise deploying
instrumentation to measure the transport of the Agulhas Current near East London. She will give a presentation entitled: "Building a Multi-decadal Agulhas Current Time-series"

Lunch will be followed by a meeting of the so-called 'technical task group' (TTG). The aim of the newly formed TTG is to drive the development of operational oceanography in South Africa under
OceanSAfrica and to ensure coordination between the 4 pillars of the system. All stakeholders and interested parties who are committed to contributing toward the development of OceanSAfrica are invited to join the TTG and to attend the afternoon meeting.

 

If you are interested in attending either, or both, the morning presentations or the afternoon meeting please RSVP to either Bjorn Backeberg (bjorn.backeberg@nersc.no) or Jennifer Veitch
(jennifer.veitch@uct.ac.za). Also, please extend this invitation to anyone who might be interested who may not be on the SANCOR mailing list.

With thanks,

Jenny and Bjorn