IMPLEMENTATION OF U.S. GEOTRACES SECTIONS
At its annual meeting in May, 2008, the U.S. GEOTRACES SSC reviewed the scientific objectives and proposed ocean sections described in the reports of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian basin workshops convened in 2007 by the international GEOTRACES program, and selected sections in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans for initial implementation under the U.S. contribution to GEOTRACES. These intentions were broadcast to the U.S. Chemical Oceanography community via an e-mail announcement distributed on 25 June, 2008 (download full announcement). That announcement contained an open invitation to participate in planning workshops where the initial components of implementation plans for these sections were developed.
Initial planning took place at the following workshops:
U.S. GEOTRACES Atlantic Workshop, 22 - 24 September 2008 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts USA
U.S. GEOTRACES Pacific Section Implementation Workshop, 1 - 3 October 2008 University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California USA
As a result of these workshops, the US GEOTRACES SSC, in consultation with the NSF Chemical Oceanography Program, determined that the North Atlantic section would be implemented first, tentatively in late 2010, followed by a Pacific section in 2012 or 2013.