Terms of Reference

PROPOSED NEW TERMS OF REFERENCE AND MEMBERSHIP OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE FOR THE WATER TEMPERATURE INSTRUMENT /  PLATFORM METADATA PILOT PROJECT (META-T)

The Pilot Project is to demonstrate feasibility of international access to a comprehensive and up-to-date marine temperature metadata.

The Steering Team shall be selected and tasked to guide the Pilot Project through the following actions:

(i) Liaise with existing marine metadata projects to develop support for the goals of the Pilot Project (e.g., ODAS, IODE, WIS, ODP-WIGOS);

(ii) Refine the list of user requirements and use cases to consider in the context of the Pilot Project;

(iii) Finalize the list of metadata, its categorization and relationships, to meet user requirements;

(iv) Liaise with relevant task teams and working groups to ensure that required metadata for distribution along with the observation can be properly encoded in BUFR reports or other relevant formats;

(v) Consider extension to other variables than sea temperature data;

(vi) Address format issues and seek wide acceptance by the ocean observing community (e.g., OGC, ISO standards);

(vii) Facilitate distribution of the metadata to the pilot project data centers, through liaison with relevant observing programmes;

(viii) Encourage the development of tools to access the metadata; and

(ix) Suggest other actions to advance the integration and timeliness of marine metadata availability.