The International Workshop on Northwest Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate Experiment (NPOCE) Implementation was recently held in Xiamen, China. It was co-sponsored by the international Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) of World Climate Research Programme (WCRP), the National Nature Sciences Foundation of China (NSFC), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), convened by the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS), and hosted by the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (MEL), Xiamen University. The workshop aimed at discussing and mapping out a roadmap for NPOCE implementation, including observation, modeling, theoretical analysis, etc. based on the NPOCE Science Plan available, for a final version of the NPOCE Science / Implementation Plan to be submitted to CLIVAR for endorsement.

The workshop was co-convened by Prof. Dunxin Hu from IOCAS, an academician of CAS, and Dr. Wenju Cai from Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the chair of CLIVAR Pacific Panel (PP). Participants of 19 institutions from Australia, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, UK, and USA, and representatives of CLIVAR, NSFC, and CAS attended.

Prof. Martin Visbeck of Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Kiel, co-chair of CLIVAR SSG, Dr. Wenju Cai, chair of CLIVAR PP, and Dr. Xu Chang, deputy-director of the Bureau of Science and Technology for Resources and Environment, CAS, addressed welcome remarks on the opening ceremony of the workshop. Prof. Martin Visbeck highly praised China and Prof. Dunxin Hu in initiating and advancing NPOCE program. Dr. Cai explained the implication of the composition of the Chinese word of “sea” to the audience to imply that Chinese understood the sea so deeply even in the ancient time and will continue to get further understanding today. On behalf of NSFC and CAS, Dr. Xu Chang declared continuous support for Chinese institutions and scientists to stay active in NPOCE implementation.

During the workshop, participants reported their progresses, on-going and planned projects related to the 4 key scientific issues of NPOCE. Meanwhile, they brought forward the academic and technical challenges in carrying on international cooperative investigation and measures to deal with. Then, representatives of the 19 institutions presented their intentions, research bases and facilities, and timelines, as well as potential contributions to the NPOCE implementation. Through consulting with the CLIVAR SSG and PP, the NPOCE Science / Implementation Plan was scheduled to be finalized by the end of February 2010 and submitted to CLIVAR SSG. To this end, the framework of carrying on cooperative investigations, timetable, and task-sharing of drafting the NPOCE Implementation Plan were discussed and worked out.

NPOCE is a multinational and multi-institutional program. It is designed to observe, simulate, and understand the structure, variability, and dynamics of the northwest Pacific Ocean circulation and its role in modulating both regional and global climate systems. It is initiated by Chinese scientists led by IOCAS and quickly acknowledged by scientists from various countries like, Australia, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, USA, etc. And it has been strongly supported by CLIVAR.

The workshop went very well, smoothly and successfully with tremendous effort and passion from all participants and others who poured gigantic energy in the last 4 months but was not able to attend. Under all attendees’ hard working the workshop came to a consummate close and laid a solid foundation for the NPOCE implementation.