Mr Spence, Director of the Joint Planning Office for the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) and Mr Hielkema, interim Executive Secretary of the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) made opening statements. They provided an introduction to GCOS and GTOS and presented the expectations of their programmes as to the outcome of the meeting.
Mr Spence described the concept of the GCOS Initial Operational System (IOS) relying on existing facilities and measurements. In addition the IOS identified needed enhancements that were practical from a cost perspective. He also described the relationship between the various global observing systems. Mr Spence explained that the thing all the global observing systems had in common was climate.
Mr Hielkema explained that while GTOS had been in the planning for two years it was only in March that he had been appointed as the interim Executive Secretary. He informed the meeting of the plans for launching a pilot project on system definition studies.
