Documents

SCAR XXX IP19: SCAR Services and Products

One of the great things SCAR does for the benefit of the wider community is provide services and products that underpin a lot of the work SCAR scientists do, and that can be useful to other communities too (CCAMLR or COMNAP, for instance). However, many of these services and products do not have particularly high visibility (even on the SCAR web page).

To give these services and products higher visibility we will make available in St Petersburg standard poster boards for each product or service so that the attendees at the SCAR/IASC IPY Open Science Conference can see more easily what is on offer. These posters will be on permanent display.

In addition we propose to undertake an external review of all of SCAR’s services and products, and to arrange service-level agreements with the service and product providers (usually national agencies) to ensure that all are in agreement about how these elements should be managed, displayed, marketed, and made available.

Most of the products and services, and explanations of what they comprise, are listed in the SCAR Strategic Plan on the SCAR web site, or can be found by typing their title into the search box on the SCAR web page. They are also listed in this paper. 

SCAR XXX IP20: Status of National Reporting

Overview

The annual report to SCAR is in the form of a table in this paper, but links are now obsolete (as of October 2017) and you can find reports on the new website at: https://www.scar.org/members/national-reports/

The aim of this paper is to provide an indication of the research being undertaken (relevant to SCAR) and to provide an updated information and contact address for anyone requiring further information. The Annual Report to SCAR should be submitted as soon as the Antarctic field season is over and no later than 15 May, to allow 6 weeks before either the SCAR Delegates Meeting or, in intervening years, the SCAR Executive Committee meeting takes place.

SCAR XXX IP21: Report of a Joint Meeting of the SCAR and COMNAP Executive Committees, Washington DC, July 2007 

Minutes of the Joint SCAR-COMNAP Executive Committees’ Meeting

Washington DC, USA, Wednesday 11 July 2007 at 1230 hrs

SCAR XXX IP22: Draft Report of the Joint Meeting of the SCAR and COMNAP Executive Committees, St Petersburg, July 2008

SCAR/COMNAP Joint Executive Committees Meeting

July 5, 2008, St Petersburg, Room C, 0900-1100

SCAR XXX IP23: Activities of the Secretariat

Activities of the SCAR Secretariat (full report)

In March 2007, the Executive Officer, Dr. Marzena Kaczmarska (Poland), left the Secretariat to work in Svalbard. Dr Mike Sparrow (UK) was recruited as the new Executive Officer, starting on July 1, 2007. Dr. Sparrow’s background is in physical oceanography and he was formerly a Staff Scientist for the CLIVAR Programme Office, in the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK.

Dr Peter Clarkson, the former SCAR Executive Secretary, was retained as a consultant to act as Executive Officer between the departure of Dr Kaczmarska and the arrival of Dr Sparrow, and then to the end of July to train Dr. Sparrow.

Mrs Karen Smith retired as Administrative Officer on October 1, 2007, and was replaced by Mrs Rosemary Nash on October 9, 2007.

The Secretariat provides quarterly reports of its activities, which can be accessed from the SCAR web site at https://www.scar.org/secretariat-about/quarterly-reports/ (updated link). The report of the April-June quarter for 2008 will be posted there on June 30, 2008.

SCAR XXX IP24: Progress Against Actions from XXIX SCAR

SCAR XXX IP25: IPO IPY Planning Document – 2008 and Beyond

SCAR XXX WP01: Agenda

SCAR XXX WP02: Annotated Agenda

SCAR XXX WP03: List of Documents

SCAR XXX WP04: Timetable

SCAR XXX WP05i: Application of Malaysia for Full Membership

SCAR XXX WP05ii: Application of Romania for Associate Membership

SCAR XXX WP05iii: Application of the of International Astronomical Union for Union Membership

SCAR XXX WP06: Revised Election Procedure

Suggested New SCAR Electoral Procedure

The SCAR Election Procedure in its old form has become unnecessarily time- consuming for a meeting that has been reduced to last only 3 days. This topic was formally raised as an item of business at the first meeting of the new Executive Committee in Hobart (19 July 2006), following the first 3-day long Meeting of Delegates, and it was suggested (action EC-01) that a new, shorter election procedure was required. The matter was raised again in the meeting between the SCAR President and SCAR Secretariat on14 September 2006, at SPRI. The minutes of that meeting call for changes in electoral procedure to make it more efficient: “Regarding Action EC-3 (to consider reducing length of Delegates meetings), it would appear not worth pursuing at present given that we have already reduced the meetings from 5 days to 3. Rather it would be best to invest some effort into optimising the time spent (which is linked to Action EC-1 – devise a new, shorter, election procedure)”. ).

Having consulted ICSU to check its election procedures, and after some internal discussions, the SCAR Secretariat recommends adopting a slightly different scheme. The new scheme would require a single ballot (to save time), and voting by simple majority with the current President having a casting vote. The proposed scheme as described below is based on further revisions suggested by the SCAR Executive Committee at its meeting in July 2007. The old version of the Election Procedures, from the Rules of Procedure approved by the Delegates in 2004, is enclosed in Annex 1, and the Election Procedure proposed to the Delegates in 2006 in the revised Rules of Procedure for SCAR as a Company Limited by Guarantee (currently under review pending approval) is enclosed in Annex 2.

SCAR XXX WP07: Report of the SCAR Standing Scientific Group on Geosciences (SSG-GS)

Overview

The Geoscience Standing Scientific Group of SCAR covers activities that range over geological, geophysical and geodetical scientific research. The report of the activities carried out in 2007 and 2008 by the SCAR Standing Scientific Group on GeoScience (SSG-GS) is include in the SCAR Annual Report (IP 01) document and is added as appendix 1. A report of the GSS-GS business meeting held in St.Petersburg, 5-7 July 2008 is presented here for the SCAR Delegates meeting in Moscow, 14-16 July 08. Expanded reports of the work of various SSG-GS sub-groups will be available on the SCAR website and will be published in the GeoReach E-newsletter. The web site also will contain national and other reports on science produced by the SSG-GS.

SCAR XXX WP08: Report of the SCAR Standing Scientific Group on Life Sciences (SSG-LS)

Draft Report of the meeting at XXX SCAR, 5 – 7 July, 2008, Saint Petersburg, Russia

SCAR XXX WP09: Report of the Higher Predators Group

Higher Predators Group: SCAR Working Paper – The Future of the Expert Groups on Birds and Seals

SCAR XXX WP10: Report of the SCAR Standing Scientific Group on Physical Sciences (SSG-PS)

Report of the SCAR Standing Scientific Group on Physical Sciences (SSG/PS) to Delegates.

SCAR XXX WP11i: Report of the Joint Committee on Antarctic Data Management (JCADM)

Introduction

Scientific data are very valuable. In the first place their intrinsic value for scientific research: without data no science. But there is also an economical value of data: it’s extremely expensive to collect the data. This is especially true for Antarctic data. To maximize the value of data and to preserve data for future (re)use, data need to be carefully managed in a professional manner. Data management includes all activities to archive data, to make data accessible and to exchange data. To make archived data accessible the existence and availability of the data must be made known. This includes building (metadata) directories and catalogs, defining exchange formats and developing web techniques for data exchange over the Internet.