Towards Operational GPS Meteorology

COST Action 716 Workshop
10 - 12 July, 2000
Soria Moria, Oslo, Norway
Last edited 26 July 2000

The workshop:
The place and what to find around it:
Practicalities:
The programme and retrospective summaries:
To the COST 716 home page.

General information

 The Workshop "Towards operational GPS meteorology" of the COST Action 716: "Exploitation of Ground-Based GPS for Climate and Numerical Weather Prediction Applications" was held

on July 10 - 12, 2000


at Soria Moria, Oslo, Norway.


The COST Action also held a Management Committee Meeting on Thursday, 13 July at the same place. In additon, meeting of the COST716 working groups took place during the evenings of Monday to Wednesday.

On July 12 - 15, 2000, the International GPS Service (IGS) convened at Soria Moria its Second Network Workshop. This workshop was open to all participants of the COST 716 Workshop. The first day of this workshop was jointly organised with the COST workshop.

The COST Workshop was co-sponsored by the EC project MAGIC.

The meetings were hosted by the Geodetic Institute of The Norwegian Mapping Authority (Statens Kartverk, web pages are in Norwegian, only!).

COST Action 716 started its work in 1998. Today, 14 countries have joined the Action and for most countries, both the GPS and NWP communities are represented through National Delegates.

The primary objective of the COST Action 716 is to provide an assessment of the operational potential on an International Scale of the exploitation of a ground-based GPS system to provide near-real time observations for Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) and climate applications.

The workshop brough together experts from the fields of meteorology and space-geodesy to explore the requirements of NWP and climate applications and the techniques and methodology necessary to reach the objective. The workshop was open to all persons interested in these topics.

The COST 716 Workshop specifically focussed on the following topics:
  1. Assimilation of GPS into NWP models and its impact
  2. Design of ground-based GPS networks for meteorology in Europe
  3. Meteorology as input to GPS data processing and analysis
  4. Synergies and de-correlations or understanding signals and error sources
  5. Climate research and climate monitoring
  6. GPS network requirements for near real-time applications
  7. Quality assurance, integrity monitoring, documentation
Each of these topics was introduced by one or two invited paper reviewing the state-of-the-art as well as addressing the open questions and potential solutions. Sufficient time was allocated for subsequent discussions, which turned out to be very productive. Additional presentations on the topics were contributed as posters.

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Workshop Material and Proceedings

The contributed posters and the invited papers are documented in a Book of Extended Abstracts, which was provided to the participants as part of the workshop material. The Book of Extended Abstracts is also available here.

Proceedings of the workshop will be published in a special issue of Physics and Chemistry of the Earth. The proceedings will include publications of the invited presentations and the contributed posters.

The same special issue of Physics and Chemistry of the Earth will also contain the proceedings of the IGS Network workshop.

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Programme Committee

 Questions to the Programme Committee should be sent to Gunnar Elgered.

Local Organizing Committee

Questions to the local organization committee should be sent to Hans-Peter Plag.

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Important deadlines
31 August 2000 Submission of manuscripts for proceedings


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Venue

The COST Action 716 Workshop "Towards operational GPS meteorology" took place at Soria Moria in Oslo, the capital of Norway. In the year 2000, Oslo is having its 1000 years anniversary, and the capital's history will be marked with celebrations during the whole year.

Soria Moria is located between the humming city of Oslo and the quiet and peaceful recreation area of Nordmarka, which extends more than 50 km to the northwest of Oslo and combines lakes, rivers, and forests into a picturesque and stimulating environment. Soria Moria is about 10 km from the center of Oslo and is easily reached by local transportation or a shuttle from the Oslo airport train.

A main location in the city of Oslo is Karl Johan Street, the wide main street that runs from the Parliament to the Palace. Here are singing fountains, parks, street musicians, and businessmen making deals on the benches, surrounded by hopeful pigeons.

Some of Norway's best museums are located in Oslo. The Munch museum owns a huge collection of paintings, woodcuts, lithographs and drawings by the famous Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch. In the Vigeland Park a large number of Gustav Vigeland's sculptures can bee seen. At Bygdøy several museums are located such as the Viking Ship museum, the Norwegian Folk museum, Kon-Tiki and Fram museum. Akershus fort was built in the 14th century, and its 700 years anniversary was celebrated in 1999. The castle also offer a good view of Oslo. (To get information [in Norwegian only!] on what's on in Oslo, klick here).

If you like to experience a panorama view of Oslo that will take your breath away, we strongly recommend a tour to the Tryvannstårnet. Here, you will realise how little space the developed parts of Oslo actually occupy. It is not many cities in Europe which is surrounded by so much forest and uncultivated land.

In the summer the sun shines well into the night in Oslo. The climate is moderate with average July temperatures being 16.5 C (expected max. temperatures are about 25 C and min. night temperatures about 12 C). Average percipitation in July is 74 mm. However, variability is rather large with a slight chance for 0 mm in July but also a whole week of rainy weather.

Soria Moria has a well established experience in operating conferences, workshops and courses. The hotel has more than 200 rooms, several large conference area, and a number of smaller meeting rooms. The restaurant can seat up to 250 guests, and the hotel bar is fully licensed. Furthermore, the hotel offers a swimming pool and a sauna. Rent of bicycles to explore the surroundings is also possible nearby.

The hotel's address is
Soria Moria
Voksenkollveien 60
N-0790 Oslo
Norway
Phone: +47-22146080
Fax: +47-22921814

To contact the Hotel directly, go to Soria Moria's home page.

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Registration Fee and Hotel prices

 There was no registration fee for the COST workshop. However, participants wanting to attend the subsequent IGS Workshop had to pay the registration fee of NOK 750 (approximately $ 95). This fee covers the meeting rooms, coffee breaks, and workshop material during the IGS workshop.



Soria Moria offered the following special rates for full board (including breakfast, warm lunch and dinner but excluding drinks at lunch and dinner) per person per day:
single room:NOK 1190
double room:NOK 1040

For Fridays to Sundays, the prices are slightly reduced:
single room:NOK 990
double room:NOK 780
These special prices were also valid for participants arriving one or two days earlier or leaving one or two days after the meeting.

For participants not staying at the hotel, the lunch was NOK 245. No special agreement has been made for participants not staying at the hotel concerning dinner.

The hotel room and additional expenses for drinks, phone, etc. have to be payed by each participant individually. Payment with major credit cards is possible.

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Preparation and submission of manuscripts
Manuscripts of up to six pages for posters and up to 12 pages for invited presentations should be prepared according to the guidelines of Physics and Chemistry of the Earth.

The manuscripts will be edited by three guest editors from the COST716 Programme Committee, namely Sylvia Barlag, Hans van der Marel and Gunnar Elgered. All manuscripts will be peer reviewed by at least two referees.

Manuscripts should be submitted to Hans-Peter Plag. Please, note that the deadline of 31 August 2000 is a strict deadline, which cannot be moved in order to allow for a timely production of the proceedings.

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How to reach the hotel
International participants most likely will arrive at Oslo airport at Gardermoen, about 60 km northeast of Oslo. From there, a fast airport train (flytoget) runs every 10 minutes to Oslo Central Station (railway). The train journey takes 20 minutes and the price for a one-way-ticket is NOK 120. Tickets can be bought at the airport at the arrival level, where special box-offices with signs of "flytoget" sell these tickets.

Since participants are arriving at very different times, no shuttle busses have been set up from the train station to the hotel. You can reach Soria Moria either by taxi from Oslo Central Station (the price is approximately NOK 200-250) or by underground/tram (T-bane in Norwegian) from Jernbanetorget underground station to Voksenkollen station. Walking from Voksenkollen station to Soria Moria is about 10 minutes.

To find Jernbanetorget underground station you have to go just outside Oslo Central Station (railway) and look for a T sign. Take line 1 marked "Frognerseteren". Trains to other destinations are using the same rail so be sure you choose the right train. There are trains every 15 minutes in day time and every 30 minutes in the evenings.

The price for a taxi from Oslo airport at Gardermoen to Soria Moria is NOK 550 for one to four persons.



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