Dr. Young-Heon Jo, research scientist of Oceanography Program at CMES visited the State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science / XMU (MEL) on April 5-8, and met with his colleague Prof. Xiao-Hai Yan, Lighthipe Chair Professor of Oceanography Program at CMES at the same time.

A round table discussion was held in the morning of April 6. Profs. Minhan Dai, Shaoling Shang, Weidong Zhai (represented by Prof. Dai), and PhD candidate Qian Li from MEL, Xiamen University, together with Prof. Xiao-Hai Yan joined the discussion. The main purpose of this discussion is for preparing a joint paper on remote sensing determination of pCO2 in SCS, and for further collaborations on this important research topic.

In the afternoon of April 6 and on April 7, Dr. Jo was met by Prof. Jianyu Hu, Drs. Yuwu Jiang and Wenzhou Zhang, Prof. Shaoling Shang, Dr. Guizhi Wang, and their students. Like his former PhD advisor Prof. Xiao-Hai Yan said, Dr. Jo is pretty versatile, his knowledge and vision surely will do good to our faculty and students through these communications and collaborations.

Dr. Minhan Dai, Dean of College of Oceanography and Environmental Science / Xiamen University (COE/XMU), paid a short visit to the College of Marine and Earth Studies / University of Delaware (CMES/UD) on March 28-29, 2009 during his attending to the SOLAS SSC member meeting in Washington DC, USA, invited by Dr. Nancy Targett, Dean of CMES. The main purpose of this visit is for a brainstorming session at UD to put together a white paper that could be the basis for proposals that might be submitted both in the US and China for some funding for the Joint-CRM.

Dr. Targett hosted a welcome dinner for Dr. Dai in the evening of March 28 together with Dr. Xiao-Hai Yan, Lighthipe Chair Professor of Oceanography Program. In the early morning of March 29, Dr. Targett met with Dr. Dai again for a further discussion about the future collaboration on academics, research and outreaches under the framework of Joint-CRM. Dr. Targett believed that the ties between the two Universities would continue to grow stronger. She said, the exciting upcoming changes for University of Delaware particularly in the areas of environment and climate would further enhance their scope, which would be official in July 2009; both sides would engage in actualizing more collaboration by then.

Dr. Dai also met Dr. Adam Marsh, associate professor of Marine Biosciences Program, Dr. Victor Klemas, professor emeritus of Oceanography Program, Dr. Mohsen Badiey, director of POSE Program, and Dr. Aijun Song, assistant research professor of POSE Program. The last meeting arranged by CMES/UD was to meet with Dr. Xiao-Hai Yan, and Dr. Young-Heon Jo, research scientist of Oceanography Program. They had a nice discussion on preparing a joint paper on remote sensing determination of pCO2 in the South China Sea. The further discussion was planned to continue on April 6 during Dr. Jo’s visit to Xiamen University.

Although Dr. Dai’s visit was short, the outcome was fruitful. Both sides had seen wider and brighter opportunities of collaboration for Joint-CRM.

The International Workshop of Ocean and Climate Changes Observed from Space (OCCOS) was held Dec. 8 to 11 at Xiamen University’s Zeng Cheng Kui Building. This workshop was organized by XMU’s State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science (MEL) and the Joint Institute for Coastal Research and Management (Joint-CRM), and was co-chaired by XMU professor Jianyu Hu and University of Delaware professor Xiao-Hai Yan. Recent ocean remote sensing missions and techniques have produced remarkable data sets of highly accurate measurements of sea surface height, surface wind, surface roughness, temperature, pigment concentration, etc. One can now study, on a truly global basis, the fluid ocean and its variability at all periods between years and days, on all spatial scales down to about 5 meters. The accuracy and precision of the measurements are so good that, with the help of newly developed remote sensing data processing techniques, a huge variety of phenomena related to global climate change can now be addressed.

Six well-known physical oceanographers and remote sensing scientists — University of Colorado professor William J. Emery, NASA scientist W. Timothy Liu, UD professor Victor V. Klemas, Dalhousie University professor Marlon Lewis, Central University of Taiwan professor Benjamin Fong Chao, and UD professor Xiao-Hai Yan — were invited to give a series of lectures and keynote speeches. They introduced and summarized state-of-the-art methods and new research results. The group also described some of the recent attempts to combine satellite altimetry and scatterometry with other observations and techniques to study time varying ocean circulation, air-sea interactions, global and regional oceanographic processes, and climate change.

The workshop also included a meeting between Nancy Targett, dean of UD’s College of Marine and Earth Studies, and Minhan Dai, director of MEL, via video conference connection. Their last meeting was in Xiamen in June, when they signed an agreement to co-direct the Joint-CRM. With the help of ITV connection, the Joint-CRM’s goal of sharing conferences internationally was realized. About 60 scientists and students from Xiamen University, Nanjing University, Taiwan Ocean University, Ocean University of China, Xi’an Jiaotong University, the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, the First Institute of Oceanology, and the Third Institute of Oceanology attended the workshop in XMU’s Zeng Cheng Kui Building, while a few students participated at the other side of the globe, in UD’s Robinson Hall.Thanks to efforts from XMU and UD, this joint workshop was a success. The Joint-CRM is on its way to building a world-class global collaborative research initiative that will take an international perspective in establishing global coastal research, policy, and science education partnerships and building upon common needs and goals for a healthier global coastal environment.