The annual meeting of the international Steering Committee (SC) for NDACC was held from October 12 to 15 at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA, a research site for the AGAGE Cooperating Network. A detailed report from the NDACC Data Host Facility (DHF) on data archiving status and data utilization was followed by reports from the various NDACC Instrument Working Group (WG) Representatives. As in the past, these reports highlighted WG activities and/or meetings during the past year, summarized NDACC measurement and analysis activities, described proposals (pending and received) seeking NDACC affiliation, and outlined possible new sites for consideration. Over the next several weeks, the WG Representatives will work with the DHF representative to bring any delinquent data archiving up to date.
Subsequent reports from representatives of the Satellite and Theory and Analysis working groups and from the NDACC Cooperating Networks focused on new activities and initiatives pertinent to NDACC interests and to possible future collaborations. In particular, the Theory and Analysis WG will be providing simulated data to begin the process of examining station variability and representativeness, thereby better informing network expansion priorities.
Representatives from the Water Vapor Theme Group summarized a first draft of an NDACC water vapor measurement strategy. While focusing initially on the use of frost point sondes (a recently accepted NDACC measurement capability), this strategy has expanded to include lidar, microwave, and FTIR measurement capabilities. A preliminary report from the Theme Group for Combining Trace Gas Data from NDACC and its Cooperating Networks was also presented. Both Theme Groups will continue their activities over the next year and report their progress at the next SC meeting.
A number of miscellaneous business discussions followed covering such items as NDACC involvement in various international projects, improved NDACC communications, future strategies and implementation, and the scheduling of future SC meetings. The venue for the 2016 SC meeting is yet to be determined. One candidate is Buenos Aires, Argentina, followed by an optional site visit to Rio Gallegos; another option is in Europe. Following the close of the meeting, many SC members visited the JPL Table Mountain Observatory in Wrightwood, CA and the NASA Aircraft Facility in Palmdale, CA.