
Group photo of participants
The Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate Experiment (NPOCE) held its 2019 annual meeting at Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, US on September 20, 2019. It is undertaken/sponsored by NPOCE/IOCAS and locally supported by Bo Qiu from University of Hawaii. The meeting was attended by 30 scientists from China, United States, Australia, Japan, and Korea, including 11 SSC members and 7 distinguished guests: Vladimir Ryabinin from IOC/UNESCO, Jose Santos from CLIVAR ICPO, Michael McPhaden from PMEL/NOAA, Dongxiao Zhang from UW/NOAA, Xiaopei Lin from Ocean University of China, Dean Roemmich from SCRIPPS, and Huijie Xue from University of Maine.

Opening remarks by Dunxin Hu, chair of NPOCE SSC
Dunxin Hu, chair of NPOCE SSC, opened the meeting with a welcome speech and started it with consensus among the members on the agenda. Fan Wang as vice chair of SSC delivered a summary annual report of NPOCE progress since last SSC meeting, followed by 9 SSC members’ reports to elaborate NPOCE related activities about field experiment and research. During Flash Talk, invited speaker Huijie Xue shared a talk of “An Inter-Basin Pacific-Indian Ocean Model” and other invitees highly appreciated the contribution of NPOCE to the western Pacific Ocean circulation and climate study and extended expectations to NPOCE development. Jose Santos said, “CLIVAR regards NPOCE activity as one of the CLIVAR highlights, and willing to see more close connections between NPOCE with other projects in the western Pacific Ocean that will be conducted in the future, especially share the NPOCE successful experiences with them.”

NPOCE 2019 annual report by Fan Wang, vice chair of SSC
In a discussion session chaired by Janet Sprintall, vice chair of SSC, SSC discussed and agreed upon a proposal to expand the research field southward to make connection with Solomon Sea and westward to connect with ITF, to extend the NPOCE period to 2025 as NPOCE-II, and to form an NPOCE-II science plan by 2021.

Group photo of SSC members
This meeting calls for collaboration in multi-institutional cruises for field experiments and encourages co-authorship for publications among SSC members. Also SSC members are requested to actively communicate with NPOCE office to improve and enrich NPOCE website with more timely information about field experiment and research progresses. Next SSC (2020) meeting is suggested to be held in Manila, Philippines and the 4th Open Science Symposium (OSS) on Western Pacific Ocean Circulation and Climate in November 2021 in Xiamen, China.
NPOCE SSC 2019 Meeting Summary-web.pdf