Argos Joint Tariff Agreement Thirty-Third Meeting
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INTERGOVERNMENTAL OCEANOGRAPHIC WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION COMMISSION (OF UNESCO) _____________ ___________ ARGOS JOINT TARIFF AGREEMENT THIRTY-THIRD MEETING Paris, France, 30 September – 2 October 2013 JTA-33 record of decisions Revision 1 JTA-33 record of decisions (group picture) - ii - JTA-33 record of decisions INTERGOVERNMENTAL OCEANOGRAPHIC WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION COMMISSION (OF UNESCO) _____________ ___________ ARGOS JOINT TARIFF AGREEMENT THIRTY-THIRD MEETING Paris, France, 30 September – 2 October 2013 RECORD OF DECISIONS - iii - JTA-33 record of decisions NOTES WMO DISCLAIMER Regulation 42 Recommendations of working groups shall have no status within the Organization until they have been approved by the responsible constituent body. In the case of joint working groups, the recommendations must be concurred with by the presidents of the constituent bodies concerned before being submitted to the designated constituent body. Regulation 43 In the case of a recommendation made by a working group between sessions of the responsible constituent body, either in a session of a working group or by correspondence, the president of the body may, as an exceptional measure, approve the recommendation on behalf of the constituent body when the matter is, in his opinion, urgent, and does not appear to imply new obligations for Members. He may then submit this recommendation for adoption by the Executive Council or to the President of the Organization for action in accordance with Regulation 9(5). © World Meteorological Organization, 2013 The right of publication in print, electronic and any other form and in any language is reserved by WMO. Short extracts from WMO publications may be reproduced without authorization provided that the complete source is clearly indicated. Editorial correspondence and requests to publish, reproduce or translate this publication (articles) in part or in whole should be addressed to: Chairperson, Publications Board World Meteorological Organization (WMO) 7 bis, avenue de la Paix Tel.: +41 (0)22 730 84 03 PO Box No. 2300 Fax: +41 (0)22 730 80 40 CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland E-mail: [email protected] IOC (OF UNESCO) DISCLAIMER The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariats of UNESCO and IOC concerning the legal status of any country or territory, or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of the frontiers of any country or territory. _______________ - iv - JTA-33 record of decisions C O N T E N T S RECORD OF DECISIONS.................................................................................................................1 Annex I List of participants...................................................................................................17 Annex II Agenda ...................................................................................................................21 Annex III Report of the 7th meeting of the JTA Executive Committee (JTA EC-7).................22 Annex IV Abridged report of the 8th meeting of the JTA Executive Committee (JTA EC-8)...24 Annex V Report by the JTA Chairperson to the 47th meeting of OPSCOM ..........................35 Annex VI List of actions..........................................................................................................43 Annex VII Report on the 2013 Agreement ..............................................................................48 Annex VIII Report on 2012-2013 operations and system improvement...................................58 Annex IX Review of the structure of the Tariff Agreement and related matters .....................85 Annex X Terms and Conditions of the Global Agreement for 2014 ......................................92 Annex XI Argos Joint Tariff Agreement operating principles..................................................96 Annex XII National reports on current and planned programmes ........................................120 Annex XIII List of Representatives of Country (ROCs) for Argos...........................................188 Annex XIV Joint Tariff Agreement Executive Committee budget ...........................................193 Annex XV NIOT Performance report on Argos transmitters fitted with OMNI buoy system ..194 List of acronyms and other abbreviations.............................................................198 - v - JTA-33 record of decisions [this page left blank intentionally] - vi - JTA-33 record of decisions RECORD OF DECISIONS 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Argos Joint Tariff Agreement (JTA) scheme has served as a robust example of international cooperation for more than 30 years. It continues to provide an effective, pragmatic, self-governing global forum through which users’ needs are presented, reviewed, and carried forward in a constructive dialogue with the Argos agent. As such, it may serve as a model for similar arrangements that may in due course be established with other service providers. 1.2 As in previous years, the report of the JTA-33 Session covers the following topics1: - Introduction; - Actions and decisions of past meetings with review status; - Action sheet of this Meeting, with records of necessary information and decisions; - Records of formalities, including elections and decisions for the next Meeting; - Annexes containing all necessary supplementary information. 1.3 Mr Frank Grooters, the Chairperson of the Argos JTA, led the Meeting. Many participants subsequently assisted Mr Grooters and the secretariat in the production of this report. 1.4 The Executive Secretary of IOC of UNESCO, Dr Wendy Watson Wright, welcomed the participants, and wished for a successful meeting. She recalled the importance of satellite data telecommunication for the collection of data from ocean observing platforms. She recalled the long-standing collaboration between WMO and IOC in this regard, particularly with regard to the Argos system. The collaborations between governments and research institutes, which have made this possible, have for years been facilitated and encouraged in the Argos community by the CLS through the mechanisms put in place at the JTA meetings. She also explained that the expansion of this technology through animal tagging and tracking is very exciting. 1.5 The WMO Secretariat Representative welcomed the participants, and recalled that the Argos system is operated on a cost-recovery basis by CLS under a Memorandum of Understanding between some governmental agencies (CNES2, NOAA3, EUMETSAT4, and ISRO5) sponsoring the Argos System. Tariff negotiations for scientific governmental programme are conducted between Members/Member States through the JTA and under the WMO and IOC umbrella. 1.6 The list of participants and the agenda are reproduced as Annex I and Annex II of this report. 24 participants, including 11 Representatives of Country (ROCs) and Responsible Organizations (ROs), attended the Meeting. 2. REPORT OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE JTA 2.1 The Chairperson of the JTA, Mr Frank Grooters, presented a report on his activities in support of the participants in the JTA since the previous Meeting (JTA-32, Fremantle, Australia, 8- 10 October 2012). 2.2 The meeting agreed that the JTA EC would again review the Operating Principles and, if applicable, would propose changes and modifications as deemed needed, for discussion by the members during JTA-33. 1 The format of the report was decided at the 28th Meeting (2008) and noted in the JTA Operating Principles. As in the case of previous meetings, the report will be available online via the JCOMM website. 2 Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, France 3 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA 4 European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellite 5 Indian Space Research Organisation - 1 - JTA-33 record of decisions 2.3 After briefly summarizing the outcome of the previous JTA Session (JTA-32), Mr Grooters reported that the JTA EC met immediately after JTA-32 on 9 October 2012 for a seventh meeting (JTA EC-7) to review the session and to decide on necessary actions to be made in relation to the decisions and agreements reached at JTA-32. The report of JTA EC-7 is given in Annex III. At JTA EC-7 it was agreed that the EC should meet again in the first half of 2013. 2.4 As agreed at JTA EC-7, the Executive Committee met for its eighth meeting (JTA-EC-8) from 16 to 18 April 2013 in Annapolis, Maryland, USA at the kind invitation of NOAA. At this meeting the EC reviewed the Action Items from JTA-32, remaining issues from JTA-EC6 and JTA- EC7, the Operating Principles, the use of the JTA funds, the management of the ARGOS ID numbers, the 5-Year Plan, the status of the WMO Plan on an International Forum of Satellite Data Communication Users, the evaluation of the drifter programme, the progress in the Real Time Antenna Optimization Project, the agenda and document plan for JTA-33 and other JTA issues. The EC agreed on additional action items for the EC and provided guidance to the Chairperson regarding issues to be reported at the forty-seventh meeting of the Argos Operations Committee (OPSCOM-47, 21-23 May 2013, Easton, USA). The report of the Eighth Meeting of the JTA EC is provided in Annex IV. An updated list of ROCs is available in Annex XIII. 2.5 The Chairperson attended OPSCOM-47, hosted by NOAA, where he presented the main results of JTA-32 with regard to OPSCOM interest, including the status of the 5-Year Plan (2010- 2014). OPSCOM-47 expressed