THE 13th SECOND CIRCULAR INTERNATIONAL TOVS STUDY CONFERENCE 30 May 2003 Dear Colleague: As you are probably aware the continuing problem of SARS in China has caused us to reluctantly change the location and dates of ITSC-13. We have been fortunate that the Met. Service Canada has come forward at short notice to offer us a new location. It is Sainte Adèle, which is about 45 minutes north of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The short notice has also forced us to change dates by 2 weeks so that the conference is now 2 weeks later than planned from 29 October to 4 November 2003. We apologize for this inconvenience but hope you understand we were overtaken by events beyond our control. It is our hope that we may be able to return to Beijing for ITSC-14. The purpose of this second circular is to invite you to submit abstracts to ITSC-13 by completing the form and abstract template at the end of this circular and return by email to leanne.avila@ssec.wisc.edu or fax to Leanne Avila at +001-608-262-5974 before Friday 4 July 2003. To assist us in program planning we request that you respond early. Call for abstracts If you plan to give an oral presentation or poster please provide the text in the format outlined below before the deadline of 4 July 2003. and indicate whether you would prefer oral or poster presentation (or both). We are planning for two poster sessions to accommodate the growing number of posters. Authors must submit their final paper in a timely manner before or shortly after the conference. The format for the papers will be provided in the next circular. Following the conference, an Executive Summary and the Technical Proceedings will be published on CD-ROM and made available on the ITWG web site. Following the conference, the presentations submitted to us in electronic form will be made viewable on the ITWG web site. Accommodation and conference venue The ITSC-13 will be hosted by the Meteorological Service Canada (MSC) based in Dorval, Montreal. The conference location will be the Le Chantecler Resort in Sainte Adèle, Quebec, Canada. The hotel web site is http://www.lechantecler.com/english/index.html . The conference will start at 09:00 on 29 October and finish after lunch on 4 November. All prices quoted below are in Canadian dollars (multiply by 0.72 to get US dollars and by 0.61 to get Euros). The accommodation will be in single ($100) or shared ($55) hotel rooms or in chalets close by. The chalets are $57 for a private bedroom in a chalet (typically 3-4 bedrooms per chalet). To these prices you should add 15.5% tax. Bus transportation to the conference site will be provided on Tuesday afternoon and evening (October 28); we recommend making arrangements to arrive at this time. Tourist information, more details on travel to the conference and confirmed costings will be provided in the 3rd Circular to be issued in just over a month from now. There will be a registration fee of approximately $250 (CAN) which includes icebreaker, 2 conference dinners, tea/coffee and 5 lunches for the weekdays. Dates Below is a summary of key dates regarding this conference. 3rd Circular Draft Program Final Program ITSC-13 starts 11 July 2003 30 August 2003 30 September 2003 29 October 2003 Conference Topics The conference will cover a wide range of topics concerning atmospheric sounding, its applications and related issues. We propose that key issues for this meeting include: Latest developments in the operational use of ATOVS data. Research investigations utilizing remote sounding measurements. New applications of ATOVS and EOS data in numerical weather prediction and nowcasting (especially for regional and mesoscale forecasting). Generation of geophysical parameters (profiles, clouds, surface characteristics). Applications of ATOVS data in reanalyses and climate monitoring (noting we will have 25 years of (A)TOVS data by October 2003). Preparations for use of data from NPOESS and METOP (e.g. CrIS, ATMS, CMIS, IASI, MHS) and other new platforms. Other important and related issues include the treatment of clouds, new developments in TOVS/ATOVS retrieval science, validation and tuning of radiative transfer models and their adjoints, direct broadcast and community software, etc. Papers on these and related topics will be welcome. We solicit your recommendations on other important issues that should be included. ITWG Web site The new ITWG Web site is now at: http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/itwg/ If you have any science or news items of interest to the ITWG membership which you would like to share with the community, please send them to our Web Master or contact the Co-Chairs, and we shall try to include them in the Web page contents. ITSC-XII Report The Working Group Report from the ITSC-XII meeting in Lorne is now available on the ITWG web site at: http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/itwg/itsc/index.html#itsc12 Mailing List It is important to continuously maintain and update the ITWG mailing list. It would help us greatly in keeping our mailing list up-to-date if you could notify us, without delay, of any changes. For ITSC-13 we plan to set up a dedicated email list of attendees so if you plan to attend ITSC-13 and have not already replied to the first circular please provide us with an address and email contact (see form below) so we can keep you updated with plans for the meeting. Concluding Remarks Please forward this circular to any others you think may be interested in attending our conference. We hope to see you at ITSC-13 in Quebec. Yours sincerely, Tom Achtor and Roger Saunders ITWG Co-Chairs Tom Achtor University of Wisconsin Space Science and Engineering Center 1225 W. Dayton Street Madison, WI 53706 USA Phone: +001 608-263-4206 Email: tom.achtor@ssec.wisc.edu Roger Saunders Met Office Satellite Applications, Room 408 London Road Bracknell, Berks, RG12 2SZ UK Phone: +44 (0) 1344-856295 Email: roger.saunders@metoffice.com Local Organiser Louis Garand Data Assimilation and Satellite Meteorology Division 2121 Trans-Canada Highway Dorval P.Q. CANADA H9P 1J3 Phone: +001 514-421-4749 Fax: +001 514-421-2106 Email: Louis.Garand@ec.gc.ca Return slip here (delete as applicable): I do plan to attend the ITSC-13 in Quebec: YES/NO I would like to give an oral presentation (a title + abstract is attached): YES/NO I would like to give a poster (a title + abstract is attached): YES/NO Your full name: Your affiliation: Email address: Telephone number (include country code): Postal Address: Please complete for your poster/presentation Title: Use of ATOVS in .. By John Smith , TOVS Research Institute, Hirsland…. Abstract: Text here (no more than 400 words)