A new initiative to improve the accuracy, calibration and inter-calibration, access to, and archival of quality-assured, high-resolution (sampling rates ?1 hr), in-situ marine meteorological observations from research vessels (R/V) will be described. The initiative results from the 13 recommendations of the "Workshop on High-Resolution Marine Meteorology" and involves contributions from several university, government, and international partners. Data collection, metadata, and calibration standards under development will be discussed. In addition, progress on a portable, state-of-the-art flux instrumentation suite will be presented. The portable suite is designed for onboard inter-calibration with the automated weather system (AWS) deployed on individual R/Vs. Finally, progress towards establishing centers responsible for the assembly, quality assurance, distribution, and permanent archival R/V AWS observations will be provided.

The "Workshop on High-Resolution Marine Meteorology" was convened on 3-5 March 2003 at the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) in Tallahassee, Florida. Participants from U. S. government agencies, the university community, and two international marine institutes discussed the current and future roles of high-resolution, high-accuracy, in-situ marine meteorological observations from ships and buoys as part of a sustained ocean and climate observing system. In addition, participants identified scientific objectives that require this type of marine meteorological observations and discussed a sustained U.S. effort to obtain and disseminate these data in a manner consistent with the identified scientific objectives. R/Vs were identified as being capable of providing the highest quality data; however, they currently are not effectively utilized as part of a unified ocean observing system and data essential to climate studies are being lost.