A new initiative will be described to improve the accuracy, calibration and inter-calibration, access to, and archival of quality-assured, high-resolution (sampling rates ?1 hr) observations collected in-situ by shipboard automated meteorological and oceanographic systems (SAMOS) on research and merchant vessels. The initiative results from the 13 recommendations of the "Workshop on High-Resolution Marine Meteorology (HRMM)" and involves contributions from several university, government, and international partners. 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 shipboard automated meteorological and oceanographic systems (SAMOS) deployed on individual vessels. In 2004, a data center was established at FSU to coordinate the assembly, quality assurance, distribution, and permanent archival SAMOS observations and an update of the center’s activities will be provided.

A " 2nd Workshop on High-Resolution Marine Meteorology" was convened in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA on 15 and 16 April 2004. Discussions focused on the current and future roles SAMOS observations as part of a sustained ocean and climate observing system. SAMOS provide an ideal source of high-quality, in-situ observations suitable to benchmark surface flux fields and new satellite sensors. Discussions covered data transfer paths, accuracy, and specifications, metadata standards, flow modeling, future training materials, and platform comparisons. Also discussed were needs of the modeling and satellite communities and both national and international climate programs. Second workshop recommendations include (1) focusing the HRMM initiative on SAMOS observations from research and merchant ships, (2) starting data collection with the U.S. research vessel fleet, (3) expanding data collection to include any SAMOS equipped merchant vessels and those international research vessels that operate in the polar oceans. The panel also recommends that all SAMOS observations have free and open access to the research and operational communities. Progress on all aspects of the SAMOS data initiative will be outlined as a component of an Earth Information System.