Fifth GOOS Regional Alliance Forum, will be held on Oct. 3, alongside the EuroGOOS Conference in Sopot Poland, Oct. 4-6, 2011. The GRF Council will meet Oct. 3, just before the conferences. The EuroGOOS Conference will focus on Sustainable Operational Oceanography relating to activities of systematic routine measurements of the seas, oceans and marine atmosphere. Progress made since EuroGOOS V in Exeter UK, 2008 in developing products, real-time interpretation and dissemination of the information will be reported. In conjunction with the Conference a meeting of the chairs of the GOOS Regional Alliances will be held. A session highlighting advances in the GRAs will be held during the Conference, while the forum of GRA chairs will discuss global cooperation between the GRAs, on Oct. 3th. The Coastal GOOS Module has been planned and discussed for many years. In parallel, coastal observing systems have been developed successfully in many areas. We know rather well what is required and possible at regional level. What does a global scale coastal system require? How can we at the regional scale contribute to and benefit from a GOOS Coastal Module? I believe we have an important meeting ahead. We will not solve everything, far from that, but we might get the ball rolling. 1) The business part of the GRFV on 3 October according to the agenda below, hosted by the Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Science, Sopot (located near the conference hotel). 2) The presentations describing activities in the different GRAs planned as a special session of the EuroGOOS Conference, on the morning of 5 October. If you have not already done so, please register on the conference site and inform the EuroGOOS Office by sending an email to sian.petersson@eurogoos.eu.

The meeting in Sopot on Monday will start at 09.00 and will be held at the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Science, Powstancow Warszawy 55, 81-712 Sopot, Poland. If you are staying at the Hotel Haffner then it is just a short walk, as shown by the small blue "b" icon on the google map found under the conference venue and hotels menu item on the eurogoos2011.eu web site. In the evening you are all welcome to attend the icebreaker for the EuroGOOS Conference. The icebreaker will also be held at the Institute of Oceanology. Shortcut: http://ioc-goos.org/GRF-V Sixth EuroGOOS Conference: http://www.eurogoos2011.eu EuroGOOS Web: http://www.eurogoos.org