 Background These white papers formed the basis for discussion at the meeting in Exeter. Each white paper was prepared in a matter of a few weeks by a small set of experts who were pre-defined by the International Organising Committee to represent a broad range of expert backgrounds and perspectives. We are very grateful to these authors for giving their time so willingly to this task at such short notice. They are not intended to constitute publication quality pieces – a process that would naturally take somewhat longer to achieve. The white papers were written to raise the big ticket items that require further consideration for the successful implementation of a holistic project that encompasses all aspects from data recovery through analysis and delivery to end users.They provided a framework for undertaking the breakout and plenary discussions at the workshop.The IOC felt strongly that starting from a blank sheet of paper would not be conducive to agreement in a relatively short meeting. It is important to stress that the white papers were very definitely not meant to be interpreted as providing a definitive plan. There were two stages of review that informed the finally agreed meeting outcome: 1. The
white papers were made publicly available for a comment period through a
moderated blog. The white paper discussion blog is at http://surfacetemperatures.blogspot.com/ and comments remained open until 1st September. Below the white papers are numerically indexed by their slot on the agenda. |
