From October 22 to 24, the WMO/IOC-Data Buoy Cooperation Panel (DBCP) NPOMS-2 was hosted by SOED in Hangzhou. More than 30 delegates from the Second Regional Association (Asia) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission/West Pacific Committee (IOC/WESTPAC) were invited to attend the seminar. The seminar was initiated by the IOC, which is affiliated to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), WMO, and Climate Project Office of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The director of SOED, Researcher CHEN Dake serves as the president of DBCP.

DBCP is a cooperative project jointly initiated by WMO and IOC. The aim of DBCP/NPOMS is to help global marine/meteorological scientists to exchange research and forecasts about the ocean and climate in the North Pacific region, and to explore possibilities for collaborative research.

The theme of this seminar was the use of regional ocean observations for enhancing awareness and forecasts of typhoon capacity. The seminar included presentations about recent progress in regional projects about typhoons and sea-air interactions, the mechanism and process of the study of typhoon-ocean interactions, the intention of regional cooperation projects to enhance typhoon observation and forecasting, and the key role of ocean observations of cyclones and the socio-economic impact of typhoons. The seminar also featured academic exchanges and discussions on marine buoys and buoy data collection, processing and distribution technology.

The meeting was held to strengthen academic exchanges among marine/meteorological scientists from neighboring countries and regions and to explore ways to develop international cooperation projects to enhance our influence in marine and climate research.