The SOLAS Indian Ocean Meeting was organised virtually on 30 September 2020. Roxy Mathew Koll, co-chair of the CLIVAR/IOC-GOOS Indian Ocean Region Panel (IORP) and Jing Li from the International CLIVAR Project Office (ICPO) attended the meeting. The meeting mainly focused on the scientific discussions on the current, ongoing, and planned research and initiatives taking place in the Indian Ocean and tried to forge collaborations. Around 80 participants attended this event via zoom, with some others via youtube live broadcasting. Meanwhile, a 2-hour SOLAS India Meeting was organised during the lunch break, which facilitated the in-depth discussion on potential cooperation with SOLAS India.

During the SOLAS Indian Ocean Meeting, Roxy made a presentation on “Indian Ocean Warming and Monsoon Extremes”, in which he highlighted how the monsoon has changed during the past six decades, and the factors that intensify the monsoon variability and increase extreme rains and floods in the Indian Ocean. A poster was submitted by ICPO by introducing the highlighted work of CLIVAR in the Indian Ocean, as well as the potential cooperation opportunities with SOLAS. Jing Li on behalf of ICPO made a short presentation along the poster during the meeting.

The further cooperation between SOLAS and CLIVAR in the Indian Ocean were expected by both parties. The future cooperation can be explored via the collaboration in implementing the IndOOS-2, in particular on expansion to the coastal and shelf/slop regions and enhancement of biogeochemical measurement. The input from SOLAS on the trace gas measurement in IndOOS-2 is strongly welcome, since sustained measurements are lacking in this area. Meanwhile, as the coastal dynamics and interaction are crucial for air-sea interaction and SOLAS, it is necessary for the two parties to together push agencies and nations for sharing ocean-atmospheric data along the coastal zone/EEZ. IORP looks forward to further cross-panel discussion with SOLAS.