CONTACT:  Patricia Viets                FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
          Barbara McGehan               6/18/97

Scientists from the United States and Japan will convene in Boulder, Colo., next week to participate in the 1997 Global Observation Information Network (GOIN) workshop and related global change seminar and working group meetings, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.

"Through the GOIN initiative, we have already succeeded in helping scientists in Japan and the United States access and use Earth observation data more quickly and easily via electronic networks," said NOAA's Herb Kroehl, who will co-chair a global change symposium on June 23. The seminar talks by renowned U.S. and Japanese scientists will address major global change issues for participants of the G-8 economic summit, which is being held June 20 - 22.

The GOIN program fosters scientific cooperation and facilitates the exchange of environmental data and information critical to global change research, disaster and environmental monitoring, and operational environmental prediction and warning. The GOIN electronic network bridges the Pacific Ocean, enabling researchers and policy makers in the United States and Japan to access data from each other by computer.

GOIN participants use these data in their research, monitoring and prediction programs. Data sets exchanged include oceanographic and deep sea data sets; ionospheric sounding data and space weather forecasting data, used to determine environmental effects on man's technology in space; and geophysical data and topographic data, which are critical elements for better understanding of land cover and land use change and global environmental change.

The GOIN virtual network is a result of the Common Agenda for Cooperation in Global Perspectives between Japan and the Untied States. In July 1993 the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Japan initiated the United States-Japan Framework for a New Economic Partnership. In the United States, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is leading the GOIN effort; in Japan, the Science and Technology Agency is leading the effort.

In addition to NOAA, participating U.S. agencies include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of State, Environmental Protection Agency, United States Geological Survey, and the Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.

Information about the GOIN workshop is on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/GOIN/index.htm

Note to Editors, Producers: The workshop will be held at the National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesa Laboratories, June 23-27. Please contact Barbara McGehan, NOAA Public Affairs if you wish to attend, or if you wish to interview participants.