Evening Workshop:
Argos - Understanding Error

Organiser - Bernie McConnell

Most studies that use Argos to track marine animals end up with the bulk of their fixes being "un-guaranteed" - that is location qualities 0, A or B. In addition the fixes may be infrequent and irregular in time. How do we estimate the real track from such noisy data?

First it is sensible to consider the source of error. How does Argos actually estimate location and how can estimate uncertainty be best relayed to the user? Also, is each location estimate independent of all others? To address these and other questions there will be a technical presentation by an Argos representative.

How do we then incorporate such uncertainty into movement models, and how do we test such models? Here we invite brief presentations of completed, current or future work. Each presentation is limited to 10 minutes. The objective of this workshop is to encourage both communication between Argos and the user community and collaboration in the modelling of movement data. A second objective is to finish the workshop before the local hostelries close.

We plan to hold this ad hoc workshop on the evening of Tuesday 14th. Please let me
(bm8@st-andrews.ac.uk subject: ARGOS WORKSHOP) know if you would like to participate and whether you would be willing to give a brief presentation. I also welcome comments on the structure and format of the workshop.

Bernie McConnell
NERC SEA MAMMAL RESEARCH UNIT.
bm8@st-andrews.ac.uk