The Expert Team on Wind Waves and Storm Surges ETWS was originally established by the Joint WMO/IOC Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology JCOMM at its First Session (JCOMM-I, Akureyri, Iceland, from 19 to 29 June 2001), as one of the Expert Teams of the JCOMM Services Programme Area (SPA). The Commission agreed that it was essential for the JCOMM to maintain an Expert Team on Wind Waves and Storm Surges, to review and advise on scientific and operational aspects of wind wave and storm surge forecasting, and effectively coordinate with other JCOMM groups, GOOS and other scientific bodies, as appropriate.

JCOMM-I agreed that it would be logical to transform the >WMO Wave Programme into the JCOMM Wind Wave and Storm Surge Programme. The most important considerations were that storm surge prediction support was included in the new expanded Terms of Reference of JCOMM, and that there were many commonalties between systems providing wind wave and storm surge prediction. The Terms of Reference (ToR) of ETWS, given in Resolution 2 of JCOMM-I, covers a larger domain than those of its predecessor the CMM Subgroup on Wave Modelling and Forecasting, in particular, adding responsibility for storm surges.

The Second Session of the Commission (JCOMM-II, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, from 19 to 27 September 2005), re-established the Expert Team on Wind Waves and Storm Surges ETWS under Resolution 2 and its associated annexes. The Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Team remained essentially unchanged from JCOMM-I. Nine Team members were approved by JCOMM-II. Subsequent to JCOMM-II, and according to the provisions set forth by the meeting, four additional experts were added to the team on a self-supporting basis, to address deficiencies in the breadth of technical expertise and geographical representation of the team. The present membership of the ETWS is available on the web at the following address: http://www.wmo.ch/web/aom/marprog/Wordpdfs/Jcomm-Groups/spa_wwss.doc. The main activities of the ETWS since JCOMM-II, and proposed modifications to the work plan are discussed in the following sections. .