Hebron and Ben-Gurion Universities and MENA will provide sites and all existing data, site maintenance and security, as well as research, administrative and technical staff. Physical security of the stations and access to the sites is a concern. Crossings between Israel and the West Bank are closely monitored by Israeli security forces. The Samou a site is in an area of Israeli civil and military control. The Lehavim and Sayaret Sha ked sites are both LTER sites, and are controlled by Israel.
Data access is another concern.
Raw data will be used at first, with no interpretation. They need to see for themselves what is produced by these met stations. Then perhaps in the future we can develop metadata. Gosz and Vande Castle offered input regarding use of LTER standards for climate data. The field trip included a precedent-setting joint visit to each participant s research site.