Climate: Targets

The 10-Year Implementation Plan sets out the following two-, six- and ten-year targets for guiding the climate-related work on GEOSS:

2-Year Targets

• Support GSN and GUAN networks, Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) observatories, initial Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), river discharge, lake levels, soil moisture, permafrost, snow cover and glacier observing networks, which are recommended in the GCOS Implementation Plan.
• Support implementation of actions called for in GCOS Implementation Plan and the relevant IGOS-P Theme Reports.
• Improve the reporting of observations to international data and analysis centres in terms of data volumes, quality and timeliness.
• Improve the capability of international data centres for data archiving and distribution of data and products.
• Establish a strong collaboration mechanism between observational organizations and research communities, and users of climate information, to further refine the observations, analyses and products required.
• Identify the needs and solutions necessary to implement the global observing systems for climate in all regions and countries based on the recommendation of GCOS Implementation Plan and specific regional action plans.
• Initiate an intergovernmental mechanism in the terrestrial domain to prepare and issue regulatory and guidance information on observational procedures and data management as, for example, also asked for in decision 9/CP.9 (UNFCCC, 2003).
• Support JCOMM to coordinate the implementation of and prepare regulatory and guidance information for an operational in situ ocean observing system.
• Emphasize to satellite agencies the importance of satellites for long-term climate monitoring, and advocate that all Earth observing satellite systems adhere to the GCOS Climate Monitoring Principles (WMO, 2003) and commit to the suite of instrumentation called for in the GCOS Implementation Plan and in the relevant IGOS-P Theme Reports.
• Focus on research programmes to support the development of observational capabilities for ECVs such as tropospheric ozone, cloud and aerosol properties and their vertical profiles, CO2 and other greenhouse gases, soil moisture and groundwater, above-ground biomass, permafrost, snow cover and glaciers, and ocean salinity, carbon and nutrients and their vertical profiles.
• Coordinate climate sectors and broad user groups to clarify and specify requirements for socio-economic benefit areas (disaster prevention, health, energy, water resources, ecosystem, agriculture, and biodiversity) for climate products and information.
  Enforce palaeoclimate research to improve knowledge about historical and current climate change, by combining natural science data and socio-economic information.
• Promote the improvement of emission databases for aerosols, greenhouse gases and their precursors.

6-Year Targets

• Enhance the collaboration mechanism between observation organizations and research communities with users of climate information to make maximum use of the observations, analyses and products.
• Support implementation of actions called for in the GCOS Implementation Plan and the relevant IGOS-P Theme Reports.
• Promote the establishment of data archive centres for all ECVs.
• Promote institutional commitments to provide integrated global analyses of all ECVs.
• Develop data integration facilities for exchanging data, products and information between climate sectors and socio-economic benefit areas.
• Emphasize detection of current and historical climate changes and their impacts linked with other societal benefit areas such as disaster, health, water, ecosystem and agriculture by combining the natural scientific data and socio-economic information and enforcing paleoclimate research approaches.
• Develop and operate new in situ and/or space-based observation instruments for the observation of ECV such as cloud and aerosol properties and their vertical profiles, ocean salinity, ocean carbon and nutrients, soil moisture and ground water, CO2 and other greenhouse gasses.
• Produce a number of new products for precipitation, soil moisture, evaporation, evapotranspiration and other water cycle variables, by in situ observations and the planned space missions.
• Provide validation of the accuracy of new water cycle data products, involving “virtual water” with respect to food production and its transportation.
• Advocate continuous sensor development with improvement of accuracy and higher spatial-temporal resolutions, and with special attention to snow water equivalent and streamflow.
• Facilitate international and fully networked operational data exchange capabilities.
• Facilitate testing of a fully integrated prototype data system, with data assimilation, analysis and visualization capabilities for the water cycle.
• Advocate a study of the water resource variables required to support an expert system in water management and provide prototyping on an operational system for assimilating routine water cycle observations for improved monitoring and management of water resources.
• Advocate a system for the routine collection of water level data for use in validating satellite data and for monitoring surface water storage.
• Advocate precision gravity field missions for global water storage monitoring.
• Produce a plan for institutionalizing surface water and energy flux measurements.
• Facilitate the establishment of coordinated in situ observation networks with high (and low) elevation sites along mountain transects.

10-Year Targets

• Provide support to the development of a long-term strategy, which encompasses progress in observation, data assimilation and modelling.
• Support implementation of actions called for in the GCOS Implementation Plan and the relevant IGOS-P Theme Reports.
  Promote new and extended re-analysis programmes for the oceanic, terrestrial and atmospheric domains.
• Contribute to major advances in the monitoring and predictability of climate on seasonal, interannual and decadal time scales, including the occurrence of extreme events.
• Establish an evaluation mechanism for climate product applicability to socioeconomic benefits.
• Support climate sectors to implement tailored approaches to respond to socioeconomic requirements.
• Promote implementation of an integrated observing system for atmospheric composition monitoring in support of climate policy through an optimal combination of ground-based networks, low Earth orbit and geostationary satellites and models.