Challenges of a Sustained Climate Observing System

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ; Belward Alan; Brown Otis; et al. - WMO, 2011

Observations of planet Earth and especially all climate system components and forcings are increasingly needed for planning and decision making related to climate services in the broadest sense. Although significant progress has been made, much more remains to be done before a fully functional climate observing system exists. Observations are needed on all spatial scales from local to global, and all time scales, especially to understand and document changes in extremes. Climate change from human activities adds both a new dimension and an imperative: to acquire climate observations of suffici ...

English

 Challenges of a Sustained Climate Observing System

 PDF 

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ; Alan Belward ; Otis Brown ; Edward Haberman ; Thomas R. Karl ; Steve Running ; Barbara Ryan ; Michael Tanner ; Bruce Wielicki

Event: WCRP OSC Climate Research in Service to Society (24-28 October 2011; Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, Denver, United States)

Published by: WMO ; 2011

Observations of planet Earth and especially all climate system components and forcings are increasingly needed for planning and decision making related to climate services in the broadest sense. Although significant progress has been made, much more remains to be done before a fully functional climate observing system exists. Observations are needed on all spatial scales from local to global, and all time scales, especially to understand and document changes in extremes. Climate change from human activities adds both a new dimension and an imperative: to acquire climate observations of sufficient quality and coverage, and analyze them into products for multiple purposes to inform decisions for mitigation, adaptation, assessing vulnerability and impacts, geo--‐engineering, and predicting climate variability and change and their consequences. A major challenge is to adequately deal with the continually changing observing system, especially from satellites and other autonomous platforms such as in the ocean. Even with new computational tools, further challenges remain to provide adequate analysis, processing, meta--‐data, archival, access, and management of the resulting data and the data products. As volumes of data continue to grow, so do the challenges of distilling information to allow us to understand what is happening and why, and what the implications are for the future.

Language(s): English

Format: Digital (Free)

Tags: Climate ; Climate monitoring ; Climate change ; Climate Services Information System (CSIS) Add tag

No review, please log in to add yours !

Temperature trends in the lower atmosphere : steps for understanding and reconciling differences

Karl Thomas R.; Hassol Susan J.; Murray William L.; et al. - Executive Office of the President of the United States, 2006

Previously reported discrepancies between the amount of warming near the surface and higher in the atmosphere have been used to challenge the reliability of climate models and the reality of humaninduced global warming. Specifically, surface data showed substantial global-average warming, while early versions of satellite and radiosonde data showed little or no warming above the surface. This significant discrepancy no longer exists because errors in the satellite and radiosonde data have been identified and corrected. New data sets have also been developed that do not show such discrepancies. ...

English

 Temperature trends in the lower atmosphere: steps for understanding and reconciling differences

 PDF 

Thomas R. Karl ; Susan J. Hassol ; William L. Murray ; U.S. Climate Change Programme

Published by: Executive Office of the President of the United States ; 2006

Previously reported discrepancies between the amount of warming near the surface and higher in the atmosphere have been used to challenge the reliability of climate models and the reality of humaninduced global warming. Specifically, surface data showed substantial global-average warming, while early versions of satellite and radiosonde data showed little or no warming above the surface. This significant discrepancy no longer exists because errors in the satellite and radiosonde data have been identified and corrected. New data sets have also been developed that do not show such discrepancies. This Synthesis and Assessment Product is an important revision to the conclusions of earlier reports from the U.S. National Research Council and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. For recent decades, all current atmospheric data sets now show global-average warming that is similar to the surface warming. While these data are consistent with the results from climate models at the global scale, discrepancies in the tropics remain to be resolved. Nevertheless, the most recent observational and model evidence has increased confidence in our understanding of observed climatic changes and their causes.

Notes: Synthesis and assessment product I.I. Report by the U.S. Climate Change Programme and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research.

Language(s): English

Format: Digital (Free), Hard copy (ill., charts, maps)

Tags: Climate ; Climate monitoring ; Air temperature ; Lower atmosphere Add tag

No review, please log in to add yours !