WMO Space Programme Update VLAB-5 Meeting CMATC Beijing, China 12 July 2010 Barbara J. Ryan Director, WMO Space Programme
Overview Evolution of the WMO Global Observing System (GOS) Moving downstream Weather to climate Different perspectives
Evolution of the WMO Space-based Global Observing System (GOS) 1961 1978 2009 1990
Space-based GOS in 2010
Moving Downstream GSICS GOS Satellites & sensors Satellite data Users Satellites & sensors Satellite data Essential Climate products GOS GSICS Consistent Calibrated data sets SCOPE-CM Vision of the Global Observing System (GOS) in 2025 Global Space-based Inter-calibration System (GSICS) Sustained Co-Ordinated Processing of Environmental satellite data for Climate Monitoring (SCOPE-CM) Requirements Gathering and Articulation – WMO Dossier, GCOS ECVs Mission, Instrument, Measurement Documentation – CEOS MIM Quality Assurance Frameworks – QA4EO, WIGOS CEOS Virtual Constellations
Need for an Integrated Global Observing System Beyond Weather
GCOS Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) EVs Oceans O.1 Sea Ice O.2 Sea Level O.3 Sea Surface Temperature O.4 Ocean Colour O.5 Sea State O.6 Ocean Reanalysis O.7 Ocean Salinity Atmosphere A.1 Surface Wind Speed and Direction A.2 Upper-air Temperature A.3 Water Vapour A.4 Cloud Properties A.5 Precipitation A.6 Earth Radiation Budget A.7 Ozone A.8 Atmospheric reanalysis (multiple ECVs) A.9 Aerosols A.10 Carbon Dioxide, Methane and other Greenhouse Gases A.11 Upper-air Wind Terrestrial T.1 Lakes T.2 Glaciers and Ice Caps, and Ice Sheets T.3 Snow Cover T.4 Albedo T.5 Land Cover T.6 fAPAR T.7 LAI T.8 Biomass T.9 Fire Disturbance T.10 Soil moisture
Great Advances in Global and Regional Weather Forecasts Source: ECMWF Great slide to get the point across that NWP has made progress, but this group also needs to know that weather prediction is not a solved problem. Hence I put in a vision of later. The lead time on 500 hPa hgts may be 7 days, but the lead time on significant dynamical features in the atmosphere (potential vorticity structures) is 3 to 5 days and using the same skill definition on this slide (anomaly correlations) we only have 1 to 2 day lead times on precipitation.
NO2 Images for 15 April 2004 NASA NASA Zooming in on NO2 we can clearly see urban complexes between the clouds Localized tropospheric pollution contributions to Global/Regional pollution. ------------------ Mission Success 3c: Determining natural and anthropogenic influences on the global oxidizing power of the troposphere Mission success includes mapping and quantifying the transport and sources of tropospheric ozone, aerosols, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides for > 1 year. Status: 20% complete. The OMI NO2 product shows sources and sinks of NO2 and is being used in near-real time. Aerosols have been discussed already. OMI is developing a CH2O product which is a good representative of VOCs. TES is mapping CO and O3. MLS-OMI TOR product shows long range O3 transport. NASA NASA
Working toward a truly integrated observing system – Mt. Etna InSAR
Different Perspectives! An International Organization! An Operational Agency! A Research Agency!
Summary Tremendous assets exist on orbit Must be leveraged to a greater extent Challenges (and opportunities) Transition and integration elements Different perspectives Increase coordination and cooperation – recognizing different, but complementary roles and responsibilities Bring the rigor of the existing Weather Constellation of GOS to the study of Climate Constellation