1. WMO Space Programme Update
VLAB-5 Meeting
CMATC
Beijing, China
12 July 2010
Barbara J. Ryan
Director,
WMO Space Programme

2. Overview Evolution of the WMO Global Observing System (GOS)
Moving downstream
Weather to climate
Different perspectives

3. Evolution of the WMO Space-based Global Observing System (GOS)
1961
1978
2009
1990

4. Space-based GOS in 2010

5. 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

6. Need for an Integrated Global Observing System Beyond Weather

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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

10. Working toward a truly integrated observing system – Mt. Etna InSAR

11. Different Perspectives!
An International
Organization!
An Operational Agency!
A Research Agency!

12. 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