1. The Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate
Meeting at Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Birmensdorf, March, 2015
TOPC meeting in Ispra earlier this year – some highlights are given in the following VG’s.
I chose to show several ECV’s with time series (parameter vs time) which makes the main point of observing variability and change over time. Most of our “change” measurements today are based on satellite records. These data sets need to be archived and registered (DO record) which is coordinated by GCOS.

2. Dr Jean-Francois Cretaux
Membership List as of March 2015
NAME
ORIGIN, COUNTRY
SPECIALTY/ EXPERTISE
Prof. Konrad STEFFEN
Swiss Federal Research Institute, Switzerland
 Ice Sheets
Dr Ulrich LOOSER
GRDC, Germany
River discharge
Dr Jean-Francois Cretaux
Centre National d’’Études Spatial (LEGOS/CNES), France
Climate 
Prof. Shaun Quegan
University of Sheffield, UK
Carbon 
Dr Kevin Tansey
University of Leicester, UK
Fire disturbance
Dr Michel VERSTRAETE
South African National Space Agency, South Africa
Land surface processes, remote sensing
Prof. Valery VUGLINSKY
State Hydrological Institute of Roshydromet, Russia
Lakes
Prof. Wolfgang WAGNER
Vienna University of Technology, Austria
Soil moisture
Dr Michael ZEMP
University of Zurich, Switzerland
Glaciers
Current membership group. In future, we envision a rotation of members with 4-year appointments, and the possibility for one extension.

4. 16 Essential Climate Variables ECV’s
Biological/Ecological (6)
Land cover
FAPAR
Leaf area index
Above ground biomass
Soil carbon
Fire disturbance
Hydrological (5)
River discharge
Water use
Ground water
Lakes
Soil moisture
Cryospheric (4)
Snow cover
Glaciers and ice caps
Ice sheets
Permafrost
Surface Properties (1)
Albedo
The summary of the EVC’s discussed in TOPC – the terrestrial parameters. One exception is the albedo which has not a fixed home

5. Future Challenges
How to connect the different ECV’s, defining a common integrator (i.e. data set, common goal: i.e., climate variability)
Accuracy requirements for time series of 10+ years, what is the trend or the variability that needs to be detected?
Finding “homes” for ECV’s like ice sheets, albedo, and more
Financing workshops to gather community around cross-cutting ECV’s and the definition of new ECV’s
Re-activate the GTOS partnership/support – or find new supporting partners

6. Cryosphere and Oceans Existing ECVs Overlapping ECVs Missing ECVs
Snow cover
Glaciers and ice caps
Ice sheets
Permafrost
Missing ECVs
Ice shelves and ice tongues (T & O)
Snow & ice albedo (T & O & A)
Land-surface temperature (T & O)
Land-surface radiation budget
Soil temperature
Lake and river ice
Fingerprint of “abrupt” climate change
Overlapping ECVs
Sea Level (O & T )
Surface temperature (T & O)
Albedo (T & O & A)
Surface radiation budget (A & T & O)
Are the existing ECVs adequate?
How to improve coverage of the climate variables?