Climate: Work plan activities

Climate: Understanding, assessing, predicting, mitigating, and adapting to climate variability and change

"The climate has impacts in each of the other eight societal benefit areas. Coping with climate change and variability demands good scientific understanding based on sufficient and reliable observations. GEOSS outcomes will enhance the capacity to model, mitigate, and adapt to climate change and variability. Better understanding of the climate and its impacts on the Earth system, including its human and economic aspects, will contribute to improved climate prediction and facilitate sustainable development while avoiding dangerous perturbations to the climate system."
– GEOSS 10-Year Implementation Plan, Section 4.1.4

Note: The GCOS Implementation Plan and the WCRP Strategic Framework represent a commonly agreed basis for GEO actions in the Climate area.

Summary of ongoing tasks:

CL-06-01: Sustained Reprocessing and Reanalysis Efforts
This Task is led by GCOS and CEOS.
Ensure the development of international mechanisms to coordinate and maintain sustained climate data reprocessing and reanalysis efforts. With regard to the reprocessing of historical datasets (to obtain consistent long-time series of satellite records), make relevant synergies with Task CL-06-02.

CL-06-02: Key Climate Data from Satellite Systems
This Task is led by the USA, CEOS, GCOS and WMO.
Establish actions securing the provision of key data for climate studies and forecasting from satellite systems.

CL-06-03: Key Terrestrial Observations for Climate
This Task is led by GTOS.
Develop intergovernmental mechanisms for coordinating terrestrial observations needed for climate studies and forecasting. Develop a framework for the preparation of guidance materials, standards, and reporting guidelines for terrestrial (including land-coast interface) observing systems for climate and associated data, metadata, and products to expand the comprehensiveness of current networks and facilitate exchange of data.

CL-06-05: GEOSS IPY Contribution
This Task is led by the Portugal and WCRP.
Coordinate with the International Polar Year (IPY) to enhance the utilization of Earth observations in all appropriate realms (including, but not limited to, sea and land ice, permafrost, coastal erosion, physical and chemical polar ocean changes, marine and terrestrial ecosystem change, biodiversity monitoring and impacts of increased resource exploitation and marine transport).

CL-06-06: Global Ocean Observation System
This Task is led by GOOS.
Enhance and improve coordination of coastal and marine climate observations in support of a global ocean observation system.
Related activities will include: Improve the global coverage and data accuracy of the climate-monitoring system and coastal observing systems, as well as management and archival of the resulting data, by 2007 and continuing. Contribute to the implementation of a global coastal network using the mechanism of GOOS Regional Alliances, by 2007 and continuing. Establish an Argo Program Office to ensure the ongoing implementation of this global array of profiling floats in the ocean.

CL-07-01: Seamless Weather and Climate Prediction System
This Task is led by WMO/THORPEX and WCRP.
Support the development of a THORPEX/WCRP initiative on "International Weather, Climate and Earth-system Science", to better address uncertainties associated with climate variability and change, and related societal impacts.
Related activities will include: Promote international multi-disciplinary (physics-biology-chemistry) collaboration on the development of a high-resolution seamless weather/climate global prediction system - including coupled atmosphere-ocean data assimilation. Support the development of an international framework for the design and implementation of a unified approach toward weather, climate, Earth system, and societal-economic research.