The Full Picture

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Climate
State of the Climate – using Earth observations to monitor the global climate
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Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Germany, India, Iran,
Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Niger, Portugal, the Russian Federation, South Africa,
Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Non-GEO member
contributors: Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Kenya,
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GOSAT in practice
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Earth observation contributions to assessing Australian terrestrial ecosystems, carbon stocks
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1. UN Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development goals, and GEOSS 10-year
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2. IPCC 2007.
3. See Land Use Change in Australia: Results of the National Carbon Accounting System 1988-
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Climate monitoring and prediction in Korea
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2.
Water
Global water quality monitoring
1. In March 2006, the first GEO Inland and Nearshore Coastal Water Quality Remote
Sensing Workshop was held in Geneva. This article contains a number of selected
recommendations emerging from that workshop. For the complete workshop report, the
reader is urged to visit the GEO website at
The contents of this article are solely the opinions of the authors and do not constitute a
statement of policy, decision, or position on behalf of WMO, NOAA or the US
Government.
Acknowledgements
We thank the participants of the 1st GEO Inland and Nearshore Coastal Water Quality
Remote Sensing Workshop and their sponsors, as well as the GEO Secretariat for its support of
this effort.
The observational aspects of water cycle knowledge and applications
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Vulnerability from climate change and population growth’. Science, 289, 284–288.
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2005: ‘Water and Energy cycles: Investigating the Links’.WMO Bulletin, 54(2), 58–64.
3. GCOS, 2003: The second report on the adequacy of the Global Observing Systems for climate in
support of the UNFCC. GCOS, Geneva, Switzerland.
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Integrated Global Water Cycle Observation. WMO Bulletin, 53, No. 2.
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Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly Precipitation Analysis (1979–present)’.
Journal of Hydrometeorology, 4(6), 1146–1167.
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integration in a highly heterogeneous and rapidly changing world – A view from the
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newly endangered species’. EOS, Trans Am Geophysical Union, 82(5): 54, 56, 58.
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sensing algorithm of land surface evaporation’. Journal of Geophysical Research, 108(D9),
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Chou, C.A. Clayson, W.J. Emery, L. Eymard, C.W. Fairall, M. Kubota, B. Lin, W. Perrie, R.R.
Reeder, I.A. Renfrew, W.B. Rossow, J. Schulz, S.R. Smith, P.J. Webster, G.A. Wick, and X.
Zen, 2004: ‘Seaflux’. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 85(3), 409–424.
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measurements of mass variability in the Earth system’. Science, 305, 503–505.
Development of a global in situ soil moisture network
1. Leese, J., Jackson, T., Pitman, A., and Dirmeyer, P. GEWEX/BAHC international workshop
on soil moisture monitoring, analysis and prediction for hydrometeorological and
hydroclimatological applications. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 82:1423-
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Observations. GEWEX News, 15(3), pp. 8-9. 2005.
Weather
The Thorpex Interactive Grand Global Ensemble (TIGGE) concept and current status
1. WMO/TD-No. 1273 WWRP-THORPEX No. 5: www.wmo.int/thorpex
2. TIGGE Internet site:
3. The NCAR portal URL is:
The ECMWF portal URL is:
Acknowledgements:
The TIGGE-Working Group is composed of representatives from forecasting centres and
the academic community, and has held several meetings to agree on the formats and the
content of the initial archive. The IT teams at ECMWF, NCAR and CMA have invested
considerable work to initiate the routine exchange and accumulation of data in good
technical conditions. Baudouin Raoult of ECMWF and Doug Schuster of NCAR are
especially acknowledged for their contribution to the project. The willingness and diligence
of the ten providing centres to share their ensemble forecast data is also acknowledged. Jim
Caughey and Len Barrie provided useful comments on an early draft of this paper.
Ecosystems
Mapping global ecosystems – the GEOSS approach
Roger Sayre, US Geological Survey; Alberto Yanosky, Guyra Paraguay; Douglas Muchoney, Group on
Earth Observations/US Geological Survey
1. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005, Ecosystems and human well-being – Our
human planet (summary for decision makers): Washington, D.C., Island Press, 165 p.
2. Ibid; Heinz Center, 2002, The state of the Nation’s ecosystems – Measuring the lands, waters,
and living resources of the United States: New York, Cambridge University Press, 36 p.
3. Sayre, R., J. Bow, C. Josse, L. Sotomayor, and J. Touval, (accepted for publication, August 2007),
Terrestrial Ecosystems of South America: Washington, D.C., Association of American Geographers
Author affiliations
Roger Sayre, U.S. Geological Survey, and GEO Task Lead and POC for EC-07-02
Alberto Yanosky, Guyra Paraguay, and GEO Task Co-Lead
Douglas Muchoney, Group on Earth Observations/U.S. Geological Survey, and GEO Task Sponsor
Global land cover observations
1. GEO ten-year reference document, p.119
2. The image data and land cover map are available free of charge at
www.esa.int/due/ionia/globcover
Acknowledgements
GOFC-Gold is a panel of the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS), sponsored by
FAO, UNESCO, WMO, ICSU and UNEP. The GOFC-GOLD Secretariat is hosted by
Canada and supported by the Canadian Space Agency and Natural Resources Canada. The
Land Cover Project Office is hosted by Germany and supported by Friedrich-Schiller
University and the European Space Agency. Other contributing agencies include NASA,
START and JRC. Further information can be obtained at
Monitoring land degradation with long-term satellite data in South Africa
1. UNCCD, 1994. United Nations Convention to combat desertification in countries
experiencing serious drought and/or desertification, particularly in Africa. A/AC.241/27, Paris.
2. Tucker, C.J., Dregne, H.E., Newcomb, W.W., 1991. ‘Expansion and contraction of the
Sahara desert from 1980 to 1990’.Science 253, 299-301.
Prince, S.D., Brown de Colstoun, E., Kravitz, L., 1998. ‘Evidence from rain use efficiencies
does not support extensive Sahelian desertification’. Global Change Biology 4, 359-374.
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4. Tucker et al, 1991. op. cit.
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A contribution to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. CSIR, Pretoria.
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induced land degradation in the former homelands of northern South Africa with a 1km
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human-induced land degradation be distinguished from the effects of rainfall variability? A
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9. Hoffman et al, 1999. op. cit.
10. See, for example, Pedelty, J., S. Devadiga, E. J. Masuoka, M. Brown, J. Pinzon, C. Tucker, E.
Vermote, S. Prince, J. Nagol, C. Justice, R. Roy, J. Ju, C. Schaaf, J. Liu, J. Privette and A. Pinheiro
(2007).Generating a Long-Term Land Data Record from the AVHRR and MODIS Instruments .
IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Barcelona, Spain.
Acknowledgements:
This work was partially funded by NASA Earth Systems Sciences Fellowship O2-0000-
0130, SA Department of Agriculture (DoA - Land Use and Soil Management Directorate),
and SA Department of Science and Technology (LEAD project funding). A special word of
thanks to Dirk Pretorius of DoA for supporting this research. The ARC- Instutute for Soil,
Climate and Water supplied and processed AVHRR and rainfall data.
The business of capacity-development
1. Watching over the world's oceans, Keith Alverson, News@Nature 434, 19 - 20 (03 Mar
2005) Commentary
2. Stern, N., 2007: The Economics of Climate Change, the Stern Review. Cambridge University
Press, (ISBN-13: 9780521700801)
3. Armah, A. K. and others, 2007: Forging new partnership in marine sciences: no more “out of
Africa”. Manuscript in preparation.
4. UNESCO/IOC 2005: IOC principles and strategy for capacity-building . UNESCO Publ:
2005; 43 p.; SC.2005/WS/23 REV.; IOC/INF-1211.
5. UNDP/BDP 2005: Taking default positions for capacity development. Human Development
Viewpoint, HDV40. Available from the UNDP website for capacity development
6. Babu, M. T. and S. Mazzilli 2007: Western Indian Ocean Modelling Awareness Workshops
draft report. Available from the IOC website documentation
7. Mayorga-Adame, G. 2007: Ocean Circulation in the Zanzibar Channel: a modelling approach.
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