The Full Picture

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of the other eight SBAs’, and GCOS is designed to provide climate-

related information to basically all of them. Within GEOSS, the

GCOS implementation process can also serve as an example for other

SBAs and a contribution to cross-cutting activities.

Within the climate SBA, the IP serves as a backbone for the defi-

nition of GEO tasks and GCOS is working in collaboration with a

number of other participating organisations and agencies to under-

take them. Three main priorities emerge.

The first is the optimal use of past and current climate data,

through better processing and reanalysis techniques using advanced

models. This is the object of a ‘climate task’ co-lead with WCRP

and CEOS, which includes efforts of National Meteorological and

Hydrological Services to rescue and reprocess historical data, the

development of a reprocessing strategy adapted to climate infor-

mation requirements for both space and in situ data and the

coordination of those activities between providers, and the coor-

dination of reanalyses of recent climate by modelling centres.

The second is the maintenance and development of the global

climate observing capacity from in situ and space-based platforms

within the atmosphere, the oceans and over land and ice. This is

the object of several ‘climate tasks’ developed jointly by data

providers and coordination agencies, making use of GCOS speci-

fications. The third, and last GCOS priority, is the

progress in climate predictive capacity as a result of

improved observations, handling and assimilation of

observations, and breakthroughs in modelling capa-

bilities.

Climate observations, as coordinated under GCOS,

serve most GEO SBAs, since geophysical observations

required for both climate monitoring and climate

research are being used in many application areas

outside climate. This is reflected in the 10-year

Implementation Plan and a study on this topic is under

way as part of GEO tasks. For example, precipitation

(frequency, intensity, quantity and type) is a key vari-

able for all SBAs. It varies considerably in space and time

and requires a high-density network to observe its vari-

ability and extremes on regional scales. Analysis of

precipitation variability and change is crucial for the

assessment of the impact of climate on the natural envi-

ronment and many human activities reflected in GEO

SBAs. Changes in timing of precipitation, such as

seasonality, can have implications for water supplies and

agriculture.

GCOS was established as a ‘system of systems’, built on existing global observing systems

and aimed at ensuring that data will collectively be improved or complemented in order to fulfil its objectives

Photo: WMO

GEOSS C

OMPONENTS

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BSERVING

YSTEMS