This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 640276.
G1.04 Lack of a comprehensive review of current non-satellite observing capabilities for the study of ECVs across domains
Submitted by Richard Davy on 22 November, 2016 - 17:19
Gap abstract:
While a comprehensive review of space-based missions and needs has been put together within official documents of the international community and coordinated by an agreed international framework in the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), in contrast, the mapping and coordination of current non-satellite observing capabilities is piecemeal and poorly documented. Extensive reviews have been provided by WMO (World Meteorological Organization), GEOSS (Group on Earth Observations), Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), amongst others, but they are invariably limited to those networks and ECVs relevant for their institutional mission, and often substantively disagree with one another in regard to both the perceived adequacy of the current capabilities and the required innovations.
Part I Gap description
Primary gap type:
- Spatiotemporal coverage
Secondary gap type:
- Governance (missing documentation, cooperation etc.)
ECVs impacted:
- Temperature,Water vapour, Ozone, Aerosols, Carbon Dioxide, Methane
User category/Application area impacted:
- Operational services and service development (meteorological services, environmental services, Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS), operational data assimilation development, etc.)
Non-satellite instrument techniques involved:
- Independent of instrument technique
G1.04, as well as G1.03, must be addressed after G1.06, which will provide all the required information to proceed towards an effective approach to G1.03 and G1.04.
G1.03 and G1.05 are both critically dependent gaps which should be addressed with G1.04.
There is an interdependency between G1.03 and G1.04, whereby the resolution of G1.03 will aid resolution of G1.04 by providing an assessable basis with broad buy-in to classify individual contributing measurement systems.
There is also an interdependency between G1.04 and G1.05. A comprehensive review of the current observing capabilities at the European and global scale for all the ECVs is a pre-requisite to implement any user-friendly mapping software supporting the broad use of non-satellite observation by EO data providers and data users.
Detailed description:
Non-satellite observations support a wide range of applications in monitoring and forecasting of the atmosphere, of the oceans, and land surfaces, across a broad range of time scales (including near-real-time and delayed mode applications). These activities support an increasing range of services with high socio-economic benefits. User requirements have become more stringent and emergent requirements have increasingly appeared with respect to these applications (and undoubtedly will continue to do so). These observing systems provide their products in one or more of real-time, near-real-time and non-real-time (those that provide a mix may apply different processing to different timescale releases with, in general, greater quality assurance for delayed mode products). In order to allow EO providers and users to maximize the value of existing observations and implement a user-friendly mapping facility, a comprehensive review of the current observing capabilities at both the European and global scales is needed for all ECVs. This will also facilitate an identification of the existing geographical gaps in the global observing system. The mapping of current non-satellite observing capabilities is insufficient compared to the comprehensive review of space-based missions. For satellite missions, the review must be reported and routinely updated within official documents of the international community (e.g. for satellite observations, the CEOS Handbook and the “Satellite Supplement” to the GCOS Implementation Plan). For the in-situ segment in contrast, it is based on the information provided voluntarily by each network or station to some international data portals in an uncoordinated way, often on an ECV by ECV and network by network basis. WMO, GEOSS, GCOS have provided extensive metadataset and station inventories, but their sets of information are limited to their own specific mission and to those networks and ECVs upon which they have a coordination role. This inevitably increases the level of heterogeneity among the different assessments, which may often disagree with one another over both perceived adequacy of the current capabilities and posited remedies / innovations. This leads to reduced uptake of the outcomes of such assessments.
Operational space missions or space instruments impacted:
- Independent of specific space mission or space instruments
Validation aspects addressed:
- Representativity (spatial, temporal)
Gap status after GAIA-CLIM:
- GAIA-CLIM has partly closed this gap
GAIA-CLIM delivered in September 2016 a review of the current surface-based and sub-orbital observing capabilities at the global scale for a subset of ECVs and networks, also identifying geographical regions where specific observations are missing and should be established in the future.
Part II Benefits to resolution and risks to non-resolution
| Identified benefit | User category/Application area benefitted | Probability of benefit being realised | Impacts |
|---|---|---|---|
To facilitate an identification of the existing geographical gaps in the global observing system. |
|
| To enable users to maximize the value of existing observations at the global scale for the validation of satellite CDRs and for any kind of climate study. |
To stimulate international and regional capacity development in the data and metadata exchange also in support of the existing international initiatives on metadata collection carried out by WMO, GEOSS, EU research infrastructures (e.g. INSPIRE, C3S, CAMS |
|
| To improve standardization and harmonization of the existing data archives in EU and outside. To facilitate users’ access to in-situ observations. To increase the number of in-situ observations available for the satellite cal/val and the data assimilation in global or regional numerical models. To facilitate the work required to deliver downstream services in several sectors |
Support decisions to drive future investment to remedy to the current observation gaps. |
|
| Identify the geographical areas and perform specific scientific studies to assess the most critical gaps in the current observing system to prioritize investments. An assessment of any potential redundancy will be facilitated. |
| Identified risk | User category/Application area at risk | Probability of risk being realised | Impacts |
|---|---|---|---|
Fragmentation of metadata among repositories maintained by international bodies and measurements programs. Leading to under-exploitation of the existing surface-based and sub-orbital observing capabilities |
|
| Underuse or under-exploitation of existing observations affecting climate studies and their capability to catch climate change signals; potential redundant investments for improving the observing networks at the global scale. |
Reduced capability to classify the maturity of individual contributing measurement systems and to assess the gaps in current non-satellite observing system. |
|
| Reduced capability to support the users to identify the most suitable product for a given application and the equivalence across the various networks, measurements techniques, and data archives. Reduced capability to support funding agencies and decision makers in the assessment of the most critical gaps in the current observing system to prioritize investments. |
Part III Gap remedies
Gap remedies:
Remedy 1: Extension and continuous update of a comprehensive review of existing geographical gaps for non-satellite observations
Primary gap remedy type:
Governance
Proposed remedy description:
The extensive review of existing observing non-satellite capabilities for the measurement of a multitude of ECVs provided in GAIA-CLIM should be considered for viability over the long term as a service activity updated on a regular basis. The process towards the implementation of such a service comprises of the following steps:
- Establishing of broad synergies among the international bodies, research infrastructures, and meteorological services, maintaining the repositories where the observations provided by the existing networks operating at the global scale are stored;
- Establishing a functioning governance structure between the data suppliers (i.e. networks) and the international data providers (WMO, GCOS, GAW, Research Infrastructures, etc), which must count on the effort of each network in maintaining the highest quality level for its own metadata. This should also include a reward to the data suppliers for maintaining service activities.
- Facilitating the processes described above, by funding projects whose aim must be to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed service activity for specific ECVs over the long term; these projects should involve experimental scientists, modellers, and ICT experts, along with representatives from international research bodies.
With respect to the last point above, the review offered within GAIA-CLIM will be improved and supported over the long term by Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) for the in-situ measurements component for a subset of the atmospheric, land and oceanic ECVs considered in GAIA-CLIM through the provision of extensive inventories of the investigated networks. C3S is dealing with the access to in-situ observation and shall provide valuable examples of structuring such governance between the data suppliers. The C3S outreach system ensures the coordination of its activities with other international activities for a sustained exchange of rich measurement metadata information ongoing at WMO’s Commission for Basic Systems, GCOS, GEOSS, GAW (Global Atmospheric Watch). In particular, a synergy with the INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe), at the EU level, and with WIGOS (WMO Integrated Global Observing System), at the international level, must be established.
Relevance:
The Copernicus Climate Data Store (CDS) will facilitate the access to rich discovery metadata and support the reduction of the fragmentation already experienced in the metadata sets available worldwide for a large number of networks.
Measurable outcome of success:
Use of the collected geographical metadata through the CDS, the GAIA-CLIM ‘Virtual Observatory’ or similar efforts, and hence downstream applications. The timeline for the assessment and quantification of these datasets can be quantified on the basis of user’s level of satisfaction (via feedback collection) in the first two years after the release of metadata through each specific access platform.
Expected viability for the outcome of success:
- High
Scale of work:
- Programmatic multi-year, multi-institution activity
Time bound to remedy:
- Less than 5 years
Indicative cost estimate (investment):
- Medium cost (< 5 million)
Indicative cost estimate (exploitation):
- No
Potential actors:
- Copernicus funding
- National funding agencies
- National Meteorological Services
- WMO