Global Climate Observation: the Road to the Future

Background:

Climate observations are essential for understanding the complexities of the global climate system; indeed virtually all breakthroughs that have been made in understanding climate have come from observations. Observations provide critical benchmarks for testing and further developing our predictive capability through models. While the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5) states that the human influence on the climate system is clear, it also notes that there are gaps in the current global climate observing system on which these statements are based. There are also increasing needs for more detailed climate observations resulting from adaption planning to reduce risks from climate change and variability. This is why it is crucial to make further progress towards achieving a fully implemented, sustainable, global observing system for climate. GCOS has been responsible since 1992 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for ensuring a sustained, long-term and reliable system for monitoring the global climate. An important aspect of this is the definition of Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), which are critical to our understanding of the climate and that support the work of the UNFCCC and the IPCC, as well as many other international organisations and programmes.

Conference goals:

Making further progress towards a fully implemented, sustainable, global observing system for climate is crucial for improving understanding of the workings of the climate system and assessing its impacts. The conference aims to provide the forum for:

1. A community assessment of the quality of the current observing system. We aim to highlight key achievements in producing ECVs in the domains of GCOS: atmosphere, ocean and land and identify gaps.
2. A discussion on how the definition of ECVs contributes to understanding the key Earth System cycles of energy, water and carbon. While GCOS expects the list of ECVs to be stable as it is used as the basis for planning (e.g. by satellite agencies) it needs to be re-considered periodically to ensure it still meets the needs of users.
3. Identifying future needs in relation to adaptation and mitigation requirements and other conventions such as desertification, biodiversity and the SDG goals. An increasing focus on adaption and mitigation of climate change puts different demands on observing systems.
4. New developments, arising from requirements coming out of COP 21, and developments in technology, IT and communication of climate issues with the general public and policy makers.

Expected outcomes:

The main expected outcome should be a list of priorities and actions, some of which may be included in a new GCOS Implementation Plan. Key outcomes should be an assessment of the quality of the current observing system and potential for future actions and developments, including adaptation, mitigation and communication.

Attendance:

Attendance will be limited to about 180. Participants will include experts, early career scientists and leading scientists on the area of space-based, airborne and surface based climate observations, from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

There is a call for presentations and posters that will assist the meeting achieving its goals. These could include:

• Showing how ECVs have helped shaping our understanding of climate
• Discussing observations for adaption, mitigation & disaster risk reduction
• Identifying critical gaps in the observing system
• Describing possible new observation technologies and their application

Abstract submission:

The deadline for abstract submission is 15 December 2015, submissions received after this deadline will not be considered.

Conference registration:

The registration for the conference is open now through the event website.

Registration deadline is 15 February 2016.