WMO MEDARE Initiative

Terms of Reference

1. To foster collaboration among climate related institutions and agencies across the Greater Mediterranean Region (GMR) in order to consolidate and progress surface climate data and metadata rescue
2. To develop comprehensive, long and high-quality surface climate datasets for the GMR with a focus on the relevant Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), which are currently required to support the work of the UNFCCC, the IPCC and the WMO/World Climate Program (WCP)
3. To seek and mobilise resources and efforts at the national, regional and international scales in support of Data Rescue and Homogenisation (DARE&H) of long climate records over the GMR and undertake specific national and transnacional DARE projects
4. To carry out research on Data Rescue, quality control and homogenisation, and on the development of high-quality climate datasets, and promote capacity building on these techniques through demonstration and training activities addressed to young scientists and climatologists from developing countries in GMR
5. To assist the countries, by providing expertise to the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs) and other data archiving centers, in the recovery, organization and archiving of their historical heritage of meteorological observations, based on the WMO general guidelines and the international scientific and technological expertise in the field
6. To develop a common GMR inventory of the longest possible instrumental climate records available within NMHSs as well as other old valuable sources of weather and climate records available in the archives of various centres and organizations
7. To develop a web-based data and metadata portal for the management and exchange of data sets and related metadata in a compliance with a commonly agreed data policy among GMR Members
8. To monitor and report on DARE projects and activities undertaken worldwide and make benefit to MEDARE of the outcome from the most successful ones based on a wide international collaborative approach.
9. To foster collaboration with international programmes, organizations and initiatives having interest in climate data and raise awareness on the key and essential role of developing high-quality climate data sets among decision makers and users in GMR and worldwide in particular of the role of climate data in supporting the climate change mitigation and adaptation measures