ET 2.2 work plan (WP) for the 2006-2009 period

  1. Capability Audit
  2. World Wide Climate Monitoring and Climate Watches
  3. Global Climate Review

1. Capability Audit

A web-based "Capability Audit" of satellite and in situ climatologies and related activities will be developed for the ET 2.2 web site. This inventory will list:

  • Datasets descriptions
  • Examples of datasets outputs
  • Links to GCOS CDR requirements
  • Known problems and issues
  • Data access points
  • Appropriate datasets developer/maintainer contact points
  • Summary of "missing" CDR datasets that are yet to be developed under the GCOS requirement
  • Overview of what satellite data are available and appropriate for climate monitoring (Target Date: April 2007)
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2.- World Wide Climate Monitoring and Climate Watches

The goal of this project is to promote the capability of the countries around the world in climate monitoring through providing some training materials and sharing the operational products among the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs). The webpage of ET 2.2 would be a reasonable platform to realize it, with links to the information on techniques and methodology in climate monitoring and to the web sites of various NMHSs issuing their routine monitoring products and the climate watch documents. Overviews and guidelines on some special climate monitoring issues, such as the revision of the CCl Guide to phenological practices, will be included. Details are given as below.

  1. Capacity building through demonstration. The ET 2.2's web site will provide information on how different groups are monitoring the climate along with various indices, such as the Palmer Drought Index, with links to what is being done by various countries around the world. Complimentary to Climate Watch work of previous CCl session, so include a link to the climate watch document. (Target date: August 2007)
  2. Review of the CCl guide to phenological practices and update contents noting the need for international standardisation (especially reference species) and enhancement of international collaboration. The report should advise the Commission on the issues facing the phenological network and propose a strategy to potentially address these.
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3.- Global Climate Review

This effort will focus on improving the scientific understanding of the state of the global climate through annual State of the Climate (SC) reports. These reports are prepared by more than 90 scientists throughout the WMO regions with leadership provided by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. They are published in the June issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society and subsequently published by the WMO to better serve the needs of all participating countries. While tremendous gains have been made in ensuring the reports are globally comprehensive, provide equal perspectives to all regions, and include contributions from scientists around the world, Expert Team 2.2 identified three areas that should be addressed to further improve the report. These include (1) translation of the English reports into five other languages, (2) preparation of a short summary to clarify how authorship is determined and if additional expertise might be available, and (3) inclusion of additional phenological information to the report. Details on each area are provided below.

  1. Translation of the SC reports into five other languages; Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, and French. Efforts should begin with the 2005 State of the Climate report which was published in June 2006. By working through the process of identifying appropriate personnel and lessons learned with the 2005 report, translations of future State of the Climate reports can take place more rapidly. Jay Lawrimore will provide the 2006 State of the Climate report to each lead in April or May 2007. Action 14.
  2. Preparation of a short summary to clarify how SC authorship is determined and if additional expertise might be available to support future editions of the State of the Climate report. Noting the increasing importance of the annual SC report as well as discussions held at the Commission in Beijing, there is a need to better publicize the process for authorship selection to ensure appropriate international expertise, participation, and contributions. The ET 2.2 requested a review of the authorship selection process. The review should help clarify how the report is created and identify areas of expertise that could help improve the report. The review article should be posted on the NCDC State of the Climate website and linked via the ET 2.2 website. Action 13.
  3. Inclusion of new phenological information in the SC report. Mark Schwartz will advise Jay Lawrimore and Rainer Hollmann on appropriate contact information in Europe that could potentially make a contribution to the annual SC report. Action 16.
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ACTION-1

Pierre Bessemoulin

To send Craig Donlon a Meteo France pamphlet describing satellite receiving systems useful for climatology development that can be included in the Capability Audit (Action 8, Target Date: Nov. 2006).

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ACTION-2

Craig Donlon, Xiaolan Wang, Rainer Hollmann

A Web-based ‘Capability Audit’ of satellite and in situ climatologies and related activities will be developed for the ET2.2 web site. The inventory should list data set descriptions, example data set outputs, links to GCOS CDR requirements, known problems and issues, data access points, appropriate data sets developer/maintainer contact points, and a summary of ‘missing’ CDR data sets that are yet to be developed under the GCOS requirement (Target Date: April 2007). Update continuously.

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ACTION-3

Rainer Hollmann, Manola Brunet

They will work with the CCl ET2.2 team to develop a proposal (Target Date: May 2007) to EUMETSAF SAF (Head: L Schuller) for a climate based visiting scientist activity in collaboration with the international climate community (Noting the following EUMETSAT and ET2.2 interests including: the ET2.2 emphasis on oceans and satellites, the need for capability building of satellite expertise and products in developing countries, the need for better international coordination for satellite climate products, the expertise of EUMETSAT and the CM-SAF, the recent purchase (by EUMETSAT) of the entire SSM/I brightness temperature archive, the need for new accurate and consistent products and climate indicators, the expertise within the entire SAF network and their desire to develop integrated products).

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ACTION-4

Rainer Hollmann, Zuqiang Zhang, Pierre Bessemoulin

To create overview of what satellite data are available and appropriate for climate monitoring and place that overview on ET2.2's web site (Target Date: April 2007). As training and education is important, inputs are requested from every member of ET 2.2 on satellite training activities in their regions and contact points who can provide information. Demonstration projects may be appropriate, and examples will be provided on the web site if possible. Some comments about capacity requirements in terms of data transfer rate will be made as some satellite data sets are small and others are huge. Liaise with Space Programs to avoid duplication of effort. Pierre Bessemoulin to provide contact information about the Space Program. Zuqiang Zhang to contact the Chinese Meteorological Satellite Center of CMA to see what assistance they can provide for training.

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ACTION-5

Jay Lawrimore, Xiaolan Wang, Zuqiang Zhang, Wan Azli Wan Hassan

Capacity building through demonstration. On ET 2.2's web site, provide information on how different groups are monitoring the climate along with various indices, such as the Palmer Drought Index. With links to what is being done by various countries around the world. Complimentary to Climate Watch work of previous CCl session, so include a link to the climate watch document. Target date: August 2007).

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ACTION-6

Zuqiang Zhang

To contact members of ET2.2 who didn’t attend the meeting and ask them to volunteer on some of these action items (any action item except #17). Target Date: October 2006.

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ACTION-7

Pierre Bessemoulin, Rainer Hollmann

To revisit the ToR for WMO Regional Climate Centres to check the satellite and marine references are appropriate. Target Date: October 2006.

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ACTION-8

Manola Brunet, Jay Lawrimore, Craig Donlon, Zuqiang Zhang, Wan Azli Wan Hassan

They will investigate the possibility of hosting the ET 2.2 web page on URV web site. The web site content must be written by team members on their action items. General web site for ET 2.2 to be developed by Jay Lawrimore, Craig Donlon, Zuqiang Zhang. Add overview of ET 2.2, members, TOR (just put in links to CCl web site). Once the ET website is finished, the presentations made at the start-up meeting will be posted there. This site should be simple so it is easy to download. Target Date: December 2006. If there is a problem with URV, Xiaolan Wang will try to host it in Canada.

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ACTION-9

Craig Donlon

To develop and submit a presentation to the CLIMAR-III conference managed by the WMO/IOC JCOMM ET on Marine Climatology planned for 2007/8. Craig Donlon should work with Scott Woodruff to develop stronger links between CCl and JCOMM marine climatology activities to ensure these are coordinated. Target date: October 2007.

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ACTION-10

Pierre Bessemoulin

To write a Letter of support, as CCl President, to the Director of the Sir Alistair Hardy Foundation for Oceanographic Science (SAHFOS) expressing acknowledgement of the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) data set noting the importance of the data set as the longest marine biology time series (1931-present). Craig Donlon to provide input and the Address of the SAHFOS group. Target date: October 2006.

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ACTION-11

Pierre Bessemoulin

To write a Letter of support, as CCl President, to the Director of the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE) High Resolution SST Pilot-Project (GHRSST-PP) expressing acknowledgement of the GHRSST-PP plans to develop a modern era (1981-present) SST climatology exploiting the full power of satellite and in situ observations noting the importance of such a data set for seasonal forecasting, climate monitoring. The letter should express a need to make this data freely available to developing countries in an appropriate manner. Craig Donlon to provide input. Target date: October 2006.

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ACTION-12

Jay Lawrimore

A web pamphlet (hard copy and pdf) describing the web based capability inventory and highlighting the work of the ET 2.2 will be developed after the web site is functioning as an outreach activity promoting the work of the CCl ET2.2 in developing and developed countries. Target Date: September 2007.

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ACTION-13

Jay Lawrimore

Noting the increasing importance of the annual Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) Statement of the Climate (SC) Article and, noting the discussions at the Commission in Beijing, and discussions at the ET 2.2-I meeting, there is a need to broaden the understanding of the authorship list to ensure appropriate international expertise, participation and contributions. The ET 2.2 requested that a review of how the BAMS SC Authorship selection is made and what the process is for people to make contributions and be included in the BAMS authorship. The review should help clarify how the article is created and what areas of expertise could be improved by additional authors. The review article should be developed and posted on the ET2.2 web site or on the NCDC BAMS article web site and linked via the ET 2.2 web site. Target date: December 2006. Consider this as a note to BAMS to be published separately.

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ACTION-14

Jay Lawrimore, Hama Kontongomde to lead and All ET2.2 members to participate

Noting the importance of Action-11, the ET-2.2 requested that the BAMS Statement of the Climate Article should be translated in to the following languages: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, French. Formal support from Russia has already been offered to CCl. Pierre Bessemoulin to discuss translation of this document into French (Target Date: October 2006). Enric Aguilar has agreed to lead the effort to translate the document into Spanish. Hama Kontongomde to talk to Omar Baddour about translation into Arabic. Zuqiang Zhang to pursue translation into Chinese. Hama Kontongomde to talk to Omar to coordinate translation and publication by WMO. This is for the Climate of 2005 (published in June 2006) and the Climate of 2006 to be published June 2007. Jay Lawrimore to provide the leads for various translations with the text to be translated in April 2007.

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ACTION-15

Mark D. Schwartz

To review of the CCl guideto phenological practices (see http://www.omm.urv.cat/documentation.html for a link to the approved document)and update content noting the need for international standardisation (especially reference species) and enhancement of international collaboration. Thereport should advise the Commission on the issues facing the phenologicalnetwork and propose a strategy to potentially address these. Target date: December 2006

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ACTION-16

Mark D. Schwartz

To advise Jay Lawrimore and Rainer Hollmann on the appropriate contact for Phenological information in the European area that could potentially make a contribution to the BAMS Annual Statement. Target date: October 2006.

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ACTION-17

Randy Cerveny

They will create his official CCl web site on Arizona State University's web site (Target Date: April 2007). Hama Kontongomde will discuss with WMO whether there should be a different web page location. New records will be determined by a committee consisting of the Rapporteur for extreme records, the chair of OPAG 2, the head of the working group on climate matters from the CCl ICT, and at least one outside expert in that field (e.g., hail, precip), this will be explained on the web site. Randy Cerveny will add one more column on length of that type of instrumentation, and a column on pending new records, etc. Pierre Bessemoulin will recommend to CCl vice president to include this action in the ICT. Randy Cerveny to add station or location photographs where possible. Global and continental scale records. Create a 1 page brochure that can be handed out at press conferences and meetings.

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This web site is an external branch of the CCl website developed by the ET 2.2 and host by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Spain)

Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the web site do not reflect necessarily the WMO official position on some issues, and there publication on this site does not imply their endorsement by WMO before they are duly published through WMO official publication procedures and channels