Ocean climate observing requirements in support of climate research and climate information

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Date
2019-07-31
Authors
Stammer, Detlef
Bracco, Annalisa
AchutaRao, Krishna
Beal, Lisa M.
Bindoff, Nathaniel L.
Braconnot, Pascale
Cai, Wenju
Chen, Dake
Collins, Matthew
Danabasoglu, Gokhan
Dewitte, Boris
Farneti, Riccardo
Fox-Kemper, Baylor
Fyfe, John
Griffies, Stephen M.
Jayne, Steven R.
Lazar, Alban
Lengaigne, Matthieu
Lin, Xiaopei
Marsland, Simon
Minobe, Shoshiro
Monteiro, Pedro M. S.
Robinson, Walter
Roxy, Mathew Koll
Rykaczewski, Ryan R.
Speich, Sabrina
Smith, Inga J.
Solomon, Amy
Storto, Andrea
Takahashi, Ken
Toniazzo, Thomas
Vialard, Jérôme
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DOI
10.3389/fmars.2019.00444
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Keywords
Ocean observing system
Ocean climate
Earth observations
In situ measurements
Satellite observations
Ocean modeling
Climate information
Abstract
Natural variability and change of the Earth’s climate have significant global societal impacts. With its large heat and carbon capacity and relatively slow dynamics, the ocean plays an integral role in climate, and provides an important source of predictability at seasonal and longer timescales. In addition, the ocean provides the slowly evolving lower boundary to the atmosphere, driving, and modifying atmospheric weather. Understanding and monitoring ocean climate variability and change, to constrain and initialize models as well as identify model biases for improved climate hindcasting and prediction, requires a scale-sensitive, and long-term observing system. A climate observing system has requirements that significantly differ from, and sometimes are orthogonal to, those of other applications. In general terms, they can be summarized by the simultaneous need for both large spatial and long temporal coverage, and by the accuracy and stability required for detecting the local climate signals. This paper reviews the requirements of a climate observing system in terms of space and time scales, and revisits the question of which parameters such a system should encompass to meet future strategic goals of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), with emphasis on ocean and sea-ice covered areas. It considers global as well as regional aspects that should be accounted for in designing observing systems in individual basins. Furthermore, the paper discusses which data-driven products are required to meet WCRP research and modeling needs, and ways to obtain them through data synthesis and assimilation approaches. Finally, it addresses the need for scientific capacity building and international collaboration in support of the collection of high-quality measurements over the large spatial scales and long time-scales required for climate research, bridging the scientific rational to the required resources for implementation.
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© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Stammer, D., Bracco, A., AchutaRao, K., Beal, L., Bindoff, N. L., Braconnot, P., Cai, W., Chen, D., Collins, M., Danabasoglu, G., Dewitte, B., Farneti, R., Fox-Kemper, B., Fyfe, J., Griffies, S. M., Jayne, S. R., Lazar, A., Lengaigne, M., Lin, X., Marsland, S., Minobe, S., Monteiro, P. M. S., Robinson, W., Roxy, M. K., Rykaczewski, R. R., Speich, S., Smith, I. J., Solomon, A., Storto, A., Takahashi, K., Toniazzo, T., & Vialard, J. Ocean climate observing requirements in support of climate research and climate information. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, (2019): 444, doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00444.
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Stammer, D., Bracco, A., AchutaRao, K., Beal, L., Bindoff, N. L., Braconnot, P., Cai, W., Chen, D., Collins, M., Danabasoglu, G., Dewitte, B., Farneti, R., Fox-Kemper, B., Fyfe, J., Griffies, S. M., Jayne, S. R., Lazar, A., Lengaigne, M., Lin, X., Marsland, S., Minobe, S., Monteiro, P. M. S., Robinson, W., Roxy, M. K., Rykaczewski, R. R., Speich, S., Smith, I. J., Solomon, A., Storto, A., Takahashi, K., Toniazzo, T., & Vialard, J. (2019). Ocean climate observing requirements in support of climate research and climate information. Frontiers in Marine Science, 6, 444.
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