Transcript WMO CCl OPACE 2 Task Team on National Climate Monitoring Products John Kennedy1, Ladislaus B.

WMO CCl OPACE 2 Task Team on National Climate
Monitoring Products
John Kennedy1, Ladislaus B. Chang’a2, Derek Arndt3, Raj Booneeady4, Olga Bulygina5, Mesut Demircan6, Mohammad Semawi7, Andrew Watkins8
1 UK
Met Office, 2 Tanzania Meteorological Agency, 3 NOAA, 4 Mauritius Meteorological Services, 5 All-Russian Research Institute of Hydrometeorological Information, 6 Turkish State Meteorological
Service, 7 Jordan Meteorological Department, 8 National Climate Centre Bureau of Meteorology, Australia.
Task Team on National Climate Monitoring Products
What are National Climate Monitoring Products?
Currently, a wide variety of climate monitoring products are produced
around the world and there are many inconsistencies between the
methods used by different countries. The inconsistencies make
comparisons difficult, or impossible.
It is perhaps best to show by example what a national climate
monitoring product is. The diagram below shows time series for various
national monitoring products. There is annual and decadal mean
temperature from Australia, annual precipitation from the UK and a
composite extremes index from the US.
Even simple differences such as the choice of the base period for
calculating anomalies, or the length of available records can make it
difficult to interpret differences from one country to the next. For
example, the “warmest year on record” is newsworthy if the record is
200 years long, but less so if it is only 5 years long.
These are relatively complex creations, but a national climate
monitoring product might be as simple as the maximum temperature
recorded in the country during the year, or month, or the onset date of
the seasonal rains at a particular location. Derived products are also
possible based on these products such as temperature rankings e.g. in
Australia, 2005 was the warmest year on record.
The main aim of the task team is to generate a short list of standard
national climate monitoring products that can be produced consistently
by most countries. The requirement to be inclusive, to allow more
countries to participate, places certain practical constraints on what
can be demanded.
The team would define how those products would be created so that
comparing a national monitoring product from one country with that of
another would be an apples with apples comparison.
The list would allow countries with few resources to focus their efforts
on those products which would be widely used and enable them to
participate in global monitoring activities such as the Bulletin of the
American Meteorological Society’s State of the Climate reports.
The task team was convened by the WMO Commission for
Climatology (CCl) in June 2010 and draws on the experience of
climate monitoring experts from most of the WMO regions.
Rapporteur to review documents
Expert Group on Quality Management for
Climatology (CCLEGQM)
President
Vice-President
Dr Thomas C. Peterson
Mr Serhat Sensoy
(USA, RA IV)
(Turkey, RA VI)
Task Team on climatological normals
Expert Team on Strategy for Capacity
Building for Climate Services
OPACE 4
OPACE 1
OPACE 2
OPACE 3
Climate Data
Management
Climate Monitoring and
Assessment
Climate Products
and Services
Climate Information for
Adaptation and Risk
Management
Co-Chair: Dr Song Lianchun (China II)
Co-Chair: Dr Fatima Driouech (Morocco I)
Co-Chair: Dr Kiyoharu Takano (Japan II)
Co-Chair: Dr Rodney Martinez (Ecuador III)
Co-Chair: Dr William Wright (Australia V)
Co-Chair: Dr Manola Brunet (Spain VI)
Co-Chair: Dr Jean-Pierre Céron (France VI)
Co-Chair: Dr Albert Martis (Netherland
Antilles IV)
2.1 CCl/CLIVAR/JCOMM ET on Climate
Change Detection & Indices
3.1 Expert Team on Regional Climate
Centres
4.1 Expert Team on Climate Risks &
Sector-specific Climate Indices
1.2 Expert team on Data Rescue
2.2 Rapporteurs on World Weather and
Climate Extreme Records
3.2 Task team on CLIPS Evolution
4.2 Task team on User Participation in
Climate Outlook Forums
1.3 Task Teams on Observational
Standards and Practices
2.3 Task Team on National Climate
Monitoring Products
3.3 Task Teams on Global Seasonal
Climate Update
4.3 Joint Working Group on Climate
Food and Water
1.1 Expert team on Climate Data Base
Management Systems
International Workshop on Datasets UK
International conference on climate data
Ad hoc teams as needed
2.4 TT on Definitions of Extreme
Weather and Climate Events
Ad hoc teams as needed
4.4 Task Team on User Interface
Ad hoc teams as needed
Ad hoc teams as needed
Figure 1. Annual (red line) and decadal (grey
bars) average temperature anomalies
relative to 1961-1990 for Australia. The
series begins in 1910 and runs to 2009. The
graph was produced by the Australian
Governments Bureau of Meteorology.
Figure 2. Annual (blue bars) and decadal
(red line) average annual total precipitation
anomalies relative to 1971-2000 for the
United Kingdom. The series begins in 1910
and runs to 2009.
Figure 3. Annual (red bars) and 5-year mean
(green line) of the U.S. Climate Extremes Index
(CEI). The U.S. CEI is based on an aggregate set
of conventional climate extreme indicators which
include: monthly maximum and minimum
temperature, daily precipitation and monthly
Palmer Drought Severity Index.
Terms of reference of the Task Team
1. Consider the existing national climate monitoring products and determine which of these products are most important from a scientific
perspective as well as which products generate the most interest among the general public within those countries.
2. Consider the existing capabilities within developing countries to potentially produce the climate monitoring products documented in (1) above.
3. Develop a list of from two to six national climate monitoring products that the team recommends Members produce.
4. Precisely document the construction of this priority list of national climate monitoring products in a publication intended to be an addition to the
WCDMP publications.
5. Determine if it would be helpful to develop software to calculate these products and, if so, what language would be appropriate for the software.
6. Should software be deemed appropriate, either create the software or recommend that such software be created.
7. Report to OPACE 2 co-chairs.
8. Task team lead to inform OPACE 2 co chairs that the task is finished and that the team can be dissolved.
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