87th AMS Annual Meeting

Tuesday, 16 January 2007: 2:30 PM
A Candidate GCOS Atmospheric Reference Observations Network (GARON) Consisting of ARM, BSRN and WMO Reporting Sites and Satellite / In-situ Data Collection Strategies
207A (Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center)
Anthony L. Reale, NOAA/NESDIS, Washington, DC; and E. G. Dutton
Poster PDF (1.5 MB)
An evolving goal of recently held joint National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Global Climate Observing System (NOAA / GCOS) workshops (February-04 and May-05) is to define requirements for a global network of reference observing sites for Climate. Questions include whether the primary goal of reference sites will be to provide direct climate monitoring or serve as transfer standards to calibrate observations contained in the broader baseline and comprehensive networks. The following report is inclined to the latter and proposes a candidate network of approximately forty (40) sites comprised of subsets of existing Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN), Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) observations stations. A key component of the network is the availability of suitable radiosonde and ground base observations and data management strategies to compile spatially and temporally coincident suites of observations that are also collocated with polar satellite data, including NOAA, NASA/EOS and recently deployed COSMIC and METOP spaced based platforms. The report provides inventories of observations currently available at each site, network robustness with respect to global atmospheric temperature, moisture and surface representation, current and planned next generation satellite platforms, and data collection and management strategies to insure the integrity and timely user access of reference network observations. The report concludes with potential benefits of proposed reference network data in defining long-term records of "same-same" measurement characteristics required for their blended integration in climate monitoring and prediction.

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