image
in print
Dr. Jean-Louis FELLOUS
CNES (France)
Chair, Strategic Implementation Team
The 7th Strategic Implementation Team (SIT) meeting was held in Geneva,
thanks to WMO hospitality, and was attended by 24 participants representing
10 Agencies.
The objective of this meeting was to prepare the recommendations
to the 5th IGOS-Partnership meeting (scheduled on 7 June 2000), with regard
to the Ocean Theme Team final report, to the Carbon Cycle Theme Team status
report, to new potential Themes as well as to issues related to
the infrastructure of the IGOS Partnership, so as to ensure a more effective
conduct of business, and with regard to the status of SIT vis-?-vis CEOS.
The Ocean Theme Team Report was accepted by CEOS/SIT as a satisfactory strategy for the implementation process on oceans. Space agencies have already made significant commitments and the report provides an excellent basis to analyze and remedy to the deficiencies, such as gaps and unnecessary overlaps. The Partners are now requested to accept the report, to provide their contributions, in terms of in situ data collection, and to establish data, products and services requirements.
Acknowledging the status report on Carbon Cycle Theme, SIT members outlined several areas of satisfaction. The rapid development of the "Terrestrial Carbon Theme Team" offers a satisfactory representation and a reasonable planning for draft report presentation at IGOS-P6 (incl. early presentation at SIT-8 in Rio). However SIT identified some areas of concern and insisted on the need for immediate attention of the Ocean Carbon element and its combination with the Terrestrial Carbon component within an overarching Carbon Cycle Theme.
CEOS/SIT was given a presentation of the CEOP (Coordinated Enhanced
Observation Period) project of WCRP which was considered as a precursor
for an IGOS Water Cycle Theme to be developed in due course. In its conclusions,
SIT encouraged CEOS Agencies to respond
to formulated requirements in terms of satellite data to fully support
intensive observation of dedicated sites.
SIT conclusions and recommendations in these matters were reported to IGOS-P5, which acknowledged their value and adopted related action items. (See lead article on IGOS-P activities on page 1.)
Concerning the infrastructures related to CEOS/SIT and to IGOS-P, three items were put to participants' consideration:
Drs. Josef Cihlar, Scott Denning, and Jeff Tschirley
Respectively affiliated with: the Global Terrestrial Observing System,
the Canadian Space
Agency, Colorado State University, and the Food & Agriculture Organization
of the UN
This report is a follow-up to an article in the last newsletter (February,
2000) in which the proposed TCO initiative was initially described.
Several important events have taken place since that time.
Synthesis of requirements. A workshop was convened by GTOS in
cooperation with IGBP to take place in Ottawa, Canada on 6-8
February, 2000.The main objectives of the workshop were to synthesise
the existing information on terrestrial carbon observation requirements,
evaluate its consistency and completeness, and prepare a 'strawman' framework
report for the Terrestrial Carbon Meeting in May. The workshop made a substantial
progress in consolidating observation requirements and in defining a dual
observation framework, top-down (atmospheric inversions) and bottom up
(ecosystem modeling based on satellite observations, ecological models
and in limited situ
observations). The workshop emphasised the observation of all C fluxes
between the ecosystems and the atmosphere; therefore, the observations
implied by the Kyoto Protocol were implicitly included, although these
were not considered specifically because the negotiation
process regarding the needed observations is still ongoing. The workshop
also defined observation requirements, both satellite and in situ; reviewed
the current status of observations, identified gaps and proposed solutions;
and proposed a way forward in evolving a terrestrial
carbon observing system over the next 1- 10 years. The report*1 is
available at: http://www.ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/ccrs/eduref/edurefe.html.
*1
: Cihlar, J., Denning, A.S., and Gosz, J. (Eds). 2000. Global terrestrial
carbon observation: requirements, present status, and next steps. Report
of a Synthesis Workshop, 8-11 February 2000, Ottawa, Canada. 101p.