World Meteorological Organization
Working together in weather, climate and water
WMO
Submarine Cables for Ocean/Climate
Monitoring and Disaster Warning
ITU- UNESCO/IOC- WMO Workshop
Dr Wenjian ZHANG, D/OBS, WMO
September 8, 2011, ROME
www.wmo.int
I: Brief Introduction of
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
The WMO is the UN system's authoritative
voice on the state and behaviour of the
Earth's atmosphere, its interaction with the
oceans, the climate it produces and the resulting
distribution of water resources.
The Vision of the WMO ： To provide world
leadership in expertise and international cooperation in
• Weather,
• Climate,
• Water, and
• related environmental issues,
and thereby to contribute to the safety and well
being of people throughout the world and to the
economic benefit of all nations.
Organizational Structure of WMO (189 Members )
CONGRESS
Executive Council
Regional Associations
Technical Commissions
Working Groups
Rapporteurs
Working Groups
Rapporteurs
Other Joint Bodies
WCRP , IPCC
GCOS
Working Groups
Panel of Experts
Secretary-General
Secretariat
WMO/OMM
Dr W. Zhang, WMO Presentation @ ITU/IOC/WMO Workshop, Rome, Italy
WMO Global Observing System (GOS)
• World Weather Watch - Global Observing System
(GOS, 1963), WMO backbone system
• Surface & Ocean in situ
observing networks
• Upper-air networks
• Surface remote sensing
(Radar) networks
• Airborne and
observations
• Satellite constellations
GOS Space-based development
1961
1990
1978
2009
Historic Evolution of Weather Prediction Skills
Source: Martin Miller, ECMWF
II: WMO New Initiative on
Climate Services
-Observation challenges and new
data & information needs
World Climate Conference-3
Aug 31 – Sept 4, 2009, GENEVA
The five main elements of the GFCS
• Major Gaps in the Three Domains
• Atmosphere
• Ocean
• Terrestrial
• Polar Regions (all three domains)
Weather & Climate Prediction Focus 1980-2005
1day
1week
1month 1season 1year
1 decade
1 century
The Seamless Prediction Problem
1day
Fronts
Convective
systems
1week
Cyclones
Blocks
1month 1season 1year
MJO
ENSO
NAO
QBO
1 decade
PDO
AMO
1 century
The Seamless Prediction Problem
Ice sheets
atmospheric chemistry
moisture
land
ocean
atmosphere
region
1day
Fronts
Convec
systems
skin
vegetation
upper
full
global
1week
Cyclones
Blocks
1month 1season 1year
MJO
ENSO
NAO
QBO
1 decade
PDO
AMO
1 century
Overview of Weather and Climate Models and the
Required Observations
Mid-1970s
Atmosphere
Mid-1980s
Early 1990s
Late 1990s
Present Day
Early 2000s?
Atmosphere
Atmosphere
Atmosphere
Atmosphere
Atmosphere
Weather
Land Surface
Land Surface
Land Surface
Land Surface
Land Surface
Climate
Variability
Ocean & Sea IceOcean & Sea Ice Ocean & Sea IceOcean & Sea Ice
Sulphate
Aerosol
Need an Integrated
Global Observing
System meet all
requirements：
WIGOS
Sulphate
Aerosol
Sulphate
Aerosol
Non-sulphate
Aerosol
Non-sulphate
Aerosol
Carbon Cycle
Carbon Cycle
Dynamic
Vegetation
Atmospheric
Chemistry
Climate
Change
A Seamless Prediction Framework
Climate Change.
Decades
Years
Seasons
Months
Boundary
Conditions
2 Weeks
Weather
1 Week
Initial
Conditions
Days
Watches
Hours
Warnings & Alert
Coordination
Adapted from: NOAA
Minutes
Environment
State/Local
Planning
Health
Energy
Ecosystem
Recreation
Water Resource
Planning
Fire Weather
Transportation
Space
Applications
Water
Management
Protection of
Life & Property
Applications
Agriculture
Forecasts
Climate Variability
Hydropower
Threats
Assessments
Forecast Lead Time
Outlook
Predictio
n
Guidance
Anthropogenic
Forcing
Commerce
Scenarios
Forecast
Uncertainty
Centuries
GFCS needs observing the Earth as a Complex System
Atmosphere
Surface Winds
Precipitation
Reflection and Transmission
Evaporation
Transpiration
Surface Temperature
Circulation
Surface Winds
Precipitation
Reflection and Transmission
Surface Temperature
Evaporation
Currents
Upwelling
Land
Infiltration
Runoff
Nutrient Loading
Surface Temperature
Currents
Ocean
WMO Co-sponsored Global Observing Systems
--Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)
IOC-led, UNEP， WMO and ICSU
Current coverage
•JCOMM Observations Programme Area (OPA) Implementation Goals now taking into account
Disaster Warning: Global Challenges We Share
As society becomes more complex we become more sensitive to
natural and human induced variability, particularly along coast areas
Global Hotspot study (World Bank with ProVention Consortium)
Risk levels: Top 30%:Red; Middle 30%:yellow; Lowest 40%: Blue:
35 countries have more than 5% pop in areas at risk from three or more hazards
96 countries have more than 10% pop in areas at risk from two or more hazards
160 countries have more than 25% pop in areas at risk from one or more hazards
WMO perspective on regarding
global ocean observations
• IOC-WMO-UNEP-ICSU Global Ocean
Observing System (GOOS)
– Joint WMO-IOC Technical Commission for Oceanography
and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) coordinating
implementation of the global component of GOOS
• JCOMM Observations Programme Area (OPA)
Implementation Goals now taking into account
–
–
–
–
–
2010 update of the GCOS-IP (and satellite supplement)
Progress report on the GCOS-IP
Outcome of OceanOBS’09 (Venice, September 2009)
Outcome of WCC3 and developing GFCS
RRR and non-climate requirements (e.g. NWP, GCW, SIA, …)
Ocean Observation Panels
Under JCOMM:
– Data Buoy Cooperation Panel (DBCP)
• Drifters, tropical moorings, ice buoys
• 10 Action Groups
– E-SURFMAR, IABP, IPAB, ISABP, IBPIO, NPDBAP,
GDP, TIP, OceanSITES, ITP
– Ship Observations Team (SOT)
• VOS (incl. VOSClim), ASAP, SOOP
– Global Sea Level Observing System (GLOSS)
JCOMM having also links also with:
• Argo (profiling floats)
• OceanSITES (long-term deepwater reference stations)
• IOCCP (Ocean Carbon)
Issues
• Achieving global coverage by in situ networks
– JCOMM OPA Implementation Goals – 62% completed
– Integrated approach (complementarity of obs. Systems)
– Ocean observations also used for
– NWP, SIA
– Ocean Mesoscale Forecast
– Coastal marine services
– Multi-harzard warning systems
• System-wide monitoring and performance
reporting
– JCOMM Metrics
– WMO Rolling Review of Requirements (RRR)
• Funding to meet implementation targets
The Joint WMO-IOC Technical Commission for
Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) -III
•
•
•
•
•
Ocean sub-surface variables
For met-ocean applications, and in the latter part of the medium-range for GNWP (~715 days) and for SIAF, the role of the sub-surface layers of the ocean becomes
increasingly important, and hence observations of these variables, particularly
temperature and salinity, become relevant.
Argo is the major source of sub-surface temperature and salinity observations,
providing global coverage to ~2000 m, mostly with acceptable-to-good spatial
resolution, but only marginal temporal resolution in the tropics.
The Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO)/TRITON moored buoy network provides data
of good frequency and accuracy, and acceptable spatial resolution, of sub-surface
temperature for the tropical Pacific. The tropical moored networks in the Atlantic
(PIRATA) and the Indian (RAMA) Oceans are better than marginal but do not yet
have long-term commitment.
The Ships-of-Opportunity Programme (SOOP) provides data of acceptable spatial
resolution over some regions of the globe but temporal resolution is marginal. SOOP
is evolving to provide enhanced temporal resolution along some specific lines. There
will be a need for continuity of those measurements.
Major challenges in four Areas
Data policy & sharing
Quality and long-term consistence
Historical Data Rescue
New Observing Capability & Impact
Ensure the quality of the observations to
meet GFCS requirements, data rescue
Accuracy, Precision
Representativeness
Measurement traceability
Long-time series stability
Reducing uncertainty
……
New observations for ocean are needed urgently!
Submarine cable: new opportunity for us
• The predictability of
ENSO
• Seasonal climate predictions
require information below the
surface for many tens of
metres depth,
• For decadal climate prediction,
information from the full
depth of the ocean may be
needed.
WMO Impact Studies will give us the impact of the
new observation to weather/climate services
AIRS+IASI contribute to 23.8% error reduction
4 AMSU-A contribute to 17.2% error reduction
RAOBs contribute to 7.9% error reduction
The order of the top five and their contribution to error reduction is:
AMSU-A (4 satellites) 17.2%
IASI (one satellite) 12.0%
AIRS (one satellite) 11.8%
AIRREP (aircraft temperature and winds) 9.3%
GPSRO (bending angles) 8.5%
TEMP (radiosonde winds, humidity, and temperatures) 7.9%
QuikSCAT (scatterometer surface winds over the oceans) 5.2%
Data and Products access and
availability
- Brief introduction to WMO
Information System (WIS)
What is WIS?
•
A catalogue of available data & products
– Seamless discovery, access and retrieval of data and products (DAR) across all
WMO systems, including collaborators and partners.
•
A network to exchange data
– Exchange of operational critical and time critical information as well as less
critical and high volume data (GTS is an integral part of WIS)
•
WIS serves all WMO programs and is open to partners outside
– GOOS,GEOSS, HYCOS, WIGOS, GFCS,..
– Other UN organizations (FAO,WHO), research organizations, other partners
•
Benefits of WIS
– Data management inside WMO and inside Members will be improved.
– This also increases the relevancy of WMO to other communities
– Data remains under the data provider’s control
GISC – DAR service
Search Request
marine warnings in area bounded by 40W to 10W and 45N to 70N
Search Results
User searches for
metadata then
retrieves
information from
data custodian
Information request to custodian
http://weather.gmdss.org/I.html
Retrieve information
Centre publishes
metadata to
GISC DAR
catalogue
Security/authentication/authorization
and even charging is managed by each
service provider
Search in WIS
NC/DCPC information
access service
Who am I? (NC,DCPC or GISC)
•
National Centre? (NC)
– Collect and/or produce national information
– Typically a NMC
•
Data Collection or Production Centre? (DCPC)
– Collect and/or produce regional or thematic information or are a
communications hub
– centre with regional role (e.G GRUAN, Arctic Data centre, RCC)
•
Global Information System Centres? (GISC)
–
Hold WMO metadata catalogue, 24hr cache of all GTS data , and act as
core comm’s hub
– Substantial technical and global/regional support commitment needed
NCs and DCPCs are data (and metadata) providers. GICS
are mere infrastructure centres.
The same NMHS can implement several types of WIS centres
WIS virtual structure maps onto
the GTS
New virtual structure
- Metadata is uploaded from NC & DCPC
to GISC (using GTS or others means)
- Data communication network
comprises, but is not limited to the GTS
(also internet, satellite, others)
NC
<->
NMC
GTS structure remains in
place for exchange of
time-critical and
operation-critical data and
products
DCPC
<->
RTH/NMC
GISC
<->
RTH
What is that status of WIS?
WIS will become operational in Jan 2012, as affirmed
by Cg XVI
– Main infrastructure centres (GISC) in operational or preoperational state in regions II,III,IV and VI as
designated/noted by Cg.
– Over 50 data providers (NC,DCPC) designated
– Main task is to bring all WMO members and partners on
board
•List of current WIS centres
http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/WIS/centres/index_en.php
Conclusion: WIS is one of the operational tools for us to
access, disseminate, share and archive of our
submarine cable observational data for supporting our
research, operation and services.
WMO
Thank you
The Vision of the WMO
To provide world leadership in expertise and
international co-operation in
– Weather,
– Climate,
– Water, and
– related environmental issues,
and thereby to contribute to the safety and
well being of people throughout the world
and to the economic benefit of all nations.