Jeff Tschirley
Programme director
15-18 October 2002
Greenville, North Carolina
Global Terrestrial Observing System
GTOS
Outline
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GTOS programme:
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Terrestrial climate observations
Terrestrial carbon observations
Forest and land cover dynamics
Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Sites
Challenges
GTOS programme
Mission
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Facilitates access to information on terrestrial
ecosystems
Seeks to detect, understand and manage change
Collaborates with researchers and policy makers
Works with countries toward development of
global and continental / regional products
GTOS programme
Characteristics of activities
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Produce validated data and information products with known
accuracies
Stimulate advances in the assembly, use, management and
exchange of large terrestrial datasets
Promote common data processing standards and interpretation
methods
Support systems that provide both research and operational
information on a regular and sustained basis
Strengthen links between satellite and in situ data; in particular the
international conventions
Identify gaps and overlaps in current and planned earth
observation programs; find ways to resolve them
GTOS programme
Structure
Terrestrial climate observations
TOPC science questions
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How is the global climate system changing?
What are the primary factors forcing the climate
system?
Terrestrial
climate observations
Technical training
Observations and modelling
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Defining terrestrial observations and methods to:
Characterize current climate
 Determine rate and causes of change
 Forcing and feedbacks from changing GHG concentrations
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Predictive, use in assimilation models:
What to observe, when, where and at what accuracy
 Generating products to understand and predict climate
processes
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Reporting to UNFCCC on adequacy of global observing
systems (terrestrial component)
Terrestrial carbon observations
An IGOS initiative with the following objectives
 2005: estimate annual net land-atmosphere fluxes
at a sub-continental scale with a 30% accuracy
globally and spatial resolution (106 km2 regionally)
 2008: improve accuracy (20%) and spatial
resolution (106 km2 globally)
 Produce sink/source maps with the highest spatial
resolution enabled by the available satellitederived and other input products (~ 1 km2 or less)
Terrestrial carbon observations
Principles
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Hierarchy of spatial scales
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Dual-constraint approach
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Predictions are compared to
estimates made from observations
Estimate regional fluxes and
uncertainties
Terrestrial carbon observations
Key observation requirements
 Satellite: land cover and use, biomass, leaf area,
fires, solar radiation, atmospheric column (CO2,
CH4)
 Atmospheric: near surface GHG concentration,
surface fluxes
 In Situ: Carbon pools and changes
Forest and land cover dynamics
GOFC-GOLD teams
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Forest and land cover
characteristics and change
Fire monitoring and
mapping
Biophysical processes
Forest and land cover dynamics
Next steps
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Operational forest and land cover
monitoring system
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Improved satellite and in situ validation
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Strengthening regional networks
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Central and southern Africa
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Southeast Asia
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Boreal zones
Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Sites
Who, what, where
Web directory of 1,600 sites and 55 networks in 110
countries that carry out long-term terrestrial
ecosystem monitoring of 110 variables
http://www.fao.org/gtos/tems
Challenges
Terrestrial science community
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Build strong, effective groups to secure support for operational
terrestrial monitoring (satellite and in situ) systems as already
exist for oceans and the atmosphere
Enhance the collection and use of data, moving from supply to
demand-driven systems
Define the terrestrial observational requirements jointly with the
user community
Design and implement observation and information systems with
measurements of known accuracy and quality to demonstrate what
is needed and why it is worth doing
Questions and answers
GTOS Secretariat
www.fao.org/gtos
gtos@fao.org
tel: +39 06 5705-2565
fax: +39 06 5705-3369