WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
PANEL OF EXPERTS ON POLAR OBSERVATIONS,
RESEARCH AND SERVICES
EC-PORS-5/INF. 6
Submitted by: RES/ARE
Date: 7.II.2014
Fifth session
AGENDA ITEM: 3.1
Wellington, New Zealand, 24-28 March 2014
GLOBAL ATMOSPHERE WATCH (GAW)
SUMMARY
ISSUES TO BE DISCUSSED:
This document provides an update on the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) Programme’s
observing activities in the polar regions.
DECISIONS/ACTIONS REQUIRED:
1. The Panel is invited to review and comment on the update of the GAW Programme’s
observing activities and its adequacy in polar regions, recognizing the contribution of WMO
Members to its operation.
2. The Panel is invited to consider GAW in the context of other observing programmes, their
potential role in the development of environmental super-sites for observation and monitoring in
polar regions, their contribution to observing and scientific programmes of other bodies, such as
AMAP, SAON, SCAR, etc.
REFERENCES:
1. GAW WMO website: http://www.wmo.int/gaw
2. GAW Station Information System (GAWSIS): http://gaw.empa.ch/gawsis
EC-PORS-5/Doc. 3.1, p. 2
5.1
OBSERVATION PROGRAMME UPDATES
GLOBAL ATMOSPHERE WATCH (GAW)
Discussion
As reported by GAW in Document 5.1.1 for the 4th session of EC-PORS held in Lanzhou, China,
13-15 March 2013, the inadequate and diminishing atmospheric composition observation
networks to support research and understanding of the rapid changing Polar Regions remains a
concern. From a GAW perspective, there were no new stations established in Polar Regions
since this previous session of EC-PORS. All the new stations reported at the earlier sessions
are operational.
As highlighted previously, the most critical parameters to be observed in Polar Regions are:
 Aerosols including black carbon (to trace pollution transport to the Arctic and assess
their effects on regional and local climate);
 Reactive gases (to assess direct pollutant transport from the sources in the Northern
hemisphere);
 Greenhouse gases (to assess changes in the sources and sinks due to permafrost
melting, sea-shelf warming and climate feedbacks);
 halocarbon and ozone in the stratosphere (to assess the state of stratospheric ozone
and improve understating of ozone layer variability and climate).
An assessment of the current observational network shows that the ozone depletion problem in
the Antarctic is much better addressed by observations than are Arctic issues. To address the
impact of climate change (melting permafrost) on methane emissions, observations of methane
and its isotopic composition are necessary. Only 9 out of 16 registered active stations
measuring CH4 north of 60o submitted data for 2012 (in Antarctic 8 out of 11 registered stations
submitted data). To assess Arctic haze, observations of troposheric ozone, NOx, CO, VOCs and
aerosols are needed. There are 18 stations with surface ozone observations (3 of them
submitted data for 2012), 14 stations for CO (8 of them submitted data for 2012), 12 stations for
VOCs (only one with data submission in 2012) and 30 stations for aerosols (8 of them submitted
data for 2012). There are no GAW stations with NOx measurements in the Arctic.
The most critical issue for Antarctica is ozone depletion, where WMO/GAW has a long history of
ozone observations. Ozone depletion during the Southern Hemisphere (SH) spring is carefully
traced in the series of Antarctic Ozone Bulletins. Every year during SH ozone season, the
Ozone bulletins are published using near-real-time (NRT) data, data from 17 stations are
included in the Bulletin. The majority of them send their preliminary data to the WMO
Secretariat, 4 stations provide their data through the GTS. Due to the current incompatibility
between GTS and WIS, those data are not recoverable through WIS.
Data submitted in NRT are not stored in the World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre
(WOUDC). To allow for the required quality control procedures the submission to WOUDC of
final data is thus delayed. Nevertheless 12 stations south of 600 S did submit their data up to
mid 2013 to WOUDC. Datasets for total ozone from 8 stations are available for the Arctic region
(north of 600 N) for 2012 and 6 of those stations have data submissions for 2013.
The International Arctic System for Observing the Atmosphere (IASOA), a relatively new
initiative, has reached out to GAW for the exchange of metadata in the GAW Station Information
EC-PORS-5/Doc. 3.1, p. 3
System
(GAWSIS).
More
information
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/iasoa/.
on
IASOA
can
be
found
at
Summary
In spite of the fact that there are observing platforms established in Polar Regions within the
GAW Programme it is difficult to assess if the current network configuration addresses
adequately the issues relevant to polar regions or not. Although the regulations for the GAW
stations do suppose the measurement data to be submitted to the GAW Data Centres many
WMO Members participating in the GAW Programme do not fulfill this requirement. EC-PORS is
requested to work with GAW in highlighting the importance to Members for submission of data.
Such data are required to understand the processes relevant to the Arctic and Antarctic,
including assessing changes of the atmosphere and the measures required to address those
changes. The lack of data will hamper the development of applications (e.g., modelling tools) to
support understanding of climate change and human impact in Polar Regions.