Chapter 2 - Climate Data and Monitoring

Climate Monitoring and Analysis

There is a high level of demand both nationally and internationally, for wideranging, up-to-date information about climate. The Global Telecommunications System (GTS) and, more recently, the Internet have become increasingly vital in the gathering of data and in the rapid dissemination of climate information and analyses. Advances in information technology have revolutionised climate services in recent years, allowing climate monitoring and analysis to be performed in near realtime, with the resultant information distributed globally via electronic means. Previously, much less complex analyses took days or weeks to perform and often as long again to disseminate.

Climate monitoring and analysis activities activities encompass both the monitoring of climate variables, including their anomalies, on timescales of days, weeks or months, and the monitoring of long-term climate change.