Chapter 6 Australian Participation in GCOS/GOOS/GTOS

Introduction

Systematic and comprehensive global observations are essential to improving our understanding of the global climate system and of the forces that drive it to vary and to change. Such observations provide a basis for the detection of climate change and prediction of climate variability, as well as providing immediate benefits through improved capabilities in short-term climate forecasting. In 1990, the Second World Climate Conference (SWCC) recognised that observational data and information about the climate system adequate to address the issue of climate change and its possible impacts were not available. It recommended the establishment of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), built on the World Weather Watch (WWW) Global Observing System and the Integrated Global Ocean Services System (IGOSS), including both surface-based and spacebased observing components. It was agreed that the proposed GCOS should underpin all four components of the World Climate Programme (climate data, applications, impacts and research). The conference also called for the establishment of a Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) to provide the oceanic data needed by GCOS.

Accordingly, in 1992 the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and the (then) International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) formally established the GCOS to address the observational requirements for climate system monitoring, climate change detection, data for research towards understanding and prediction, and data for national economic development (Figure 6.1). The concept of a GCOS has been promoted by a number of significant international meetings and reports. For example, the 1992 Rio de Janiero UNCED Agenda 21 explicitly recommended developing the GCOS, the 1995 Second Assessment Report of the IPCC (IPCC, 1996) highlighted the critical importance of climate monitoring systems and the 1997 conference on the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) re-emphasised the urgency of developing the GCOS in the light of growing concern about possible anthropogenic climate change and continued degradation of observing systems, especially in countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) reached decisions at the Third, Fourth and Fifth Sessions of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the convention (in the 1997,1998 and 1999 respectively) aimed at responding to the concerns raised by the WCRP. A key element of these was a call for the establishment of an intergovernmental mechanism based on GCOS to ensure systematic observations of the global climate system are available to meet the needs of the convention. Notwithstanding some enhanced contributions to ocean observing systems and advances in satellite systems, the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC (IPCC, 2001) also reiterated the high priority need for additional systematic and sustained observations of climate to improve the ability to detect, attribute and understand climate change.

Figure 6.1 The international sponsors and the areas of concern and overlaps of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS).

The IOC decided to initiate the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) at its Fifteenth Assembly in 1989 as a scientifically designed, permanent, international system for gathering, processing and analysing oceanographic observations on a consistent basis, and distributing data products. The GOOS was formally established in 1993 under the sponsorship of the IOC, WMO, UNEP and ICSU, with ocean climate as one of its key themes.

A third system, the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS), has been established to provide the base data and observational framework needed to understand and address the impacts of global change on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. Planning for GTOS began in 1993, and it was formally established in 1996 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), ICSU, UNEP, UNESCO and WMO.

GCOS and the domain specific systems, GOOS and GTOS, were thus initiated as core elements of a "global observing system", system", and while GOOS and GTOS also serve monitoring needs beyond those specifically or directly related to climate (such as marine resources and biodiversity), together the three programs address growing concerns over the extent and ramifications of possible climate change and also the growing recognition that industrial development needs to be environmentally sustainable. Australia has been actively involved from the earliest stages in the planning and implementation of GCOS and GOOS and in the planning for GTOS, both through its representation on key international and intergovernmental bodies and through the efforts of individual scientists.