1NOTES FROM THE SEVENTH FORMAL GEWEX HYDROCLIMATOLOGY PANEL (GHP)
TELECONFERENCE ON EUROPE-NEESPI-AFRICA REGIONAL HYDROCLIMATE PROJECTS AND
REFERENCE SITE ISSUES HELD ON
18 JANUARY 2011
First DRAFT, 31 March 2011
1.

INTRODUCTION

The 7th Europe-NEESPI-Africa RHP and Reference Sites Teleconference related to the GEWEXHydroclimatology Panel (former CEOP) took place on Tuesday 18 January at 13:00 UTC.
The issues that were discussed on the subject conference call included:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)

CEOP – GHP transitions: Second Co-Chair; New RHP criteria; Development a new RHP in the North
America
Overview of all site data at CEOP Reference Site Data Archive;
RHP/Reference Site data providers/managers reports;

Participants
The participants were:
Jan Polcher
Fred Bosveld
Philippe Drobinski
Efrat Morin
Pasha Groisman
Roberta Toffolon
Steve Williams
Sam Benedict
Petra Koudelova

Paris, France; New GHP Co-Chair
The Netherlands, BALTEX Cabauw site representative
France, HyMeX Representative
Israel, HyMeX Israel site Representative
USA, Representing NEESPI RHP
Italy, Representing HE group and Italian reference sites
Boulder, Colorado, USA; CEOP Data Management
USA; GHP, formerly CEOP International Coordination Function
Japan; GHP, formerly CEOP International Coordination Function

Drs. Dennis Lettenmaier (USA, GHP, formerly CEOP Co-Chair), Toshio Koike (Japan, Former CEOP CoChair and Data Integration Chair), Gianni Tartari (Italy, Representing CEOP_HE group and Italian reference
sites), Hans-Joerg Isemer (Representing BALTEX RHP), Frank Beyrich (Germany, BALTEX Lindenberg
site representative), Elisa Vuillermoz (Italy, Representing CEOP_HE group and Italian reference sites),Charles Wrench (UK, Chilbolton site representative), Esko Kyrö (Finland; FMI representative), Timo Ryyppo(Sodankylä, Finland ; Sodankylä site manager), and Thierry Lebel (Representing AMMA RHP) responded
to the announcements but were not available for the call. Nevertheless, Dr. Timo Ryyppo provided a written
update on the Sodankylä site in advance.
2.

NEXT CONFERENCE CALLth

The next, 8 GHP Europe-NEESPI-Africa RHP and Reference Sites Teleconference is
proposed to take place on Tuesday 17 May 2011, at 13:00 UTC. Koudelova/Benedict have the action(A1) to inform the group of the details of the next call nearer to the time of the call and to coordinate theorigination of the call (action A1a).

3.

GHP AND DATA GROUP GENERAL ISSUES

3.1 WCRP and GEWEX related issues(3.1a) Benedict reiterated the main outcomes of the 2nd Pan-GEWEX meeting that was held in Seattle,
USA, in August 2010 (http://www.gewex.org/2010pangewex/home.html). These included a number ofdecisions, recommendations and actions specifically associated with former CEOP as well as a set ofgeneral (Pan-GEWEX) actions for all the Panels. The main changes that have taken place recently withrespect to CEOP included:
1. The SSG accepted Prof Toshio Koike’s decision to step down as Co-Chair of CEOP effective at theclose of the PGM at Seattle. This action, followed Dr Ron Stewart’s resignation, which was taken at
the close of the SSG meeting at New Delhi India, 25-29 January 2010,

2
2. Dr Dennis Lettenmaier was named Co-Chair of CEOP to replace Dr Stewart, effective at the end of
the SSG meeting at India (25-29 January 2010),
3. There was a search team being organized to find a Co-Chair to work with Dr Lettenmaier.
4. The SSG agreed to change the name of CEOP to the GEWEX Hydroclimatology Panel (GHP),
effective immediately following the end of the PGM.
Also a new set of criteria for GEWEX RHPs was proposed at the meeting that were circulated prior to thelast call and all RHPs were asked to review this set.
(3.1b) Benedict advised the group that consequently after the PGM, Dr. Jan Polcher – Laboratoire de
Météorologie Dynamique, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Jussieu, Paris, France –had been nominated a new Co-Chair of GHP and had accepted this function. Dr. Polcher attended the calland introduced his interests in activities covered by GHP and stressed out in particular the importance ofhigh quality long-term in-situ observations that are essential for WCRP/GEWEX science. He pointed outthat individual sites on which RHPs are built up needed to be maintained and these difficult tasks should be
supported by the GEWEX community. Polcher also emphasized that both (i) long term records and (ii)intensive, comprehensive short term observation campaigns are necessary and that crucial is rigorous data
quality assurance with appropriate site instrumentation documentation. He voiced that establishing of a kindof a list of “good practices” for reference site observation would be desirable and also named the BSRN
sites as a good example of such practices.
Polcher further advised the group that the new GHP panel members (see ATTACHMENT 1 below) willmeet at the occasion of the EGU meeting in Vienna in April and they will discuss a new organization of the
Panel that would be suitable for the new directions identified at the PGM. In addition, he mentioned that thefirst meeting of the new GHP was proposed be held in September in Europe.
In this context, Benedict reiterated that with regards to the changes resulting from the Pan-GEWEX
meeting discussions, the data collecting and reporting scheme may need some restructuring, however theurgent need for a high quality data as a basis for scientific activities that are key for the GEWEX Imperatives
was confirmed at the Pan GEWEX Meeting and the reference site data activities are supposed to continue
in a certain manner. The in-situ data from the CEOP reference sites were acknowledged and studies basedon these data were presented at the meeting.
Also a few points from the last call were reiterated that included:- From the viewpoint of the data providers, the use of their data – the publications based on these data –should be announced and advertized more effectively. It was felt, that the science within GHP (CEOP)
based on these data needed to be discussed more in detail at dedicated working sessions.
- Also it was noted that scientific results produced by RHPs were not as much exploited and referred by
GEWEX as it could be. The feeling was that most of the effort was put in the data development though themain focus of GEWEX is the science.
(3.1c) After the call, at the beginning of March, Williams advised all the CEOP/GHP reference site groups
by via email about the development of the situation at NCAR/EOL, where the CEOP reference site archiveis hosted. With respect to the transition process from CEOP to GHP and envisioned GHP foci, the NOAA’s
Climate Projects Office (CPO), who has funded this CEOP activity since 2001, has directed EOL tocomplete these activities by September 2011. No additional funds have been allocated to EOL beyond
October 2011 to provide any support to CEOP/GHP. Accordingly, the NCAR EOL team has decided toprocess and follow up on all the reference site data that would be submitted to them by 31 March 2011
and a requested all the CEOP reference site data providers to consider this deadline to complete theirsubmissions as much as possible. The copy of this note and request is attached below (Attachment 2).
(3.1d) Benedict further informed the group that a new RHP was being formed in the Northern American
continent, involving the USA, Canada, and potentially Mexico. The proposed RHP, Terrestrial Regional
North American Hydro-Climate Experiment (TRACE) (http://www.trace-rhp.org/), envisions aninterdisciplinary, international, and interagency effort to make significant contributions to continental andfiner scale hydro-climate science and solutions. The TRACE objective is to entrain, integrate, andcoordinate the vast array of interdisciplinary observational and prediction resources available to significantly
advance skill in predicting and managing changes in North American water resources, as an integral part of
the global climate system. The TRACE mission is to measure and predict North American energy and water
variations, trends, and extremes through improved observations and prediction, thereby providing thescientific underpinnings of future climate services. The initial discussion workshop will be held on 18 – 20
April 2011, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Silver Spring, Maryland, USA.

3
(3.1e) It was reiterated that a 10-Year Dataset project had been initiated in response to the climate
modeling community need of a high quality observation data of a sufficient length for evaluation ofclimate models under the CMIP5 project and quantification of model projections uncertainties. This activity
was proposed by the WCRP Observation and Assimilation Panel (WOAP) and is compliant with the CEOP
commitment taken at the 3rd Annual CEOP Meeting in Melbourne in August 2009 to develop the CEOP 10year
dataset
as
well
as
with
the
GEWEX
post
2013
Imperatives(http://www.gewex.org/2010pangewex/Draft_Imperatives.pdf). The WOAP suggested activity is envisioned
as a collaborative effort of a broader observation and climate modeling communities including
GEWEX/CEOP, LandFlux-EVAL, GSWP, AsiaFlux, from the observation side. The targeted dataset willconsists of in-situ as well as satellite observations from multiple providers including GHP (CEOP),FLUXNET, AsiaFlux, iLEAPS.
The 10-Year Dataset project was discussed with the LandFlux-EVAL, FLUXNET, AsiaFlux, and GSWP
representatives at the occasion of the HESSS2 Meeting in Tokyo in June and subsequently a White Paper
was developed and submitted for discussion at the Pan-GEWEX meeting in August. The White Paper is
now under consideration by WCRP (WOAP) and GEWEX communities. Further details should be known
after the GHP Panel meeting in April.
4.
RHP and Reference Site Reports
4.1 Summary status of the reference site archive at NCAR/EOL(4.1a) Williams reported that the BALTEX Lindenberg and Cabauw site datasets were complete throughthe end of 2009 and the Sodankyla site dataset was complete up to 2008 and the 2009 data were underway.
He further voiced that the HyMeX site representatives had sent sample datasets and they had been
resolving a few issues that had occurred in the datasets.
Williams acknowledged that the European sites, in particular the BALTEX ones, had the most complete
and up to date datasets of all the CEOP (GHP) group. He also added that the other sites, including Asianand American ones, had also been submitting the data but in some cases the data release was delayed
due to data quality issues. In addition, the Asian sites are submitting the data through the Tokyo Data
Center that assures quality standards prior to sending to the Central Data Archive at NCAR.
4.2 BALTEX: Cabauw by Fred Bosveld
Bosveld reported that the Cabauw datasets through 2009 had been finalized and submitted to the NCAR
archive and were available on-line. Also the site documentation has been updated and confirmation of its
completeness is anticipated. Williams took action A2 to check the documentation and inform Bosveld of
possible issues, if any.
Bosveld also advised the group that efforts had been made to improve data quality at the Cabauw site andthat the approach toward observation and data management had been transforming from a research one toan operational approach. Their team has already significantly improved soil moisture observation and now
are focusing on flux measurements, which includes the observation instruments as well as calibration
methods. In this context, Bosveld mentioned that it would be desirable to have discussion among the data
providers on how to harmonize the flux observation as well as other in-situ measurements.
Bosveld further voiced that the European Meteorological Society (EMS) Conference was held in
September and Steve Williams gave an excellent and well acknowledged talk on the reference site data
issues and CEOP and other in-situ observation group (e.g. FLUXNET) activities in this arena.
4.3 BALTEX: Lindenberg by Frank Beyrich – written input
Beyrich reported in writing that the most relevant news from Lindenberg was the submission of the 2009
dataset to the CEOP archive at NCAR in December. An issue of interest was the status of the 10-years
data set initiative and Beyrich reiterated that from a data providers side it would be better to fix the period
2001-2010, since the Lindenberg data availability was reduced before this time and also the checking of theold data would require much more work then providing recent data.
4.4 BALTEX: Sodankylä by Timo Ryyppo – written input
Ryyppo reported in writing that all the data sets covering years 2005 to 2008 had been sent to NCAR but
some of the datasets were still in queue for checking. He also mentioned that they would recheck theuncertain tower data (2002-2004) for the next call.

4
4.5 HyMeX RHP report by Philippe Drobinski(4.5a) Drobinski reiterated that HyMeX (http://www.hymex.org/) had been approved as an official
GEWEX/GHP RHP by the GEWEX SSG at the Pan-GEWEX Meeting in Seattle.
(4.5b) Drobinski reported that the HyMeX had begun a long term observation period in September 2010
and the data were being collected and processed in proper format, which is a CORDEX format for HyMeX.
In addition to the in-situ observations, satellite data are being collected and products are being improved by
combining various sources data. Other activities include dynamic and statistical downscaling andcomparison of these techniques, and analyses.
(4.5c) Drobinski further mentioned that at the HyMeX SSC meeting the data policy was discussed andtwo types of a “user” was identified: (1) core users, who will have an access to all data including the raw
observations of all the HyMeX groups, and (2) other users, who will have an access to the freely available
processed data. The database with these processed datasets should be opened in the near future.
(4.5d) Regarding the HyMeX reference sites for GEWEX/GHP, Drobinski reiterated that these were threesites in Italy, France, and Israel, respectively and that the site representatives, namely Marco Borga (Italiansite), Veronique Ducrocq and Guy Delrieu (both France), and Efrat Morin (Israel) had provided samples to
the NCAR team and had been resolving the remaining data quality issues and communicating these with
Steve Williams. They will begin to deliver the data in the near future.
In this context, Morin reported that the sample of the Israel dataset that had been sent to NCAR earlier had
been confirmed by NCAR and thus full datasets of two stations for the 2005 – 2010 period had been
submitted and response from the NCAR team was anticipated. Williams took the action A3 to respond in
this matter as soon as possible. He pointed out that with these sites, there was an issue of a temporalinterval of the datasets that was 3-hourly (climatological data) while the CEOP standard is 30 minutes.
Therefore certain adjustments need to be done to the CEOP dataset format to properly accommodate suchdata.
Drobinski also reiterated that the HyMeX sites have applied to GPM to become ground validation sites,
which may bring installation of additional observation facilities.
(4.5e) Drobinski also mentioned that it might be good to include the Italian High Elevation sites into the
HyMeX analysis and took action A4 to communicate with Gianni Tartari about possible cooperation.
(4.5f) Drobinski further inform the group that the 5th HyMeX Workshop would take place in Menorca,
Spain on 15 – 19 May 2011.
4.6 AMMA by Jan Polcher
Polcher reported that due to a security issues in Niger, certain experiments of AMMA had to be cancelled
there, at the Gourma site. Nevertheless, observation activities in other countries including Benin, Senegal,
and Burkina Faso, continue. Polcher took action A5 to communicate with Thierry Lebel about possibility toprovide certain datasets to the CEOP archive. He also mentioned that the technicians working on the
HyMeX database are the same people who are responsible for the AMMA database and thus once they getfamiliar with the CEOP formats through the work on HyMeX data, they might also be able to work on the
AMMA data.
4.7 NEESPI by Pasha Groisman(4.7a) Groisman reported that NEESPI was preparing annual report on tits activities for IGBP and
GEWEX. More than 100 papers and 5 books (including two books on environmental change in Siberia andEurope) were published under the NEESPI auspices and several workshops were held in 2010. NEESPI
will also held open science sessions at EGU in Vienna.
(4.7b) Groisman reiterated that the Fyodorovskoye site documentation had been submitted and posted
on-line and assumed that the site managers had already been communicating with the NCAR team about
the data submission. Nevertheless, Williams noted that there had been no responses to their emails fromthe site. Groisman took action A6 to assist with establishing this connection again.
Groisman also mentioned other sites with international cooperation that could be potential provider for the

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GEWEX/GHP reference site data activities. The Zotino site in Siberia, constructed in cooperation withGermany, has a 300 m high tower and is operational. Another possible candidate would be Krasnoyarsk.
4.8 Others: Italy and African sites of the CEOP-HE group by Roberta Toffolon(4.8a) Toffolon reiterated that their reference Italian site included three observation stations located in
Italian mountains (Monte Cino, Monte Cimone, and a glacier station) and was included in the CEOP groupof “Ohters” sites that are not associated with any RHP. The documentation of the stations as well as thedata has been sent to the NCAR archive. The 2008 - 2009 data have been sent to the NCAR archive.
In this context, Williams noted that before the data would be included in the archive and posted on-line, itneeded to be clarified, how the Italian sites would be grouped. It means, whether the HE sites and HyMeX
site will be put together – which would be logical from the scientific point of view – or listed separately underappropriate component (HE) or RHP (HyMeX). Drobinski, Tartari, and Toffolon will discuss official
establishment of collaboration between HE and HyMeX with respect to the Italian sites and then suggestion
will be made for grouping the datasets in the NCAR archive.
(4.8b) Toffolon also reiterated that they had received a draft of official letter for including their African site
to the GHP (CEOP) network. When the procedure is finalized, the data will begin to be sent to the GP(CEOP) archive.

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ATTACHMENT 1 List of GHP Panel Members

Last
Name

Berbery

Ek

First
Name

Hugo

MichaelAffiliation
Research in the Dept. of
Atmospheric and Oceanic
Science of the University of
Maryland(UMD)
National Centers forEnvironmental
Prediction/Environmental
Modeling Center(NCEP/EMC), NOAACountry

US

US

Gender

Male

Male

Age

Expertise?

- Diagnostic and modeling studies of regional climate
variability focused on the American monsoon systems and thehydrologic cycle- Role of surface conditions on land surface-atmosphereinteractions and their relation to the water and energy cycles?

Harding

RichardDirector of the
Biogeochemistry
programme at the NERC
Centre for Ecology andHydrology (CEH)

Kanae

ShinjiroTokyo Institute ofTechnology

Japan

Male

39

Vincenzo

Director of Research at the
Istituto di Scienze
dell’Atmosfera e del Clima(ISAC) of CNR

Italy

Male

53

Levizanni

UK

Male

?

-

Land hydrology,
Boundary-layer physics
Land-atmosphere interaction
Associated modeling and observational data analysis- Arctic hydrology, including mass and energy balances ofsnow and ice surface;- Large-scale hydrological modelling;- Global climate modelling;- Land surface/atmosphere interactions (measuring andmodeling fluxes of water and CO2 from land surfaces)- Global water cycle,- Water resources,- Sustainability,- Flood and drought,- Climate change,- Asian monsoon hydrology- Satellite multispectral studies of cloud top structure;- Cloud physics studies of severe storms using radar andsatellite techniques;- Satellite rainfall estimations using combined VIS/IR and
MW techniques;- Earth radiation budget definition using satellite and groundbased instruments;- Development of mesoscale analysis techniques including
remote sensing data;- Studies of long-distance aerosol transport using satellite
instruments

7

Nunes

Ana

Professor, Dept. of
Meteorology, Institute of
Geosciences, Federal
University of
Rio de Janeiro

WalkerJeff

Prof. in the Department ofCivil Engineering, Monash
University

Xiaodong

International Center for
Climate and Environmental
Sciences (ICCES),
Institute of AtmosphericPhysics (IAP), Chinese
Academy of Sciences

Zeng

BrazilFemaleReceived
PhD in2002

Australia

Male

Received
PhD in1999

Male

Received
PhD in1998

China- Precipitation- Recent projects include: “The SIO Regional Spectral Model
Contribution to the North American Regional Climate Change
Assessment Program,” “Evaluating the Role of Snow Coveron Seasonal to Inter-annual Predictability of Temperature andPrecipitation” (NASA),
NASA Energy and Water cycle Studies (NEWS) Project“Global Water andEnergy Budgets”- Environmental sensing;- Earth system modeling;- Optimal convergence of model predictions with observations
through data assimilation- Spatial and temporal response of vegetation distribution to
global climate change, and the impact of vegetation on global
energy, water, and carbon balances

8
ATTACHMENT 2 Message from Steve Williams, CEOP Data Management Co-Chair and the in-situ archive Chair,on the completion of the CEOP in-situ data activity at NCAR EOL. (March 2011)
All,
NCAR’s Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) has been supporting CEOP in a number of areas including the planning andcoordination of CEOP Data Management activities through meetings, teleconferences, and documents. Primary support
provided by EOL has been the collection, processing, Quality Assurance (QA), archival, and dissemination of CEOP
Reference Site data/metadata, and EOL currently integrates and hosts this long-term archive for the scientificcommunity. NOAA’s Climate Projects Office (CPO) has funded this activity since 2001, and with the recent transition
from CEOP to GHP, CPO has directed EOL to complete these CEOP activities by September 2011. No additional funds
have been allocated to EOL beyond October 2011 to provide any support to CEOP/GHP.
In review of the existing budget and estimating the level of effort to complete these activities, EOL plans to collectavailable CEOP Reference Site data through March 2011. At that time, EOL will complete the processing and QA of all“in-house” holdings and add these data to the final archive. EOL will continue to maintain the CEOP data management
web pages through September 2011 and provide access to the Reference Site data and metadata. During this period,
EOL will also continue to work closely with the other CEOP Data Centers (satellite and model output) as well as
individual Reference Sites. It is expected that based on the CEOP data policy, processed data (through 2009) will be
added from as many contributing Reference Sites as possible. So, it is important that you submit your processed quality
assured Reference Site data through 2009 to EOL prior to 31 March 2011 so that these data can be reviewed andincluded in the final archive.
A lot of effort has gone into the planning, design, and development of the Reference Site database over the past 10
years, and it has provided a high quality resource and long-term legacy to the climate community. The ability to utilize
these climatologically diverse Reference Site data (surface, soils, tower, and flux) all in a common format with uniform
QA and user friendly interface for data access, has greatly enhanced scientific research as evidenced by data download
metrics, publications, and personal correspondence. So, on behalf of CEOP, I thank you very much for all yourcontributions and participation over the years in these efforts. It is important to recognize the need to continue
contribution of data to networks as appropriate, which allow open access for the broader scientific community (such as
Fluxnet). Coordination of data within these networks may be undertaken in support of GEWEX Imperatives, throughGHP in due course.
It is possible that there may be a few additional teleconferences beyond March to work out any remaining details related
to the archive completion. Feel free to contact me should you have any questions.
Regards,
Steve