This is a special Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project (CEOP) issue of the GEWEX Newsletterand also serves as the CEOP Newsletter in cooperation with the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS).

Vol. 19, No. 3

August 2009CEOP is Organized for the Future
Dr. Thomas Ackerman
Chairman, GEWEX Scientiﬁc Steering GroupAs the newly appointed Chairman of
the Global Energy and Water-cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Scientific SteeringGroup (SSG), I am pleased to have thisopportunity to recognize the research
being undertaken as part of the Coordinated Energy and Water-cycle Observations Project (CEOP) within GEWEX
and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) International Climate Research Framework. The initial
goal of GEWEX was to understand and quantify the global energy andwater cycle. This led to the formation of three panels, the GEWEXHydrometeorology Panel (GHP), the GEWEX Modelling and Prediction Panel (GMPP) and the GEWEX Radiation Panel (GRP), whichwere designed to address key elements of the global energy and water
cycle. The need to understand regional processes produced the concept
of combining water and energy datasets on the scale of large continental basins and sponsoring extended observing periods. These activities
spawned the Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period. In 2007, theSSG agreed to the merger of the Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period and the GHP into the Coordinated Energy and water-cycle Observations Project (CEOP). The intent of bringing increased focus on thedevelopment of integrated datasets, their application to fundamental
scientific research and their use by diverse stakeholders.

Two articles in this newsletter demonstrate the power of this approach.
CEOP, extending the legacy of the GHP Continental Scale Experiments, continues to promote the study of regional climate issues inareas that are especially sensitive to climate change and weather using
a combination of data and model prediction. The CEOP High ElevaContents
CEOP is Organized for the Future …………………………………… 1
Microwave LDAS Improves Soil Moisture and Land Flux
Estimates …………………………………………………………… 2
CEOP-High Elevations initiative ……………………………………… 4
HyMeX, a Potential New CEOP RHP in the Mediterranean Basin …… 5
A prototype observation system for water resources inSoutheast Asia: …………………………………………………… 7
Current Status of “IBUKI” (GOSAT) ………………………………… 8

tions effort, which is devoted to understanding climate conditions andassessing the impacts of climate change in these climatically sensitive
locations around the globe is described on page 4. The success of CEOP
regional studies continues to motivate international research groups tofollow the design of the CEOP Regional Hydroclimate Projects (RHPs)
in data rich zones. This approach is based on integrated data collection
and handling and the use of coupled climate models to study regionallyspecific climate problems. The Hydrological Cycle in the Mediterranean
Experiment (HyMeX) described on page 5 is designed to address thecritical issues surrounding the health of the Mediterranean Basin now
and in the future. Climate projections suggest a much dryer basin and anincreasingly negative water cycle (evaporation exceeding precipitation).
The CEOP organizational model allows data to be shared in a multinational environment and provides a focus on research objectives thatare broad in scope and reach beyond the boundaries of the experiment
itself. HyMeX is in its early stages but promises to make an extremely
important contribution to our understanding of the energy and water
cycles in an environmentally sensitive and nationally diverse part of ourworld. CEOP, and GEWEX more broadly, contributes to the development of the experiment framework, provides continuing guidance fordata management and campaigns, and, most importantly, encourages
high quality research leading to scientific discoveries.
The merger of all regional GEWEX regional hydrology projects under
CEOP has required CEOP to adjust its strategic vision to fit this expanded role. The CEOP science team has worked diligently to implement this larger vision encompassing data acquisition and storage, data
quality control, data analysis, regional modelling and scientific discovery.
This is a large portfolio for any organization and requires dedicated andcontinuing management. CEOP is also working to make its resources
available to the broader scientific community for research and resource
planning. The multi-national scope of many of the CEOP studies, suchas HyMeX, makes this a great challenge, but also an extremely important facet of the ongoing program.
One of the WCRP mission objectives, described in the WCRP Strategic
Framework 2005–2015, is to “support climate-related decision making and planning adaptation to climate change by developing science
required to improve climate predictions, the understanding of human
influence on climate, and use this scientific knowledge in an increasing range of practical applications of direct relevance, benefit and value
to society.” CEOP has developed a research framework and integrated
datasets required to address these issues. Its focus on regional basinsand climatically sensitive regions of the world encourages researchers to
study these areas, understand their regional hydrological and radiationbudgets, and ensure that these are well represented in global climate
system models. The GEWEX SSG continues to support the efforts of
CEOP and seeks to ensure its continued vitality and encourage its research contributions to GEWEX and the WCRP.

Microwave LDAS Improves Soil Moistureand Land Flux Estimates
Kun Yang1, Hui Lu2, Toshio Koike2
1
TEL, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing, China; 2Department of Civil Engineering,
University of Tokyo, Japan

Soil moisture is a highly variable parameter in semi-arid regions, wherestrong coupling between soil moisture and precipitation are suggested
by Koster et al. (2004). Assimilating microwave data into a land surface model (LSM) provides a promising approach to estimating spatial
distribution of soil moisture. Uncertainties caused by specifying parameter values in a LSM or a radiative transfer model (RTM) still remain.
Parameter specification in data assimilation remains a crucial issue. To
remedy this, the University of Tokyo developed a new type of land data
assimilation system (LDAS-UT), Yang et al. (2007).
Figure 1a shows the flowchart of the system, which assimilates the
AMSR-E 6.9 GHz and 18.7 GHz brightness temperatures into a LSM,
with a RTM as an observation operator. At first, the LSM produces thenear-surface soil moisture (θsfc), the ground temperature (Tg), and the
canopy temperature (Tc), which are then fed into the RTM to simulate
the brightness temperatures. The difference between simulated Tb (Tbp,est)
and observed Tb (Tbp,obs) is sensitive to the near-surface soil moisture,

which is then adjusted to minimize the difference by a global optimization scheme (Duan et al., 1993).
Figure 1b shows a dual-pass assimilation algorithm adopted in LDASUT. Pass 1, the designated calibration pass, aims at tuning system parameters; Pass 2, or the assimilation pass, estimates soil moisture. The principle behind this algorithm is that the responding time scale of a system
state to the system parameters is different from the responding time scale
to the initial condition. The system parameters have a long-term impact
on state variables (such as soil moisture), and therefore, a long time window (several months or longer) is required to calibrate the parameters.
By contrast, initial near-surface soil moisture has a short-term effect on
the system state variables, and therefore, a short time window (~1 day) is
selected to estimate its value by minimizing a cost function. The parameter
calibration presented in LDAS-UT relies on satellite microwave data instead of surface observations, and thus may have wide applicability.
Two applications of LDAS-UT at the CEOP Mongolian and Tibet reference sites (Koike et al., 2004) are described using SiB2 as the LSM and
Q-h model as the observation operator.
Validation of Soil Moisture at a Semiarid Area in Mongolia
The CEOP Mongolia reference site covers a flat area of 120 km ×160 km
in a semi-arid grassland region of Mandal Govi. A dense soil moisture
network was deployed over the site as part of the AMPEX (Advanced
Earth Observing Satellite II (ADEOS-II) Mongolian Plateau Experiment for ground truth) project in order to collect data for development
and validation of AMSR/AMSR-E soil moisture retrieval algorithms(Kaihotsu, 2005). Soil moisture at 3 cm depth was measured at 16 stations and meteorological data at four stations.

Figure 2 shows that the observed soil moisture values are quite diversein space. Figure 3 shows the comparison of soil moisture among the
LDAS-UT estimates, LSM estimates, and the station-averaged observations. The LDAS-UT estimate agrees with the observations fairly well,whereas the LSM simulation, with default parameter values, overestimates soil moisture. Further analysis indicates that the improvement in
the LDAS-UT soil moisture estimations is realized through both the parameter calibration and the data assimilation. The effect of the accuracyof the forcing data on the estimate was evaluated and a general decreaseof accuracy was found when the forcing data was less exact. Nevertheless, LDAS-UT produces better estimates than the LSM does in all cases.
LDAS-UT even produces a fairly good estimate of soil moisture when
precipitation is set to be zero in the forcing data. More details of this typeof application can be found in Yang et al. (2009).

Figure 1. (a) LDAS-UT system structure and (b) schematic of the dualpass assimilation technique. Tg , Tc , and θsfc are the ground temperature,canopy temperature, and near-surface soil water content, respectively. Tb
is the brightness temperature, F the cost function, and Δt the data assimilation window. Гp is soil reflectivity, τc the optical thickness of thevegetation. The subscript p denotes the polarization, obs the observed
value, and est the estimated value (Yang et al., 2007).



Figure 2. Observed daily-mean near-surface (3 cm depth) soil moisturevariations at 16 Mongolian AMPEX stations during the period of 30
April 2003 to 30 September 2003.

August 2009

In summary, LDAS-UT uses a unique dual-pass assimilation technique
to assimilate AMSR-E data for the estimation of regional soil moisture.
The system’s strength is its ability to perform better than a LSM whenboth are driven by low-quality forcing data. Since the accuracy of precipitation data is generally not high in remote regions such as Tibetan
Plateau and Mongolian Plateau, the LDAS-UT has a high potential toprovide improved soil moisture and land flux data for studies of agricultural, hydrological, and atmospheric processes, as well as applied research
for these regions. The development of LDAS-UT is ongoing (Lu et al.,2009), and it will be used to provide data for the CEOP Water andEnergy Budget Studies (WEBS) project and for the Asian Monsoon Year
(AMY) project.
Figure 3. Comparisons of AMPEX daily-mean station-averaged nearsurface soil volumetric water content with (a) LDAS-UT output, and(b) LSM (SiB2) simulation at the CEOP Mongolian site during 30
April 2003 to 30 September 2003.

Validation of Surface Energy Budget at an East Tibet Site
The CEOP East Tibet reference site is located at 91.75˚E, 31.25˚N andis relatively flat and covered with sparsely distributed short grass during
the rainy season (June–August).
Figure 4(a) shows the precipitation data from observations and the
Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP). The distinction isseen during the day of year (DOY) 151-171 when several rainfall eventswere observed but are not in the GPCP data. When both LDAS-UT and
the LSM are driven by the GPCP precipitation data, variations during
DOY 151-171 are seen in Figure 4b. The LSM yields a drying process
while the LDAS-UT shows a wetting process. The LSM soil moisture exhibits a reasonable response to the input (GPCP) precipitation, whereas
the LDAS-UT soil moisture responds well to the observed precipitation.
One conclusion is that errors resulting from the low-quality input the
LDAS-UT performs better than the LSM does, when both are driven
by identical forcing data. The details of this case can be found in Yanget al. (2007).

Acknowledgements:
This work was supported by the “100-Talent” Program of The Chinese
Academy of Sciences.
References
Duan, Q., V.K. Gupta, and S. Sorooshian, 1993. A shuﬄed complex evolution
approach for effective and eﬃcient global minimization, J. Optimiz. Theory App.,76, 501-521.
Lu, H., T. Koike, K. Yang, X-D Xu, X. Li, H. Tsutsui, Y-Q Li, X-B Zhao, and K.
Tamagawa, 2009. Simulating surface energy ﬂux and soil moisture at the Wenjiang PBL site using the Land Data Assimilation System of The University ofTokyo. Annual Journal Hydraulic Engineering, JSCE, 53, 1-6.
Kaihotsu, I., 2005. Grand truth for evaluation of soil moisture and geophysical/vegetation parameters related to ground surface conditions with AMSR and
GLI in the Mongolian Plateau (pp.1-113). JAXA, Japan.
Koike, T., 2004. The Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period - an initial stepfor integrated global water cycle observation. WMO Bulletin, 53(2), 1-8.
Koster, R. D., and Coauthors, 2004. Regions of strong coupling between soil
moisture and precipitation. Science, 305, 1138-1140.
Yang, K., T. Watanabe, T. Koike, X. Li, H. Fujii, K. Tamagawa, Y. Ma, and H.
Ishikawa, 2007. Auto-calibration system developed to assimilate AMSR-E data
into a land surface model for estimating soil moisture and the surface energy
budget. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 85A, 229-242.
Yang, K., T. Koike, I. Kaihotsu, and J. Qin, 2009. Validation of a dual-pass microwave land data assimilation system for estimating surface soil moisture insemi-arid regions, J. Hydromet. 10(3), 780-794.

GEWEX NEWS
Published by the International GEWEX Project Ofﬁce
Peter J. van Oevelen, Director
Dawn P. Erlich, Editor
Shannon Macken, Assistant Editor
International GEWEX Project Ofﬁce
8403 Colesville Rd, Suite 1550
Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA
E-mail: gewex@gewex.org
GEWEX Web Site: http://www.gewex.org
This issue was published with support from theJapan Aerospace Exploration Agency, theUniversity of Tokyo, and the
CEOP International Coordination Ofﬁce

Figure 4. (a) Daily mean precipitation in terms of both measurements
and LDAS-UT/LSM input (GPCP), (b) Daily mean near-surface soil
water content estimated by LDAS-UT and LSM (SiB2), and (c) Surface sensible heat fluxes derived from LDAS-UT and LSM (SiB2) for
the CEOP East Tibet site. DOY is 2003.

August 2009CEOP International Coordination Function:
Sam Benedict (sam.benedict@gewex.org)
Petra Koudelova (petra@hydra.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp)
CEOP Web Site: http://www.ceop.net

3

CEOP High Elevations initiative
Gianni Tartari1,2, Elisa Vuillermoz1, Emanuela Manfredi2
and Roberta Toffolon1
1
Ev-K2-CNR Committee, Bergamo, Italy; 2 National
Research Council-Water Research Institute, Brugherio, Italy

Although mountain environments are one of the Earth’s mostimportant ecosystems (Beniston, 2003), our knowledge of climate, physical and dynamical processes at high elevations is incomplete, primarily due to the lack of monitoring activities (seeFigure 1). The High Elevations (HE) initiative was launched andis coordinated by the Ev-K2-CNR Committee in the frameworkof Stations at High Altitude for Research on the Environment(SHARE) Project and it is an element of “regional focus” within
the Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Observations Project(CEOP). CEOP-HE aims at providing an interdisciplinary andglobal understanding of the water cycle, climate dynamics andrelated processes in high elevation areas (elevations above 2500
m a.s.l.). These sites represent about 20 percent of the world’s
mountain areas, excluding Antarctica (http://www.unep-wcmc.
org/habitats/mountains/region.html).
The goal of CEOP-HE is to create a global network of representative sites of all of the Earth’s high elevation areas. Data
collected from CEOP-HE research stations and from other
HE environmental monitoring stations will be organized in asynergic database for use by scientists in hydrology, glaciology,
ecology and paleolimnology studies to reconstruct environment
characteristics and to refine models for forecasting the impactsof future climatic changes.
The current CEOP network is comprised of 52 globally distributed Reference Sites. Among these sites only the CEOP AsiaAustralia Monsoon Project (CAMP)/Tibet, CAMP/Himalayas
and Pakistan Karakorum Network are located above 2500 m
a.s.l. Recently, the Automatic Weather Station (AWS) of Forni
Glacier (Italian Alps) and the Mt. Cimone observatory (Italian
Apennines) were included as new CEOP Reference Sites.
The network of monitoring stations operating in the Khumbu

Valley (Mt. Everest area), Nepal, have monitored climate conditions
for over 15 years in the framework of the Ev-K2-CNR‘s SHARE
Project. Many ongoing research activities have contributed tothe understanding of climate changes impacting the Himalayan
area (Baudo et al., 2007). For example, using this data Ueno etal. (2007) observed that monsoon rainfall is initiated simultaneously along the Khumbu Valley.
To better understand and evaluate the impact of human activities on the atmospheric at the regional and global scale,the Nepal Climate Observatory-Pyramid was installed near
the Pyramid Laboratory-Observatory in February 2006. Under the framework of the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Atmospheric Brown Clouds Project, the data
are providing information on the atmospheric composition of
the Himalayan area between India and China and are expected
to contribute to understanding these effects on the monsoon(Bonasoni et al., 2008).
Within the framework of the Ev-K2-CNR-SHARE Project,monitoring activities and environmental research are also beeing conducted in the Pakistan-Karakorum region. In Mihalcea
et al. (2008), a distributed surface energy-balance study was
performed to determine subdebris ablation across a large part ofthe Baltoro glacier. This work was performed using meteorological data continuously collected since 2004 at the Urdukas AWS(4,022 m a.s.l.), which is located on a lateral moraine of the
Baltoro. These types of studies are providing the background information necessary for CEOP-HE to develop science strategies
for a better understanding of high elevation dynamics.
In this context collaborations with the CEOP Regional Hydroclimate Projects elements are also being planned and include the
Monsoon Asian Hydro-Atmospheric Science Research and Prediction Initiative (MAHASRI), the Climate Prediction Program
for the Americas (CPPA), and the Northern Eurasian Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI). In addition, other CEOP
Regional Studies (Cold Region, Monsoons, Semi-Arid Studies)and cross-cutting working groups (Water and Energy Budget

Figure 1. Distribution of about 650 sites above 2500 m a.s.l. by a preliminary survey of AWSs in the World (excluding Antarctica) considering GTS, GPCP,
FAO, NOAA, GAWSIS, GOSIC and SHARE networks. The graph provide an overview of measurement sites density distribution per 1% of mountain areas(300000 km2). Data elevation derives from U.S. Geological Survey National Mapping Division, EROS Data Center (EDC) (1996) Global 30 Arc Second
Elevation Data (GTOPO30) from UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (http://www.unep-wcmc.org/habitats/mountains/region.html).

August 2009

HyMeX, a Potential New CEOP RHP
in the Mediterranean Basin
Philippe Drobinski1, Véronique Ducrocq2, Piero Lionello3, andthe HyMeX International Scientiﬁc Steering Committee
1
IPSL-LMD, Ecole Polytechnique/CNRS, Palaiseau, France
2
GAME-CNRM, Météo-France and CNRS, Toulouse, France
3
Department of Science of Materials, University of Lecce, Italy

Figure 2. The ABC-Pyramid Observatory (5079 m a.s.l,. Nepal) locatedin the Khumbu Valley, Mount Everest region (left) and the Urdukas
AWS (4022 m a.s.l.) installed along the Baltoro Glacier, Baltistan region, Pakistan (right).

Studies, Extremes, Aerosol) will be involved. A primary focus
will be on the factors that directly influence (monsoon circulation, aerosols) or characterize HE areas (arid conditions, cold
temperatures, etc.).
The HE Initiative will contribute to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) within the framework of
the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) initiative which iscoordinating international efforts to build an infrastructure formonitoring and forecasting changes in the global environment.
For more information about CEOP-HE see: http://www.ceophe.org.

Acknowledgments:
The authors thank Sam Benedict, the CEOP International
Coordinator, for his relevant contribution in reviewing thiswork.
References
Baudo, R., G. Tartari, and E. Vuillermoz (Eds), 2007. Mountain witnessesof global changes. Research in the Himalaya and Karakoram: SHARE-ASIA
Project. Elsevier Developments in “Earth surface processes,” 10, 342 pp.
Beniston, M., 2003. Climatic change in mountain regions: a review of possible impacts. Climatic Change, 59, 5-31.
THIS REF IS NOT REFERENCED IN THE TEXT Bonasoni, P., P. Laj,
F. Angelini, J. Arduini, U. Bonafè, F. Calzolari, P. Cristofanelli, S. Decesari,
M.C. Facchini, S. Fuzzi, G.P. Gobbi, M. Maione, A. Marinoni, A. Petzold,
F. Roccato., J.C. Roger, K. Sellegri, M. Sprenger, H. Venzac, G.P. Verza, P.
Villani, and E. Vuillermoz, 2008. The ABC-Pyramid Atmospheric Research
Observatory in Himalaya for aerosol, ozone and halocarbon measurements.
Sci. Total Environ., 391, 252-261.

The Mediterranean Basin features a nearly enclosed sea surroundedby very urbanized littorals and mountains from which numerous
rivers originate (Figure 1). This results in many interactions andfeedbacks between ocean-atmosphere-land processes that play a predominant role in climate and high-impact weather. The area concentrates the major natural risks related to water cycle which include
heavy precipitation and flash-flooding during the fall season, severe
cyclogeneses associated with strong winds and large swell during thewinter, and heat waves and droughts accompanied by forest fires during the summer. The capability to predict such high-impact events
remains weak for many reasons, including the limited availability ofexperimental data and the consequental limited understanding of
the underlying fine scale and large scale physical processes and their
non-linear interactions.
Water resources are a critical issue for a large part of the Mediterranean basin. Freshwater is rare and unevenly distributed in time andspace with few short duration heavy precipitation events and longdrought periods. Moreover, this happens in a situation of increasing water demands and climate change. Mediterranean regions havebeen indeed identified as one of the two main “hot-spots” of the predicted climate change, confirming that climate is especially responsive to global change in Mediterranean. A large decrease in mean annual precipitation and increase in precipitation variability during thedry (warm) season are expected as well as a significant generalized
warming. There are still however large uncertainties in the future
evolution of the Mediterranean climate. Progress is needed in themonitoring and modelling of the Mediterranean coupled climate
system (atmosphere-land-ocean) in order to better quantify the ongoing changes and to better predict their future evolution which will
help policy makers apply mitigation and adaptation strategies.
These societal and science issues motivate the HYdrological cycle in
the Mediterranean Experiment (HyMeX), an international program
to better quantify and understand the water cycle in the Mediterranean Basin - with emphases on intense events.

Mihalcea, C., C. Mayer, G. Diolaiuti, C. D’Agata, C. Smiraglia, A. Lambrecht, E. Vuillermoz, and G. Tartari, 2008. Spatial distribution of debris
thickness and melting from remote-sensing and meteorological data, atdebris-covered Baltoro glacier, Karakoram, Pakistan. Annals of Glaciology,
48, 49-57.
Ueno, K., K. Toyotsu, L. Bertolani, and G. Tartari, 2007. Stepwise Onsetof Monsoon Weather Observed in the Nepal Himalaya. Monthly Weather
Review, 136, 2507-2522.

Figure 1. Major sites of strong winds, dense water formation over theMediterranean basin (red ellipses).

August 20095• the improvement of observational and modelling systems, especially of coupled (ocean-atmo
sphere-land) systems,• improved prediction capabilities of high-impact
events,• more accurate simulation of the long-term watercycle, and• a better definition of adaptation measures, espcially in the context of global change.

Figure 2. Main scientiﬁc topics of the HyMeX project.

HyMeX Science Objectives:• Improve understanding of the water cycle with emphases on
extreme events by means of monitoring and modelling theMediterranean coupled system (atmosphere-land-ocean), itsvariability (from the event scale to seasonal and interannual
scales), and characteristics over one decade in the context ofglobal change.
• Evaluate societal and economical vulnerability and adaptation
capacity to extreme meteorological and climate events.
HyMeX will address key issues related to:• the water budget of the Mediterranean basin,• the continental hydrological cycle and related water resources,• heavy precipitation and flash-flooding, and• intense air-sea exchanges produced by severe regional winds
and cyclogeneses.

As a CEOP Regional Hydroclimate Project (RHP)
HyMeX would contribute to the GEWEX objective of improving the understanding of the globalhydrological cycle and prediction of its evolution bya coordinated set of studies targeted at the Mediterranean region, a region not currently covered by any
RHP. In terms of hydrometeorological modelling,
HyMeX would contribute to the improvement of
atmospheric and hydrological models through hindcast and real-time forecasting applications during
coordinated observation periods. In terms of observations, the HyMeX strategy includes easy access for scientists to already-archived
data and to new datasets collected. These data can in turn serve as
validation for GEWEX global data products such as Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP).
Planning for HyMeX will continue at the CEOP Meeting to beheld 26-28 August 2009 in Melbourne, Australia . It is anticipatedthat CEOP will present a proposal for HyMeX to be accepted as a
RHP to the GEWEX Scientific Steering Group for approval at theirnext meeting in January 2010 .
References

Béranger, K., Braud I., Carlotti F., et al., 2008. HyMeX (Hydrological cyclein the Mediterranean Experiment): Towards a major field experiment in2010-2020. Eds. P. Drobinski, V. Ducrocq, available at http://www.hymex.
org/, version 1.3.2, February 2008, 124 pp.

In addition, it will monitor vulnerability factors and adaptation strategies developed bydifferent Mediterranean societies to accommodate the impacts of climate change and intense
events. The Project’s main scientific topics areshown in Figure 2. A comprehensive description of the underlying science of HyMeX isprovided in the project white-book (Béranger
et al., 2008; see http://www.hymex.org).
A series of coordinated observation periods areplanned during the period of 2010-2020. They
will be based on measurement campaigns (a series of 2-month special observing periods), thedeployment of dedicated instrumentation, andthe enhancement of existing operational observation systems (enhanced and long observing
periods) (Figure 3).
Expected results of the multi-disciplinary research conducted in HyMeX include:

6

Figure 3. HyMeX implementation timeline.

August 2009

A Prototype Observating System for the
Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in Southeast Asia
Massimo Menenti1, Li Jia2, and Jerome Colin3
1
Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands;

ALTERA,Wageningen, The Netherlands; 3Image Sciences,
Computing Sciences and Remote Sensing Laboratory, University of Strasbourg, Illkirch, France

The CEOP Asia-European long-term Observing system of QinghaiTibet Plateau hydrometeorological processes and the Asian-monsoon
systEm with Ground satellite Image data and numerical Simulations(CEOP-AEGIS) Project was launched in 2008. CEOP-AEGIS has a
two-fold objective: (1) use existing ground measurements and current/
future satellite observing systems to determine and monitor the water
yield of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau; and (2) monitor the evolution ofsnow, vegetation cover, surface wetness and surface fluxes, and analyse
linkages between these and the Asian Monsoon.
Estimates of the Tibetan Plateau water balance (Figure 1) rely on sparseand scarce observations that cannot provide the required accuracy, spatial density, and temporal frequency. CEOP-AEGIS is designed to demonstrate the use of satellite and ground observations to support water
resources management in southeast Asia and to clarify the interactions
between the land surface and the atmosphere over the Tibetan Plateau in
the Asian monsoon system (Figure 2).
CEOP-AEGIS is a cooperative effort of 18 organizations in eight countries, giving shape to a Europe-Asia partnership to address issues in land-

atmosphere interactions and water resources of global relevance (Figure 3).
The kick-off meeting was hosted by the Institute for Tibetan Research in
Beijing, China from April 21st to May 3rd, 2008. CEOP-AEGIS is a Project within a Specific International Cooperation Action financed by theEuropean Commission under FP7 Topic ENV.2007.4.1.4.2 “Improving
observing systems for water resource management.” The First Progress
Meeting was organized jointly with CEOP-HE in Milano, Italy on June
29th through July 2nd, 2009.
The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is the headwater of rivers that flow down to
47 percent of the Earth's population. At altitudes of nearly the half of thetroposphere and 2.5 million km2, the Himalayas and the Qinghai-Tibet
Plateau have significant dynamic and thermodynamic effects on the atmospheric circulation and on the climate of China and South-East Asia.
Among the issues of greatest interest are the thermal and dynamical influences of surface topography and cover (Figure 2) on the Atmospheric
Boundary Layer, particularly their monthly variation (Figure 4) in relation to the onset, maintenance, and withdrawal of the monsoon (Uenoet al., 2001; Ueno et al., 2006; Yamada and Uyeda, 2006; Yasunari andMiwa, 2006). A good understanding of the linkage of land processes on
the Plateau with monsoon onset and precipitation is of major interest
from both a societal and environmental point of view for many Asian
countries, in particular in terms of flood and drought monitoring, butalso in the perspective of the global change.
Analysis of time series of Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (Figure 5) reveals the influence ofvegetation to regulate land-atmosphere exchange of energy and water,(Continued on Page 8)

Figure 2. Land-atmosphere interactions, convective activity, and onsetof Asian Monsoon (courtesy of Kenichi Ueno, University of Tsukuba).
Figure 1. Satellite composite image of the Plateau and watershed boundaries of the main rivers in South-East Asia.

Figure 3. Permanent observatory on Everest at 5200 m a.s.l. (courtesy of theInstitute for Tibetan Plateau research, Chinese Academy of Sciences).

August 2009

Figure 4. Observed Free Convection Events: Before the monsoon, FCEs
mostly occur in the morning hours. During the monsoon, the distribution is bi-modal with an afternoon mode closely related with cloud cover(courtesy of Kenichi Ueno, University of Tsukuba, Japan).

7

Figure 5. Correlation of yearly amplitudes of Land Surface Temperature
vs. NDVI over the period 2000 - 2006; positive angles indicate positive
correlation of LST and NDVI (courtesy of J.A.Sobrino, University of Valencia, Spain).

Figure 6. Early detection of drought by time series analysis of LST and EVI
MODIS data (Courtesy of L. Jia, Wageningen University and ResearchCentre, The Netherlands).

(Continued from page 7)

In shorter periods of time both LST and fraction Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radtion (fAPAR) provide reliable and timely information for the early detection of droughts, with LST being a better indicator than fAPAR (Figure 6).

other hand, the time series of hydrological data products will be used
to identify interesting cases in terms of linkages between land surface
conditions in the Plateau, convection, and extreme precipitation events
elsewhere. Such cases will be used to design numerical experiments totest hypotheses on such linkages. The experiments will be performed
with a new research modeling and data assimilation system at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences. For more information about
CEOP-AEGIS, see: http://www.ceop-aegis.org.

The project will contribute to land surface science in two ways. On
one hand, the hydrometeorological data sets on the Plateau water balance will be based on the integration of satellite and ground measurements, including a detailed analysis of the footprint of turbulent flux
measurements by eddy covariance and scintillometer systems. On the

References
Menenti, M., L. Jia, J. Colin, et al., 2008. Coordinated Asia-European long-term Observing system of Qinghai-Tibet Plateau hydro-meteorological processes and the Asian-monsoon systEm with Ground satellite Image data and numerical Simulations (CEOP-AEGIS). Description of Work, Contract FP7 ENV 212921. Universitè de Strasbourg, France,
107 pp.

identifying areas where land evaporation is controlled by water availability and radiative forcing respectively.

Current Status of IBUKI (GOSAT)
Masakatsu Nakajima
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, GOSAT Project Team,
Tsukuba, JapanThe Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite IBUKI (GOSAT) was
launched on January 23, 2009 (UT) and is currently operating in an
initial calibration and validation operation phase which should be completed in July 2009. During this phase the calibration and tuning of thecomputer processing system is underway at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the National Institute for Environmental Studies.
First analysis results of CO2 and CH4 column averaged dry air mole
fraction over land using clear-sky observations for April 20-28, 2009were obtained from the TANSO-FTS shortwave infrared bands on the
IBUKI and show that the data is mostly consistent with conventional
data observed on the ground.
The TANSO-FTS data and observation image data (TANSO-CAI data)(Level 1 product) should be ready for distribution to registered users in
October 2009 and the validated CO2 and CH4 column abundances andcloud coverage flag data (Level 2 product) ready in January 2010.

8

The CO2 column averaged dry air mole fraction distribution. Data are excluded
where the associated radiance spectra are saturated and where noise is relatively
large due to weak ground surface reflection.

August 2009