1

Coordinated Energy
and water –cycle
Observations Project
Strategic Implementation Plan
December 1, 2008

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Coordinated Energy and Water-cycle Observations Project (CEOP)
Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP)
FINAL DRAFT(01/12/08ROADS/et al)
0. Executive Summary
1. General Background1.1. GHP
1.2. Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period 'CEOP'
1.3. Rationale for the GHP/’CEOP’ merger
2. CEOP Goals, Objectives, and Strategy
3. CEOP Elements
3.1.Regional Hydroclimate Projects
3.1.1. AMMA
3.1.2. BALTEX http://www.baltex-research.eu/
3.1.3. CPPA http://www.climate.noaa.gov/cpo_pa/cppa/
3.1.4. LBA http://lba.cptec.inpe.br/lba/site/
3.1.5. LPB http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/lpb/
3.1.6. MAHASRI http://mahasri.cr.chiba-u.ac.jp/index_e.html
3.1.7. MDB http://www.gewex.org/mdb.html
3.1.8. NEESPI http://neespi.org/
3.2. Regional Studies
3.2.1. Cold Region Studies
3.2.2. High Elevations http://www.ceop-he.org
3.2.3. Monsoons
3.2.4. Semi-Arid Studies
3.3. Cross-Cutting Studies
3.3.1. Water and Energy Budget Study
3.3.2. Extremes
3.3.3. Aerosols
3.3.4. Isotopes
3.4. Model Studies
3.4.1. Global Models
3.4.2. Regional Models (ICTS, SIEVE)
3.4.3. Land Surface Models
3.4.4. Hydrologic Applications Project3.5. Data Management http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/
3.5.1. Data Policy
3.5.2. CEOP Data Centers (In Situ, Satellite and NWP Data Archives)
3.6. Global Data Centers3.6.1. Global Runoff Data Centre http://grdc.bafg.de/
3.6.2. Global Precipitation Climatology Centre http://gpcc.dwd.de
4. CEOP Implementation
4.1. Regional Hydroclimate Projects
4.1.1. AMMA http://amma.mediasfrance.org/index

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5.

6.

7.
8.
9.

4.1.2. BALTEX http://www.baltex-research.eu/
4.1.3. CPPA http://www.climate.noaa.gov/cpo_pa/cppa/
4.1.4. LBA http://lba.cptec.inpe.br/lba/site/
4.1.5. LPB http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/lpb/
4.1.6. MAHASRI http://mahasri.cr.chiba-u.ac.jp/index_e.html
4.1.7. MDB http://www.gewex.org/mdb.html
4.1.8. NEESPI http://neespi.org/
4.2. Regional Studies
4.2.1. Cold Region Studies
4.2.2. High Elevations http://www.ceop-he.org
4.2.3. Monsoons
4.2.4. Semi-Arid Studies
4.3. Cross-Cutting Studies
4.3.1. Water and Energy Budget Study
4.3.2. Extremes
4.3.3. Aerosols
4.3.4. Isotopes
4.4. Model Studies
4.4.1. Global Models
4.4.2. Regional Models
4.4.3. Land Surface Models
4.4.4. Hydrologic Applications Project4.5. Data Management http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/
4.5.1. Distributed Integrated Archive
4.5.2. Centralized Integrated Archive
4.5.3. Interoperability and Metadata
4.5.4. Data Integration
4.6. Global Data Centers4.6.1. Global Runoff Data Centre http://grdc.bafg.de/
4.6.2. Global Precipitation Climatology Centre http://gpcc.dwd.de
CEOP Deliverables
5.1. Objective 1
5.2. Objective 2
5.3. Objective 3
5.4. Objective 4
CEOP Contributions and Synergy with International Activities
6.1. CEOP Contributions to WCRP crosscuts
6.1.1 RHP Contributions
6.1.2 Monsoon Contributions to WCRP
6.1.3 Extremes Contributions to WCRP
6.2. Contributions to GEOCEOP Organization
Timeline
References
Appendix A List of Acronyms

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0. Executive Summary
The Coordinated Energy and water cycle Observations Project (CEOP) is a merger of theprevious World Climate Research Project (WCRP) Global Energy and Water-cycle Experiment(GEWEX) Hydrometeorology Panel (GHP) and the ‘Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period’(‘CEOP’), which was an element of WCRP initiated by GEWEX. This natural merger between
GHP and ‘CEOP’ now better coordinates similar activities being undertaken by both groups,
which were largely comprised of similar scientists doing similar projects.
Many of the former GEWEX Continental Experiments (CSEs) have evolved to more complete
Regional Hydroclimate Projects and even beyond in that more than GEWEX efforts are now
needed to solve regional problems involving a climate prediction focus (CLImate VARiations;
CLIVAR) and a biological focus (International Geosphere Biosphere Program, IGBP). Many
now have an anthropogenic climate focus.
This development has prompted CEOP to begin investigating how to efficiently cooperate withother elements of WCRP including the Climate and Cryosphere (CliC) project, which has as partof its supporting objectives to enhance model evaluation and change detection and to promote
improvements in the management of data and information relating to the cryosphere and climate.
These needs to improve models and to make data more readily available for use by the broad
scientific community lend themselves to collaboration with CEOP’s cold regions study focus,
which has some parallel and complimentary objectives with CliC in terms of science in cold
regions, improvement of models and with one of CEOP’s other major tasks to enhance
integration of data from in-situ, satellite and model sources. In the same way, but on the
broader international scale CEOP is committed to investigating outreach initiatives with other
Earth System Science Partnership elements such as DIVERSITAS and IGBP.
In addition to the Regional Hydroclimate Projects (RHPs), the new CEOP includes groups
focused on regional studies in cold regions, high elevations, monsoon, and semi-arid regions.
These groups are an outgrowth of the previous ‘CEOP’ Monsoon project, which attempted tobring together scientists within both the CSEs and CLIVAR. The new CEOP Monsoons
Regional Study will also reach out to CLIVAR and the WCRP Monsoon crosscuts to make sureits activities are synergistically connected with these other groups. At the same time the new
CEOP Regional Studies Cold Regions Study (CRS) will begin to reach out to the RHP and
WCRP scientists involved in similar activities in the WCRP CliC Project and will be a part of theInternational Polar Year (IPY).
The science of CEOP continues to provide a traditional focus on Water and Energy budgets,
which will extend the efforts to understand average conditions to conditions during the ‘CEOP’
time period of 2003-2004 to present and a GHP effort to understand average conditions during
an earlier period. This extension will have a special focus on extremes during the ‘CEOP’ period,
which will be another connection to WCRP crosscut activities. New crosscutting CEOP science
efforts include a study of the influence of aerosols and the studies of water isotopes, which isalso connected to IGBP efforts.
CEOP now adds explicit global, regional, land surface, and Hydrologic Applications Project(HAP) as part of its group activities. All of these modeling groups are looking at an ensemble of5international models in many different regions focused on the new CEOP reference sites
described in the Data Management section. Some of these modeling projects expect to show not
only their capability to simulate the present climate but also to predict at seasonal (HAP) andalso be useful for global change assessments in some of the RHPs.
CEOP Data Management, which was perhaps a focal point of the ‘CEOP’, has now successfully
implemented a data policy allowing the sharing of in situ reference site data, model output data,and satellite data and set up archival centers of this data at the National Center for AtmosphericResearch (NCAR) and the Max Planck Institute (MPI). During CEOP, satellite data will come online at the University of Tokyo (UT) and then along with the other data be moved to a central
data archive where it can be accessed and distributed to interested users. By the end of CEOP in
2012, we expect to have developed a functioning CEOP data center that will have been used by
all of the CEOP science groups. It should be noted that this CEOP data is already open to outsidegroups. CEOP data management is also in the process of developing links to a number ofassociated groups, such as the Global Runoff Data Centre and Global Precipitation Climatology
Centre.
In short, CEOP is now the international focal point for WCRP/GEWEX Global
Hydrometeorological Research and we welcome all interested researchers to participate andcontribute to the development of current and future hydrometeorological observations,
simulations, and predictions.

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1. General Background1.1. GHP
When the GEWEX commenced in 1988 with a focus on global products, its lead scientists
recognized that the global data sets needed to be evaluated at regional scales (Sorooshian et. al.,2005). At the same time significant improvements were being made to land surface models as aresult of intensive regional experiments being carried out by the International Satellite Land
Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) and the Biospheric Aspects of the Hydrologic Cycle(BAHC) initiative under the IGBP. In particular, the ISLSCP carried out intensive field
campaigns focused on relatively homogeneous areas of 10,000 km2 (approximately the size of aclimate model grid square) and involved intensive observational periods for (generally) two tofour weeks several times a year. This concept continued to be developed by the US Dept. ofEnergy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program, who initially proposed world
wide coverage with a number of sites, but ultimately, due to cost constraints, focused first on one
site in Oklahoma, US and then later additional sites in Alaska and the western Pacific - sites
which are still operating today.
As a result of the convergence of GEWEX interests for a regional test bed, the need to scale up
the ISLSCP land surface studies to larger geographical areas, and the desire of the International
Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) to involve hydrology more actively in climate
research, the concept of a continental scale hydrologic experiment was developed in 1990. The
proposed regional experiment was based on the hypothesis that water and energy budgets over alarge basin would not be as sensitive to random errors as they are at a point or for a small
watershed, but they could still be examined in a meaningful way because there was an increasing
likelihood of closing continental-scale water and energy budgets to acceptable limits using the
newly available data sets and models.
In 1990, a group of international experts recommended the Mississippi River Basin as a focus
area and then worked with others to draw up a science plan for the GEWEX Continental-scaleInternational Project (GCIP). As planning progressed, however, a consensus emerged that areas
with other important processes such as permafrost and tropical forests should also be
studied. In addition, a number of countries could make stronger national contributions to
GEWEX if they studied a basin that included their national territories. As a result several
experiments were developed to cover large land areas. The GEWEX CSEs have included:
MAGS (MAckenzie GEWEX Study), GCIP/GAPP/CPPA (GEWEX Continental-scaleInternational Project/ GEWEX Americas Prediction Project / Climate Prediction Program for theAmericas), LBA (Large-scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia), LPB (La Plata
Basin), BALTEX (BALTic sea EXperiment), GAME/MAHASRI (GEWEX Asian Monsoon
Experiment / Monsoon Asian Hydro-Atmosphere Scientific Research and prediction Initiative),
MDB (Murray Darling Basin), AMMA (African Monsoon Multidiscplinary Analysis). These
CSEs have had different start and end dates. For example, AMMA was approved as a CSE
beginning in 2005 and MAGS, which began in 1994, ended in 2005. The Northern Eurasia Earth
Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) was accepted by the GEWEX Scientific Steering Group(SSG) in 2007.
GEWEX established the GHP beginning in 1994 (Lawford et. al., 2004) to coordinate the wide
range of regional interests and activities involved in these CSEs. GHP also took responsibility

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for coordinating relevant activities of the ISLSCP, the Global Runoff Data Center (GRDC), and
the Global Precipitation Climatology Center (GPCC). The overall GHP mission was to“demonstrate the capability to predict changes in water resources and soil moisture at time scales
up to seasonal and interannual as a component of the World Climate Research Program’s
prediction goals for the climate system.” To this end GHP influenced the priorities of each CSE
and global project. The GHP further promoted and coordinated interactions with the GEWEXRadiation Panel (GRP) and the GEWEX Modeling and Prediction Panel (GMPP). The GHP also
initiated, synthesized, reviewed and recommended joint activities that promoted a common
research agenda for each of the CSEs. CSE representatives agreed to a set of technical andscientific requirements, which have now been modified below.
GHP set up several international working groups composed of CSE representatives, which would
attempt to globally coordinate diverse regional activities happening within each of the CSEs.
These working groups included: WEBS (Water and Energy Budget Studies), WISE (Worldwide
Integrated Study of Extremes), SWING (Stable Water Isotope Working Group), TWG(Transferability Working Group), WRAP (Water Resources Applications Project) / HAP, DM(Data Management), ‘CEOP' (Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period)‘CEOP’ (Bosilovich and Lawford, 2002) and (Lawford et. al., 2006) was part of the initial GHP
strategy to help coordinate the diverse GEWEX CSE activities to understand and model the
influence of continental hydroclimate processes on the predictability of global atmosphericcirculation and changes in water resources. As a contribution to ‘CEOP’, the CSEs identified
high-quality in situ measurements (many of these are tower sites) at several global locations thatwould be able to provide coordinated global measurements during the period 2001-2004.
1.2. 'CEOP'‘CEOP’, began as a discussion item at the 2nd GHP meeting in 1995 and subsequently, the‘CEOP’ Working Group was formed, which was then moved from GHP in 2001 and the World
Climate Research Programme Joint Steering Committee designated it as “an element of WCRP
initiated by GEWEX”. ‘CEOP’ was strongly supported by GHP and many GHP science
activities soon became actively entrained within ‘CEOP’, in part through the ‘CEOP’ data
management and modeling activities, and in part through cross linkages of many of the CSEs and
GHP science working groups within the ‘CEOP’ Intercomparison Monsoon Study CIMS and theWater and Energy Simulation and Prediction (WESP) project, ‘CEOP’ also took advantage ofthe coincident new generation of remote sensing satellites (including TERRA, AQUA,ENVISAT, ADEOS-II) in addition to TRMM, Landsat-7, NOAA-K series and the otheroperational satellites, which are providing enhancement of observing capabilities to quantify
critical atmospheric, surface, hydrologic and oceanographic data during this time period. 200 km
snapshots of the highest resolution raw radiances (with geographic location, i.e. level I) remotesensing data at the 35 in situ reference sites are now being archived. Geophysical products arebeing developed for these sites by international research teams as part of individual satellitescience teams. In conjunction with the in situ and remote sensing observations, international
operational numerical weather prediction centers are also archiving both analysis/assimilationand short-term forecast/analysis model products from both global and regional Numerical
Weather Prediction (NWP) suites. Several model output variables (pertinent to atmospheric andsurface water and energy processes) have been archived and the two types of requested model

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output, globally GRIdded Binary (GRIB) and site-specific Model Output Location Time Series(MOLTS) at each of the ‘CEOP’ International Reference Sites are being developed.
1.3. Rationale for the GHP/’CEOP’ merger
Now, initially ‘CEOP’ was a pilot experiment, designed to intensively study a limited time
period, 7/1/2001-12/31/2004, a period when many CSEs would likely have corresponding
intensive observation periods to complement ‘CEOP’ and a time when many of the new Earth
Observing Satellites would be providing a wealth of new information about the earth. This pilot
experiment was formulated and guided by formal Science and Implementation Plans (Stewart et.
al., 2001a), (Stewart et. al., 2001b), and (Leese et. al., 2001c) and involved a number of technicaland science driven working groups that were reviewed and received direction and oversight froma Science Steering Committee and an Advisory and Oversight Committee. With thedemonstrated uniqueness of ‘CEOP’ and advent of CEOP, which will extend the time period ofenhanced observations and enhance the science agenda, it is clear that ‘CEOP’ will contribute to
the scientific objectives of GEWEX and integrated data management activities of WCRP on amuch longer term.
As a result, GEWEX, in full agreement with the GHP, and with ‘CEOP’, decided at the GEWEX
SSG meeting in January 2007, to merge GHP and ‘CEOP’ to form a new entity, now designatedthe Coordinated Energy and water cycle Observations Project (CEOP). This formal merger into
the new CEOP is meant to enhance the efforts of both GHP and ‘CEOP’ and will not lose sightof any of the GHP and ‘CEOP’ strategic goals or any of the ongoing GHP and ‘CEOP’ science
work since the same scientists and more are already working on closely related projects andgoals. It does mean, however, a refocusing of the former GHP and ‘CEOP’ activities toward the
new CEOP goal and objectives.

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2. CEOP Goals, Objectives, and Strategy
The goal of CEOP is: To understand and predict continental to local-scale hydroclimates forhydrologic applications
To achieve the above goal, CEOP’s strategic objectives, which are similar to the GEWEX
objectives include:
Objective 1: Produce consistent research quality data sets complete with error descriptions of
the Earth's energy budget and water cycle and their variability and trends on interannual todecadal time scales, for use in climate system analysis and model development and evaluation.
Objective 2: Enhance the understanding of and quantification of how energy and water cycle
processes contribute to climate feedbacks.
Objective 3: Improve the predictive capability for key water and energy cycle variables andfeedbacks through improved parameterizations to better represent hydrometeorologicalprocesses, and determine the geographical and seasonal characteristics of their predictability overland areas
Objective 4: Undertake joint activities with operational hydrometeorological services, related
Earth System Science Partnership Program (ESSP) projects like the Global Water System Project(GWSP), and hydrological research programs to demonstrate the value of GEWEX research,data sets and tools for assessing the consequences of climate predictions and global change forwater resources
The above defined objectives will help us answer some of the following science questions
including: What are the average hydroclimate conditions over various regions and seasons?
How does water and energy flow into and through individual regions as well as being
redistributed within these regions by local mechanisms? How do extremes occur and what istheir role in the hydroclimate? How do aerosols affect the hydroclimate? Does knowledge ofwater isotopes help us to understand the water cycle? Can we simulate and predict thehydroclimate at least at the seasonal timescale with prospects of achieving some success up tointer-annual time periods? What is the benefit of this increased knowledge about thehydroclimate for society?
Specific technical issues that are being addressed as part of the objectives mentioned above
include:1. Developing an integrated hydroclimate data set that can be used to answer the main scientificquestions noted above.
2. Developing the capability to handle and disseminate a large amount of amount of data fromdiverse sources
3. Analyzing and comparing with model simulations this diverse data to understand theunderlying mechanisms and model deficiencies.
4. Assimilating and integrating the data with newly developed models.

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5. Transferring CEOP methodologies to other regions, sectors, and applications
A CEOP observation and modeling strategic implementation plan has now been developed thatis organized around 5 main CEOP Elements with various subprojects
1. Regional Hydroclimate Projects (RHPs)
1.1. AMMA
1.2. BALTEX
1.3. CPPA
1.4. LBA
1.5. LPB
1.6. MAHASRI
1.7. MDB
1.8. NEESPI
2. Regional Cross Cutting Studies
2.1. Cold Region Studies
2.2. High Elevation Studies
2.3. Monsoons
2.4. Semi-Arid Studies
3. Topical Cross Cutting Studies
3.1. Water and Energy Budget Studies (WEBS)
3.2. Extremes
3.3. Aerosols
3.4. Isotopes
4. Models
4.1. Global Models
4.2. Regional Models
4.3. Land Surface Models
4.4. Hydrological applications
5. Data Management
5.1. In-situ
5.2. Satellites
5.3. Model output
5.4. Data integration
5.5. Global Data Centers
As part of this CEOP implementation plan, we first provide some brief background for each
CEOP element (Sec. 3), followed by a summary discussion of the planned implementation
efforts (Sec. 4). Contributions to CEOP and GEWEX objectives are then provided in Sec. 5.
Contributions to WCRP crosscut activities, Group on Earth Observations (GEO) activities, andsociety in general are also described in later chapters. It should be noted that individual CEOP
elements report directly to GEWEX and have more extensive reports and documentation in thesereports and on their developing web sites than is provided in this implementation plan. In thatregard, we have tried to make reference to all relevant web sites where further information may
be obtained. We should also note that we plan to make this a living document and plan to update
it on a routine basis.

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3. CEOP Elements
3.1. Regional Hydroclimate Projects
There are a number of regional studies associated with GEWEX and now CEOP. The major
regional studies include the RHPs that have already been tasked by the GEWEX SSG withsatisfying a number of scientific and technical criteria that can only be established by large
projects involving a multitude of investigators. These criteria now include:
TECHNICAL CRITERIA• Cooperation of an NWP center for provision of atmospheric and land surface data
assimilation.
• Atmospheric-hydrologic models for studying transferability and climate variability.
• Mechanism for collecting and managing adequate hydrometeorological data sets.
• Participation in the open international exchange of scientific information and data.
• Interactions with hydrologic services and related groups• Commitment of adequate resources and personnel.
• Evaluation of GEWEX global data products• Contributions to CEOP in situ, remote sensing, and model output databases.
SCIENTIFIC CRITERIA• Observe, simulate, and predict diurnal, seasonal, annual and interannual variability.
• Determine climate system variability and critical feedbacks.
• Demonstrate improvements in predictions of water-related climate parameters.
• Demonstrate the applicability of techniques and models for other regions.
• Assess the human impact on hydroclimate variations, including vulnerability to climatechangeThe RHPs are organized and funded by national organizations and are or have the potential ofsatisfying the GEWEX technical and scientific criteria: As part of their annual reports each RHP
provides an assessment on their progress in satisfying these GEWEX criteria in their region. This
assessment is done by filling out, as a minimum, a reporting template, in a timely manner, before
the yearly held GEWEX SSG meeting (usually January of each year). The template, which isconsistent with the one used by GEWEX itself, is available upon request at the International
GEWEX Project Office. It should be noted that the current group of 8 GEWEX RHPs include
some of the original or ancestors of the original GEWEX CSEs established in 1994 (BALTEX,
GCIP/GAPP/CPPA, LBA, GAME/MAHASRI) as well as some newer ones (MDB, LPB,
AMMA, NEESPI). We note here that although one of the original RHPs, the MAGS has now
concluded a highly successful 10-year project, many of the MAGS scientists and researchers arestill quite active in GEWEX and CEOP activities. In particular, R. Stewart, a former GHP chair,chairs the Extremes effort.
Where as MAGS, for example, has been completed within the framework of the initial criteria
established by GEWEX, other established experiments have entered new phases and still others
have been newly established. In each case, the GEWEX SSG has approved these developments
and tasked the managers of these efforts to evolve or begin their work in compliance with thecriteria noted above. Recently, it has been seen and reported by CEOP to the GEWEX SSG thata few of these experiments have evolved or begun work along courses of development, which12have found them to be unable or at least limited by other external factors, including constraints
placed on them by their funding agencies, to continue to meet the criteria they had initiallycommitted to abide by. The GEWEX SSG has taken the position that if CEOP is unable toconfirm compliance by a specific RHP with the established criteria, that RHP may be reclassified
as only an affiliate effort not to be formally operating as a GEWEX RHP under the definition
established within the context of the GEWEX/WCRP international framework. This caveat isunderscored here, because if and when such action is undertaken in the future it could lead to areassessment of CEOP objectives in specific study areas dependent on provision of actual resultsfrom the RHPs associated with each criteria.
3.1.1 AMMA http://www.amma-international.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=1
Input to be received
3.1.2 BALTEX http://www.baltex-research.eu/
The Baltic Sea Experiment (BALTEX) was established as a regional research programme and acontribution to GEWEX in 1993 and 1994 (Raschke et al., 2001). BALTEX Phase I was
concluded in 2002 followed by Phase II of the programme with revised and extended scienceobjectives. The related science and implementation documents were published in 2004 and 2006
(BALTEX, 2006), respectively. The present status of BALTEX may best be described as aninternational, interdisciplinary partner network across more than 10 countries. The individual
project or initiative geometry and size are highly variable. BALTEX has no major central
funding. At present, the individual project funding relies heavily on institutions’ resources, while
major funding at the national or international levels is minor. BALTEX has a functioning
management structure in place with an SSG, several working groups, data centres and aninternational secretariat, both the latter of which enjoy permanent funding by individual
European Institutions such as SMHI, DKRZ-MPI and GKSS. The BALTEX SSG has
representatives of almost all major national hydro-meteorological services in the Baltic Sea
region as members, thus indicating the importance of a major group of stakeholders for thesteering process of the programme. BALTEX organises international conferences in 3-year
intervals, the 5th Conference in this series with 140 registered participants was conducted in June2007 in Estonia. So far more than 50 research institutions and organisations in all countries of
the catchment of the Baltic Sea and beyond have contributed to BALTEX. Results of BALTEX
are published in more than 270 peer-review journal articles, six dedicated special journal issues
and numerous reports (http://www.baltex-research.eu/publications).
The science plan for BALTEX Phase II (2003-2012) has the following major goals andobjectives for the programme:
1. Better understanding of the energy and water cycles over the Baltic Sea basin;
2. Analysis of climate variability and change since 1800, and provision of regional climate
projections over the Baltic Sea basin for the 21st century;
3. Provision of improved tools for water management, with an emphasis on more accurate
forecasts of extreme events and long-term changes;
4. Gradual extension of BALTEX methodologies to air and water quality studies;
5. Strengthened interaction with decision-makers, with emphasis on global change impact
assessments;
6. Education and outreach at the international level.

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3.1.3. CPPA http://www.climate.noaa.gov/cpo_pa/cppa/
The Climate Prediction Program for the Americas (CPPA) program is an integrated program thatcombines the former GEWEX/GAPP and CLIVAR Pan American Climate Studies(PACS). CPPA has a CPPA Science Panel that was formed in Feb. 2006. CPPA is solely
sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Program
Office. CPPA funding has been steady, but varies from year to year.
CPPA has four main scientific objectives:
1. to quantify the sources and limits of predictability of climate variations on intra-seasonal tointerannual time scale;
2. to improve predictive understanding and model simulations of ocean, atmosphere and landsurface processes, including the ability to quantify uncertainty;
3. to advance NOAA’s operational climate forecasts, monitoring, and analysis systems bytransferring research to operation;
4. to develop climate-based hydrologic forecasting capabilities for decision support and water
resource applications.
3.1.4. LBA http://lba.cptec.inpe.br/lba/site/
The Large-Scale Biosphere - Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) is primarily fundedby the Brazilian Government (Science and Technology Ministry) and is centered on two keyquestions:
1) How does Amazonia currently function as a regional entity?
2) How will changes in land use and climate affect the biological, chemical, and physicalfunctions of Amazonia, including the sustainability of development in the region and theinfluence of Amazonia on global climate?
The Hydrology component will consider issues related to both the quantity and the chemistry ofwater in the Amazon Basin. The stores and fluxes of water, and the controls on movement ofwater in soils and in streams, and the associated transport of constituents, will be determined fora nested suite of catchments representing a range of land use intensities. Forested and deforested
catchments of several square kilometers will be instrumented to make measurements with hightemporal resolution of discharge, rainfall, evaporation, interception, soil water storage, groundwater leakage and export of sediment and nutrients. The data will be used to improve thecapability of hydrometeorological models to assess the response of flows of the Amazon and its
tributaries to changes in climate and changes in land use. Controls on the movement of materials
from the upland through the riparian zone and into streams will be studied in small catchments
drained by low order streams. Models of nutrient budgets in larger catchments will integrate
results from fieldwork in the small catchments with extant models of higher order riverbiogeochemistry and extant and new models of hydrologic routing.
3.1.5 LPB http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/lpb/
The La Plata Basin (LPB) is an International Project that that has been endorsed by GEWEX and
CLIVAR. It aims to improve the predictive skill of the hydroclimate system of that SouthAmerican basin. It also seeks to establish the possible impacts of regional and global climatechange on the water resources of the region. The La Plata basin is highly vulnerable to floods, afact that has been gradually worsened due to the notable positive trends in precipitation and14streamflow. LPB is working with several organizations and agencies to promote its agenda andbring awareness of activities of high impact to the regional community.
LPB is currently planning the development of the Monitoring Activities and a Field Experiment,
as presented in the LPB Implementation Plan. The LPB Implementation Plan foresees
complementary observational and modeling activities. The monitoring of hydroclimate variables
and a field experiment will develop a set of unique data that will, first, help understand the land
surface-atmosphere processes that may lead to persistent events, and second, help calibrate andimprove parameterizations in regional and global models employed for forecasting andprediction up to seasons. Modeling activities include the development of coupled atmosphericand hydrologic models to better understand the behavior of rainfall-runoff relationships andimproving the long-term weather forecast and climate prediction of all components of thehydroclimate system.
The fundamental issues to be addressed in LPB can be summarized in three main questions:•••

What climatological and hydrological factors determine the frequency of occurrence andspatial extent of floods and droughts?
How predictable is the regional weather and climate variability and how predictable are
their impacts on the hydrological, agricultural and social systems of the basin?
What are the impacts of global climate change and land use change on regional weather,climate, hydrology and agriculture?

3.1.6. MAHASRI http://mahasri.cr.chiba-u.ac.jp/index_e.html
The Monsoon Atmospheric-Hydrologic Analysis Sustainability Research and prediction
Initiative (MAHASRI) is the successor of the former GAME, but also includes several new
aspects like ocean-atmosphere interaction, aerosols, winter monsoon, application to the society,and capacity building. MAHASRI was approved by the GEWEX SSG in January 2006. The
International MAHASRI Science Steering Committee was formed already, although somemembers are still tentatively determined. Pilot projects are just launched, and the data
management structure is under discussion. It is almost impossible to count the number ofparticipating organizations because many governmental agencies, universities and institutes are
participating from various countries of Asia. Among them, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth
Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) will be a key institute. The MAHASRI is a coordinatedproject of projects that are funded by many funding sources not only in Japan but also in China,
India, Thailand, and other Asian countries.
The objective of the MAHASRI is “to develop a hydro-meteorological prediction system,
particularly with the time scale up to a season, through the better scientific understanding of
Asian monsoon variability” with the following activities:• determine the predictability and key components of Asian monsoon variability with a timescale up to a season for the development of a hydro-meteorological prediction system;• develop a real-time monitoring capability for hydro-meteorological observation;• develop an integrated hydro-meteorological database including data-rescue;• examine and improve hydro-meteorological models in some specific river basins.

15

Key scientific issues are focused on:• atmosphere-ocean-land interactions;• effect of various-scale orography on monsoon;• temporal interactions among diurnal, synoptic, intraseasonal and seasonal variability of Asianmonsoon;• spatial interactions among hydro-meteorological phenomena;• transferability of hydrological models and parameters.
One particular plan worth mentioning is coordination of Asian monsoon observations under the
WCRP Pan-monsoon activity as Asian Monsoon Year 2008 (AMY08) starting from March/April
2008 to April 2009, which will also contribute to the overall GEWEX and CEOP objectives.
3.1.7. MDB http://www.gewex.org/mdb.html
The Murray Darling Basin Water Budget Project (MDB) was approved as a GEWEX CSE in
January 2002, and was initially aimed at enhancing the capability of numerical weather
prediction models to provide a real-time surface water budget over the Murray-Darling for
application by water authorities. The 2005 implementation plan incorporated new involvementfrom stakeholders and the wider University community, and identified the importance of
ACCESS (Australian Community Climate Earth System Simulator), a comprehensive ensemble
prediction modeling system for weather and climate system, to the objectives of the MDB.
The MDB is now an active program of activities is continuing in various Australian Agencies(ANSTO, BMRC, CSIRO and Melbourne University). The research activities are also
supported by the eWater Cooperative Research Centre, which has over 30 participating researchand operational water agencies. Along with the influence of ACCESS, especially the land
surface scheme that will focus efforts on water –carbon – energy interactions, we envisage
considerable enhancement of the research activities, and perhaps funding, as a result of the newrole that the national weather agency, the Bureau of Meteorology, has in water resources. Theintersection between the objectives and research within the Bureau’s new water division, and the
MDB, will become clearer.
Relevant objectives of the MDB project are to:
1. Observe, understand and model the dynamics of the coupled water, energy and carbon cyclesof the Murray Darling Basin, a developed, semi-arid zone Basin
2. Improve predictive tools for water management, including real-time forecasting products foruse by water agencies in the Basin
3. Strengthen interaction between the climate research community and decision-makers, tomaintain a practical focus on water and climate issues that impact both the region and theAustralian continent
4. Promote education and international exchange to improve global change science capability
and innovation in Australia and worldwide.
3.1.8. NEESPI http://neespi.org/
The Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI) mission is to identify thecritical science questions and establish an international program of coordinated research on thestate and dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems in northern Eurasia and their interactions with the16Earth's climate system to enhance scientific knowledge and develop predictive capabilities tosupport informed decision-making and practical applications. . It focuses on issues in NorthernEurasia that are relevant to both regional and global scientific and decision-making. The
Initiative has partial central funding (e.g., special calls/programs by the National Aeronautics andSpace Administration (NASA) and the Russian Academy of Sciences and investments into theInitiative infrastructure from national and international agencies). However, more than half of
the NEESPI projects are individually funded to address specific science question/problem that
corroborates with the NEESPI Science Plan.
Currently, about 400 scientists from about 200 institutions of 30 countries are involved in the
NEESPI scientific projects (the latest count is 116 projects). A large group of proposed projects
is still under review and/or in the process of recognition by NEESPI. Expected NEESPI future
funding situation depends upon the overall quality of the scientific results delivered by the
Science Team and the strength of the proposals that the Team researchers will put forward.
During the past two years, the NEESPI program has been endorsed by several ESSP Projects(IGBP through the Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study (ILEAPS), WCRP
through GEWEX and CliC, and ESSP through GCP and GWSP). Thereafter, the NEESPI
program has requested from ESSP the status of an ESSP Integrated Regional Study in thenorthern part of Eurasia.
NEESPI’s goal is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the Northern Eurasian terrestrial
ecosystem dynamics, biogeochemical cycles, surface energy and water cycles, and humanactivities and how they interact with and alter the biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the
Earth. The anticipated outcome from this program is the ability to measure, monitor, and model
the processes that will provide accurate future projections of climatic and environmental changes
in this region, which is essential because these changes and potential changes are believed tohave a substantial potential to impact the global Earth system and the human society. On theregional (and to some extent on the global) scales this goal corroborates well with the GEWEX
mission “Development and application of planetary Earth science, observations and models tothe problems of climate and water resources”.
3.2. Regional Cross-Cutting Studies
An additional number of CEOP Regional Studies (RCCS) have been established that involve
fewer numbers of investigators but which have the potential capability to bring together
interested researchers in many RHPs and other parts of GEWEX interested in common regional
problems associated with Cold Regions, High Elevations, Monsoons, and Semi-Arid Regions.
3.2.1 Cold Region Studies
CEOP previously recognized through its WESP science and implementation review process (andendorsed by the AOC/Scientific Steering Committee (SSC)) that there is a need to advanceknowledge of processes in cold regions in cooperation with the CliC Core Project(http://clic.npolar.no/). The CEOP science and oversight groups along with the broader scientificcommunity have stressed the importance to ensure that a complete record of observations in cold
regions (especially snowfall precipitation) be continued and further developed as part of CEOP
through the CRS.

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The central theme of CliC is to establish the present state of the cryosphere as the baseline forassessing the changes now going on and that might occur in the future system. CliC believes
that by working together with CEOP there is an unprecedented opportunity to document current
conditions utilizing shared data archives (in-situ and satellite) and access capabilities of bothprojects. In addition, the assimilation and modeling capabilities of CEOP might be used as amajor contribution to the assessment of the cryosphere as part of CliC objectives. Conversely,
the on-going observation and monitoring of the cryosphere in CliC will support CEOP process
studies, model evaluation, and change detection. It will also improve understanding of thephysical processes in cold regions so that they can be represented more precisely in models to
reduce uncertainties in simulations of climate and predictions of climate change. Tools andtechniques already established will use these enhanced observations to diagnose, simulate andpredict water and energy fluxes and reservoirs in cold regions on diurnal to annual temporalscales as well as apply these predictions for water resource applications.
Further, it was recommended that CEOP undertake a joint initiative with the CliC project as partof the IPY initiative (2007-2008) as part of its multi-disciplinary framework. The purpose of thiseffort is for CEOP to assist CliC and possibly the IPY effort as well with a primary objective: toassess and quantify the impacts of climatic variability and change on components of thecryosphere and their consequences for the climate system, and determine the stability of the
global cryosphere; and related secondary objectives. This coordination is especially synergisticwith the IPY, which is envisioned to be “…an intense, internationally coordinated campaign ofresearch that will initiate a new era in polar science. IPY 2007-2008 will involve a wide range of
research disciplines, including the social sciences, but the emphasis will be interdisciplinary in
its approach and truly international in participation…” These objectives include assessing andquantifying the impacts of climatic variability and change on components of the cryosphere andtheir consequences for the overall climate system.
During ‘CEOP’ the development of a template for homogenization of the “snow” data from
CEOP cryospheric sites was undertaken. An on-line questionnaire was developed and distributed
to these sites by the CEOP Data Management Working Group. The questionnaire results include
basic background information for the CEOP Reference Site metadata file and will identify whichsites can be used for development, validation and analysis of cold region observations, processes
and modeling. Responses to the questionnaire are found at:
http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/webresponse/snow/
To accomplish its goals this cross-cutting study will establish means of cooperating withelements of GEWEX, WCRP and ESSP initiatives including: CEOP-HE, CEOP-WEBS, GRP(for cloud datasets), GMPP-GLASS, NEESPI and BALTEX; CliC, IPY; and GWSP
respectively. In most cases the cooperation will take the form of establishment of direct contact
with a specific individual(s) in each activity nominated by the leaders of the effort to open lines
of communication about developments, which impact both. The identification of suchindividuals will allow for attendance at relevant meetings and communication through direct email and international conference call mechanisms. This means is preferable to the option ofcreating any new groups to manage these interactions and will be implemented in every casewhere collaborative interaction will eliminate redundancy and lead to positive results.

18

3.2.2. High Elevations http://www.ceop-he.org
The High Elevations (HE) Project will be a concerted, international and interdisciplinary effort tofurther knowledge of the physical and dynamical processes in high altitude areas. High elevation
areas provide interesting locations for the early detection and study of the signals of climatechange and the assessment of climate related impacts on hydrogeological, ecological and societal
systems at a global level.
The main purpose of this working group is to:
•
•
•
•
•
•

establish a coordinated activity between the high altitude climatic stations with aims atbuilding a network within CEOP reference stations;contribute to the understanding of water and energy cycles in high elevation regions andstudy their role within the climate system by means of globally integrated analysis of CEOP
reference sites data, remote sensing observations and models analysis and application;build synergies between meteorological-climate and hydrological studies in order to improvethe management of water resources;
provide QA/QC protocols for high altitude sites installation and for data representativeness;create an electronic archive of high altitude monitoring stations;improve the forecast capabilities of extreme weather events in high altitudes that influence
not only mountain regions but also a much wider environment and an elevated number ofpeople, with important social consequences depending on the interaction between the threemajor components: environment, economics and society.

To accomplish its goals this cross-cutting study will establish means of cooperating withelements of GEWEX, WCRP and ESSP initiatives including: CEOP-CRS, CEOP-WEBS,CEOP-Extremes, CEOP-Model, MAHASRI, NEESPI and GMPP-GLASS; CliC; and GWSP,
respectively. In most cases the cooperation will take the form of establishment of direct contact
with a specific individual(s) in each activity nominated by the leaders of the effort to open lines
of communication about developments, which impact both. The identification of suchindividuals will allow for attendance at relevant meetings and communication through direct email and international conference call mechanisms. As noted above, this means is preferable tothe option of creating any new groups to manage these interactions.
3.2.3 Monsoons
Monsoon climates are characterized by a distinct alternation of wet summer and dry winterseasons accompanied by large-scale circulation changes in response to seasonal differential
heating between the continents and ocean. At present, more than 70% of the world population
lives under monsoon climate influences. Vegetation, economy, and society in the monsoon
regions are strongly influenced by the variability of the monsoon. Further, many of the countries
in monsoon regions are under developing conditions whose economies are growing yet
considerately affected by anomalous climate and disastrous weather. Future change in the
monsoon climate under global warming is also of greatest concern to the world economy andsustainable development. Accurate seasonal forecasting of monsoon rainfall and its relation toregional hydroclimate has been strongly requested by society.
Monsoon science has advanced enormously in the last two decades due to a wealth of new data19from satellite observations, objective analyses, and field experiments, as well as advances incomputing power and mathematical representations of coupled climate systems by numericalmodels, but the forecasting skill for monsoon prediction is still not satisfactory for many social
needs. Consequently, further development of monsoon science is still needed.
The CEOP Monsoon Study (MONS) effort includes multiple observation and science activities
within the fields of hydrometeorology and hydroclimatology. CEOP has evolved components tointegrate observations based on coordination among field science groups, space agencies, and
NWP centers in the local, regional and global scales. Other synergistic elements of CEOP thatare also multidisciplinary include: components required to exchange and disseminate
observational data and information including data management that encompasses functions suchas Quality Assessment/Quality Control, access to data, and archiving of data, data integrationand visualization, and information fusion.
To accomplish its goals this cross-cutting study will establish means of cooperating withelements of GEWEX, WCRP and ESSP initiatives including: CEOP-Aerosols, CEOP-WEBS,CEOP-Extremes, CEOP-Model, MAHASRI, LBA, LPB, AMMA, GMPP, and GRP; CLIVAR;
and GWSP and MAIRS, respectively. In most cases the cooperation will take the form ofestablishment of direct contact with a specific individual(s) in each activity nominated by theleaders of the effort to open lines of communication about developments, which impact both.
The identification of such individuals will allow for attendance at relevant meetings andcommunication through direct e-mail and international conference call mechanisms.
3.2.4 Semi-Arid Studies
CEOP Semi-Arid Studies (SAS) focus on semi-arid continental areas, which are the transitionzone between arid climates and humid monsoon climates. These areas can be very sensitive toclimate and human perturbations. The potential evaporation there exceeds the precipitation anddry climate, low vegetation cover, low nutrition content and low capacity of water conservationof the soil characterize the landscapes. These areas are vulnerable in global environmental
change. These areas are also known as the major source of dust aerosols, which not only directly
cause serious damage to human health, agriculture and economics in regions, but also to otherregions through long distance transport of huge amount of dust particles across the Pacific ocean
to North America. The dust aerosols also have significant influence on the regional and global
climate through their radiative forcing. When this dust is deposited in the ocean, the Aeolianmineral dust becomes important to many biogeochemical cycles, including the growth ofphytoplankton, which will influence the carbon cycle in the ocean. Researchers have also
proposed an interaction process between dust aerosols and the hydrological cycle. Bothobservation and numerical modeling have shown that an aridity trend is occurring and will occur
most significantly in the semi-arid regions under the global warming.
On the other hand, the semi-arid region is also the one with most significant change of land coverunder the development by humans. The human-induced land cover changes in this region havebrought about further land degradation, the expansion of land under desertification, loss ofgroundwater reservoirs and the increase of dust storm frequency and so on. The large-scale
destruction of natural vegetation by human activities would also influence the intensity of thesummer monsoon and reduce the moisture transfer into the continent, which would enhance the

20aridity even more over the semi-arid regions.
It should also be pointed out that current climate models have shown the highest bias error ofsimulated precipitation in summer over the arid and semi-arid Asia. This could be due in part tolack of knowledge of land surface process, especially about the hydrological process over arid
and semi-arid regions in current land surface models. Currently most hydrological modules inland surface model are developed and calibrated for use in humid areas.
SAS goals are:• Make contributions to understanding the water and energy cycles of semi-arid regions
and their role in climate system by globally integrated analysis of CEOP reference sites
data, satellite observations and model output• Assist in better prediction of climate and water resources and their management in semiarid regions where the shortage of water supply is critical.
To accomplish its goals this cross-cutting study will establish means of cooperating withelements of GEWEX, WCRP and ESSP initiatives including: CEOP-Aerosols, CEOP-WEBS,CEOP-Extremes, CEOP-Model, MAHASRI, AMMA, and GMPP; CLIVAR; and GWSP and
MAIRS , respectively. In most cases the cooperation will take the form of establishment of
direct contact with a specific individual(s) in each activity nominated by the leaders of the effort
to open lines of communication about developments, which impact both. The identification ofsuch individuals will allow for attendance at relevant meetings and communication throughdirect e-mail and international conference call mechanisms.
3.3. Topical Cross Cutting Studies
CEOP has a number of Topical Cross-Cutting Studies (TCCS) that is being pursued incollaboration with the RS, RHPs and Modeling Studies (MS). These regional include Water andEnergy Budget Study, Extremes, Aerosols, and Isotopes projects.
3.3.1 Water and Energy Budget Study
Water and energy budgets on the surface and in the atmosphere are key processes of the climate
system, which in turn drive/affect other processes in the system. The water and energy budgets
are not only dependent on a variety of time scales (from diurnal and seasonal variations to interannual and decadal variability), but also characterized by regional differences and interconnections. A WEBS was first initiated by GEWEX/GHP to develop the “best available waterand energy budgets”, for the global land regions associated with the GEWEX CSEs. GEWEX
Phase I Results have now addressed regional variability of water and energy components, theimportance of land surface parameterization for precipitation forecast, and the importance ofContinental-Scale Experiments in closure of the regional water and energy budgets (Roads et. al.,2008).
The CEOP WEBS element will merge research activities of GHP WEBS with activities of the‘CEOP’ WESP (such as multi-model inter-comparisons). The CEOP/WEBS is now helping
CEOP to develop situ data, model output, satellite in a form that can be exchanged anddisseminated Based on this CEOP integrated data of observations, satellite products, and model21

output, CEOP/WEBS will address the following key issues related to data quality, model
deficiencies and science:• Quantify data accuracy, uncertainties, and discrepancies of energy and water components,
particularly for RHP regions?
• Since there are many data sources for each hydrological/energy component, can we findwhich is superior to others, if any?
• How can we integrate in situ, model and satellite to develop the “best available water andenergy budgets”, for the global land regions associated with RHP?
• With current available data, how can we identify deficiencies of model parameterizations andsatellite algorithms?
• How can we characterize differences and inter-connections of regional water and energy
budgets, and their temporal variability, particularly for hydroclimate “hotspots”, extreme
events as well as low-frequency climate events?
• What is the role of land-atmosphere interactions for hydroclimate “hotspots”, extreme events
as well as low-frequency climate events?
Water and energy budgets are a broad topic in the GEWEX research community. The WEBS istrying to define its scope to be an analysis and assessment project (though it also covers
modeling and data assimilation) and to address regional water and energy budget more thanglobal one. It is a data-based project, and needs strong collaboration from RHPs, NWP centers,
space agencies, data integration centers. The WEBS group will work jointly with other groups(CEOP subprojects, GRP-SRB and GMPP-follow-on) on some topics for improving quantitativeknowledge on water and energy budgets from local short-term to global long-term (multi-decadal)
scales.
WEBS Objectives• Determine and understand average values and temporal variability for components of thewater and energy cycles• Identify systematic errors and uncertainty of various types of water and energy data (in situ,
model, satellite, etc.)• Characterize the temporal variability of water and energy budget of regional hydroclimate
phenomena with particular attention to hydroclimate “hotspots”, extreme events, and lowfrequency climate events
3.3.2. Extremes http://www.drinetwork.ca/extremes/
A fundamental aspect of the water and energy cycle is the occurrence of extremes. Extremes
develop and evolve on a continual basis within the current climate system, and they lead toenormous impacts when and where they occur. How can we improve our understanding andprediction of extremes? To what extent will the types, distributions, and impacts of extremeschange in a world with an altered climate? Extremes will systematically address these issues
within the present climate system and this solid foundation will then allow us to contributesignificantly to understanding to what extent they may change in the future.
Extremes initially to be studied are those with a ‘climatologically significant duration and/or
spatial extent’ as opposed to individual, short-term events such as thunderstorms or flash floods.
This perspective includes:

22

•
•

extended wet period (producing a substantial period of precipitation for one to several
days that affects areas on scales of at least 10,000 km2);
drought (with its standard definitions) and this may include heat waves (lasting for days
to weeks);

Associated research will include, for example:• examination of storm track variations;• long periods of dry conditions interspersed with heavy rain.
Specific scientific issues to be addressed include:• How we define extremes;• What extremes have occurred;• How do extremes develop, evolve and end within the climate system;• Have extremes changed in occurrence and character and why or why not;• Given our progress, how can we contribute to assessing whether extremes may change inthe future?
3.3.3. Aerosols
As a result of the work in CIMS to understand and document the seasonal, diurnal andintraseasonal variation of the monsoon systems, and to carry out inter-monsoon comparison
studies to identify possible physical connections, and common features, we have identified
aerosol-monsoon water cycle interaction as an important common problem in all monsoon
regions that has not received enough attention under the existing panel structure of CLIVAR and
GEWEX. Under the new aerosol-cross cut initiative of CEOP, we will examine the impact ofaerosol radiative forcing in affecting diurnal to seasonal cycles, as well as evaluating impacts on
climate variability and change.
Recent studies have shown that regional and global water cycles may be profoundly affected by
the increased loading of aerosols in the atmosphere. Aerosols attenuate shortwave radiation by
scattering and/or absorption causing cooling at the earth’s surface. Some aerosol species such as
dust and black carbon can heat the atmosphere by absorbing solar radiation. Further, aerosols
may affect the water cycle by interfering with the microphysical processes of clouds andprecipitation formation, suppressing or enhancing rainfall depending on the ambient large-scalemoisture and circulation conditions.
Collectively, the diverse sources of aerosols, both natural and man-made, provide significant
perturbations on the energy balance in the climate system, altering the horizontal and vertical
heating contrast in the atmosphere and at the earth’s surface. The heating contrast drives
anomalous atmospheric circulation, resulting in changes in cloud formation, convective stability,
and rainfall in the atmosphere. Recent studies have shown that, aerosols effects may be
instrumental in producing droughts and floods in Asian monsoon regions. Dust and black carbon
may increase heating of the atmosphere and enhance monsoon rainfall, and induces hydroclimate
feedback including snowmelt and retreat of glacier over high-mountain domains. There is also
the possibility that the solar attenuation effect may spin-down the monsoon water cycle on
longer-time scales. Studies have also shown that Saharan dust may affect the climate and water
cycle of West Africa and Atlantic, including the suppression of tropical cyclo-genesis, and23

hurricanes.
To summarize, the objectives of CEOP Aerosol activities are to:• unravel the effects of natural and anthropogenic aerosols on the monsoon water cycle andtheir interaction with the atmosphere-land-ocean system, from diurnal, intraseasonal tointerannual time scales;• provide better understanding of the mechanisms of extreme events that affect water
availability in monsoon regions, and their relationships to oceanic, land, atmospheric(including aerosols) forcings.
CEOP’s aerosol effort has evolved with the knowledge and participation of its key persons aboutother aerosol initiatives. First among these is the Aerosols, Clouds, Precipitation and Climate(ACPC) initiative recently jointly proposed by the IGBP core projects iLEAPS and IGAC, and
the WCRP/GEWEX. At a kickoff workshop attended by CEOP aerosol experts ACPC was noted
to address the question: How do aerosol-precipitation interactions manifest themselves at the fullrange of temporal and spatial scales in the climate system? The objectives of the CEOP aerosol
activities as specified above can be seen to be synergistic with this matter, especially issues thatare central to understanding of the mechanisms of extreme events that affect water availability inmonsoon regions, and their relationships to oceanic, land, atmospheric (including aerosols)
forcings. CEOP will not lose sight of developments in ACPC and will initiate a collaborative
arrangement with support of the GEWEX SSG to ensure direct contact with a specificindividual(s) nominated by the leaders of ACPC to open lines of communication aboutdevelopments, which impact both activities. The identification of such individuals will allow
for establishment of mechanisms for collaborative interaction including attendance at relevant
meetings and communication through direct e-mail and international conference calls.
3.3.4. Isotopes
The Isotope Cross Cut Study (ICCS) contributes to CEOP by facilitating isotope studies, whichaugment and enhance the predominant non-isotope studies within GEWEX/CEOP. The ICCS
includes modeling (both validation and assessment), process studies from in situ and remotesensed data, and integration of these studies with other CEOP studies.
The ICCS includes a modeling research group called Stable Water Isotope Working Group(SWING; http://atoc.colorado.edu/~dcn/SWING). The SWING aims to use water isotope
information to understand water cycle processes and to quantify their role in climate and climate
feedbacks. The SWING incorporates an intercomparison of current state-of-the-art water isotope
general circulation models and related observational isotope data. It brings together scientists
with a common wide range of interest in both modeling and measuring stable water isotopes(H218O, HDO) and its application to earth system problems with a special focus on atmospherichydrologic balance and water movement in the land surface. Recent developments in satellite
observational capability have allowed water isotope measurements and have become an integral
part of SWING. Since the isotope information provided through ICCS/SWING is of great utility
for diagnosing cloud processes and surface exchange in models and in nature, there are many
opportunities to work with other groups, which are not presently being exploited. An example ofsuccess was the IPILPS project, which used land models from the SWING models and othermodels to assess surface energy and water balance with isotopes.

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Specific opportunities for partnership with existing GEWEX activities include an isotope
counterpart to, for instance, GCSS. Similar isotope partnerships would assist activities such as
WEBS. An example of success from such an interaction was the extension of the PILPs program
to include an isotope element (IPILPS) that lead to further insight into the ability (or otherwise)of land surface parameterization schemes to not only simulate local surface water and energybalance, but to do so in the right way. The same approach could be adopted for cloudparameterizations; river and ground water flow models and large (continental) scale energy andwater budgets. While these new opportunities have not been realized, planning for the isotope
crosscut under CEOP is such that these can be developed.
3.4. Model Studies
CEOP has initiated a number of Modeling Studies organized around global, regional, and land as
well as a particular hydrologic applications component. Personal communication between the
newly appointed Chair of the GEWEX Modeling and Prediction Panel (GMPP) and the Leaderof the CEOP Model Studies sub-project has now led to the direct interchange of technical andscientific information and knowledge. As a result a new collaborative arrangement has been
instituted between CEOP and GMPP, with support of the GEWEX Executive Committee, toensure direct contact with a specific individual(s) nominated by both leaders to open lines ofcommunication about developments, which impact both activities. The identification of suchindividuals is allowing for establishment of mechanisms for collaborative interaction including
attendance at relevant meetings and communication through electronic means and international
conference calls. A specific example of this new scheme is the assurance that the leader of the
CEOP Modeling Studies will be invited to participate at the initial and subsequent meetings of a
newly formed GEWEX model studies group jointly established between GMPP and WGNE.
Such a one-on-one collaborative process between each CEOP model initiative and GMPP will be
undertaken by CEOP as preferred to the option of creating any new groups to manage theseinteractions. It is felt that such an approach can be utilized not just in the modeling arena but canbe generally implemented in every case where collaborative interaction will eliminate
redundancy and lead to positive results.
3.4.1. Global Models
Evaluating CEOP global analyses has primarily been through the single point MOLTS colocated with CEOP reference sites (Yang et. al., 2007), (Bosilovich et. al., 2007), and (Roads et.
al., 2007). To get at the intercomparison of global grids, CEOP is developing an ensemble global
Model Analysis Comparison (MAC). This project serves several purposes. First, the variance of
the analyses can provide a measure of uncertainty in analyses. It also provides a range of thestate-of-the-art analyses. Second, this ensemble may make a better benchmark for comparing
individual analyses than simply differencing one against another. We can also test the veracity ofthe ensemble against global independent observations (e.g. the Global Precipitation Climatology
Project (GPCP), the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP), Surface
Radiation Budget (SRB), etc). Lastly we would like to demonstrate the benefit of such a MultiModel analysis for global atmospheric data assimilation systems for future longer-term studies.

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3.4.2. Regional Models
CEOP has a special focus on regional climate models, not only for particular regions, but also as
part of an ongoing transferability intercomparison begun as a part of the previous ‘CEOP’. There
are now two recognized regional model projects, Inter-Continental scale Transferability Study(ICTS) and Scale Interaction EValuation Experiment (SIEVE).
ICTS http://icts.gkss.deControlled numerical simulations of regional climates are currently being conducted over areas
having fundamentally different climate regimes (e.g., tropical, midlatitude, polar) focused onparticular climate characteristics (e.g., monsoons, low-level jets, mesoscale convective systems).
In particular, the ICTS, which is an outgrowth of the former ‘CEOP’/WESP/ contribution, ismaking continuous multiple regional simulations to the CEOP model archive and in turn uses the
CEOP global analyses, in-situ, and satellite data to evaluate these regional simulations. The goalof ICTS is to understand the physical processes underpinning the global water and energy cycles
through systematic intercomparison of regional simulations of diverse climates to CEOP
observations and global model analyses. . This way the best parameterizations will be localized
to simulate certain regional scale meteorological conditions, which we believe will also help toimprove future global climate models. For the ICTS seven computation areas over the different
RHPs were defined. Several aspects were considered in this process (e.g. orography at theboundaries of the simulation areas; inclusion of main typical synoptic features). One area is over
the MAGS region. The second covers GAPP and was defined by the Project for Intercomparisonof Regional Climate Simulations (PIRCS). Another area covering both the LBA and the La Plata
Basin region was used for a previous South America intercomparison. Over Europe we chose anarea that includes the BALTEX catchment, taken from the definition of the CLM area used for
the European Union Prediction of Regional scenarios and Uncertainties for Defining European
Climate change risks and Effects (PRUDENCE) project. The area over Africa covers the AMMA
region. The area over Asia covers the GEWEX GAME region, expanded to cover the Himalayan
CEOP reference site. The selection for the MDB (Murray-Darling-Basin Water Budget Project)area was based on a previous case study from the GEWEX Cloud System Study. The horizontal
resolution of the regional models was initially chosen to be approximately 50 km. The initial
simulation period was from January 2000 to December 2004.Currently the National Center for
Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Department of Energy (DOE) Reanalysis II is being used forthe lateral boundary condition for these regional simulations.
To summarize, the main objectives of the ICTS are to:• Study the transferability of regional climate models to areas of different continental scale
experiments (i.e. to different climate regimes)• Apply CEOP (satellite, reference sites, global analysis and model data) and otheravailable observational data sets to evaluate the energy and water cycles in regionalmodels• Assess the influence of different driving global re-analyses
SIEVE
The unifying scientific question for the companion Scale Interaction EValuation Experiment(SIEVE) is to clarify the mechanisms by which large-scale disturbances ultimately produce these26

extremes at regional scales. SIEVE will use nested regional climate models as tools toinvestigate these mechanisms. Large-scale aspects of seasonal extremes may have their origin assea surface temperature anomalies (e.g., ENSO) or as planetary-scale circulation anomalies (e.g.,
the blocking pattern associated with the 2003 European heat wave). Regional-scale extremes
then result or are intensified by interaction of these large-scale disturbances with regional
processes such as orographic flows or land surface feedbacks. The latter can be diagnosed indetail from regional model results, or manipulated in controlled numerical experiments. Thisdiagnosis also will help to uncover deficiencies in physical parameterizations when applied tosuch extremes, and will point to specific needs for model improvement.
The objective of SIEVE is to study the mechanisms by which large-scale climate anomalies are
manifested as seasonal extremes on regional scales. These seasonal extremes occur on larger
spatial and temporal scales than individual extreme events such as tropical storms or localized
floods. Examples of such seasonal extremes are the summer 1993 regional flood over thecentral U.S. and the summer 2003 European heat wave.
3.4.3. Land Surface Models
Land Surface Models (LSMs) simulate the stocks and fluxes of water and energy at and beneaththe land surface, towards the goal of improving understanding and prediction of these
phenomena and their interactions with the atmosphere. LSMs have been developed and run bydozens of groups. There have been a few efforts to coordinate their activities, beginning with thelocal-scale Project for Intercomparison of Land Surface Parameterizations (PILPS) experiments.
The first coordinated global scale land surface modeling activities were the Global Soil Wetness
Project (GSWP) phases 1 and 2, which aimed to:• Produce state-of-the-art global data sets of land surface fluxes, state variables, and relatedhydrologic quantities;• Develop and test large-scale validation, calibration, and assimilation techniques over land;• Provide a large-scale validation and quality check of the ISLSCP data sets;• Compare Land Surface Schemes, and conduct sensitivity studies of specificparameterizations and forcings, which should aid future model and data set development.
With the completion of GSWP-2, several researchers present at the CEOP Implementation
Planning Meeting in Washington DC expressed interest in forming a new working group "tocoordinate global land modeling activities and share data, towards the goal of improved
understanding and prediction of the land surface water and energy cycles at the global scale",which would contribute to CEOP research objective 1. Land surface models can also contributeto objective 4 by assessing the anthropogenic impacts on the water and energy cycles at regional
to continental scales. New CEOP land surface modeling activities need to include groups
traditionally active in CEOP LSM such as the University of Tokyo, the NASA/Goddard Space
Flight Center (GSFC) Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) project, amongst others.
Additionally, the RHPs must have modeling groups to run regionally developed LSMs and tohelp analyze model output for their region, since they are most familiar with their hydroclimate.
The CEOP LSM activity will identify, gather and analyze gridded global forcing data sets thatare available for regional to global off-line LSM simulations. Current contributions by exiting
groups (like the University of Tokyo and the GLDAS project) include contributions of both

27

MOLTS and global, gridded model output datasets. GLDAS maintains a large archive of
surface meteorological forcing data, land parameters, and output datasets, much of which ismade publicly available. These data sets will be augmented by additional global forcing data
sets (e.g. from Princeton University Land Hydrology Group, NCAR from A. Dai, and various reanalysis land surface meteorological data sets), and regional forcing data sets from the RHPs.
In the later case it is expected that the RHP data sets will be of a higher quality than the available
global sets.
The CEOP LSM activity will analyze the consistency among the data sets to help assess theuncertainty in the global terrestrial surface meteorology and radiation fields.
The goal of the
LSM activities under CEOP, then, is to generate physically coherent fields of land surface statesand fluxes by optimally merging disparate data products, and by using a suite of advanced land
surface models, to estimate the terrestrial component of the Earth's energy budget and water
cycle, including an estimate of the error. One approach is to utilize NASA’s Land Information
System (LIS) software package, which is able to drive multiple LSMs at high resolutions withvarious user-defined configurations and forcing options, but alternative approaches for running
multi-model systems need to be developed since many RHP regional models are not in the LIS
software package.
Passive microwave remote sensing provides the most feasible technique to monitoring spatiallydistributed soil moisture and snow over land and water vapor, cloud and precipitation over ocean
in a large scale. The sensitivity to soil moisture of brightness temperature at low frequencies is awell-known phenomenon. Methods to estimate regional to global snow depth or Snow Water
Equivalent (SWE) have been developed based on snow particle scattering in microwave region.
Radiation emission from water vapor and liquid droplet and scattering extinction for solid
particle in atmosphere are used basically for monitoring atmospheric hydrological condition overocean at higher frequencies.
The current techniques or algorithms need to be further improved or developed in order to obtain
the required accuracy for atmospheric and hydrologic modeling. The key elements of the
Radiative Transfer Models (RTMs), for example, vertical profiles of soil moisture, snow grain
size and water vapor and air temperature, cannot be obtained only by passive microwave remotesensing. It is also difficult to use satellite products in numerical weather prediction models
directly. To solve these issues, it is effective to assimilate passive microwave remote sensing
data with numerical simulation schemes, Land Surface Schemes, Snow Physical Models, andCloud Microphysics Models, which are embedded in Global Climate Models (GCMs) orregional models.
3.4.4. Hydrologic Applications Project
The Hydrologic Applications Project (HAP) addresses CEOP’s research objective 4 as it relates
to demonstrating the value of GEWEX research, data sets and tools for assessing theconsequences of climate predictions and global change for water resources. HAP is a CEOP
activity that crosses ESSP projects, particularly with the GWSP.
The HAP was formulated with the goals being:• Developing procedures for assessing current hydrologic conditions (nowcasting) throughapplication of GEWEX supported data products, including remotely sensing;

28•

Developing and testing of reliable, skillful hydrologic ensemble forecast procedures based on
seasonal climate model forecasts;• Demonstrating that the procedures can be applied at scales useful for water resources throughtest-bed sites and demonstration projects;
Thus, one important research focus of HAP is to assist GEWEX in “demonstrating skill in
predicting variability in water resources and soil moisture on seasonal to annual as an element of
WCRP's prediction goals for the climate system.” Thus HAP will help foster and develop thescience behind skillful ensemble hydrologic seasonal forecasts, and demonstrating theirusefulness.
In addition, HAP will work with the IAHS Project on Ungauged Basins (PUB) to demonstrate
how remote sensing data, land data assimilation products and hydrological prediction can
improve the decisions made by water resource managers. This activity offers GEWEX scienceand data products to the applications community. GEWEX will also promote strategies to work
more closely with the WMO Hydrology and Water Resources Department, operational hydrometeorological services and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO)’s International Hydrology Programme. These lead to HAP’s fourth goal; namely,• Working with related projects, like Extremes, Hydrologic Ensemble Prediction EXperiment(HEPEX), the PUB, and other GEWEX panels, particularly the GMPP.
HAP’s goals will result in a set of activities that cross a number of GEWEX panels (in particular
the GMPP and projects within the Coordinated Energy and water-cycle Observations Project(CEOP). For example these range from data products from remote sensing to transferability
modeling studies and the WISE activities on extremes. Additionally there are related activities
in the WCRP that HAP should contribute to including GEWEX’s contribute to the Global Water
System project within the ESSP framework; WCRP’s new strategy, commonly known as the
Coordinated Observation and Prediction of the Earth System (COPES); and the WCRP Task
Force on Seasonal Prediction.
3.5. Data Management http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/
Data Management (DM), a former key component of both GHP and then ’CEOP’ is a key
component of CEOP, which has successfully managed to get diverse international groups toagree to a general data policy and other groups to then help maintain an internationally
distributed database of extensive hydrometeorological data.
The data collection done within the RHP’s (and formerly CSE’s) is of crucial importance toadvance the science about a region and at a regional level. However, by combining of,centralizing of, quality control etc. of, and providing open access to all the data from theseregional experiments global assessments and advancement of science becomes feasible,
Furthermore, accessibility of these data is essential for the cross-cutting studies (both topical andregional) to become successful.
In this section we describe first the data policy and then the distributed data archive that was set
up under ‘CEOP, mainly the in situ data archive and the model data archive. The remaining dataarchive centers, the satellite data archive, the central data archive center are described under
section 4, which also describes some new interoperability, metadata and data integration efforts

29

in support of CEOP.
3.5.1 Data Policy
Improvement of understanding and predictability of the energy and water cycle cannot be
achieved without data and information sharing including data management and integration thatencompasses functions such as Quality Assessment/Quality Control, access to data, andarchiving of data, data integration and visualization, and information fusion. CEOP data anddocumentation may be accessed from the CEOP web page or directly through the CEOP DataManagement web page (http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/)
The WMO Resolutions 40 and 25 (adopted by the XII Congress on 26 October 1995) comprises
the basis for the CEOP data policy and protocol to be adopted and practiced by each of the
CEOP Data Archive Centers:"As a fundamental principle of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and inconsonance with the expanding requirements for its scientific and technical expertise, the WMO
commits itself to broadening and enhancing the free and unrestricted international exchange of
meteorological and related data and products".
In general, the scientific community will have free and open access to all CEOP data, subject toprocedures in place at the various Data Archive Centers involved. The following six "golden
rules" have been established as part of the CEOP Data Policy to ensure a smooth and successful
use of CEOP Data by the scientific community:• No financial implications are involved for the CEOP reference site data exchange.
• Commercial use and exploitation of CEOP reference site data is prohibited.
• Any re-export or transfer of the original data received from the CEOP archive to a third party
is prohibited.
• The origin of CEOP data being used for publication of scientific results must be
acknowledged and referenced in the publication.
• CEOP data users are strongly encouraged to establish direct contact with data providers forcomplete interpretation and analysis of data for publication purposes.
• Co-authorship of data users and CEOP data sources. Principle Investigators on publications
making extensive use of CEOP data is justifiable and highly recommended.
Further details regarding the CEOP Data Policy may be found at:
http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/documents/ceop_policy.html
3.5.2 CEOP Data Centers
One success of CEOP data management has been in linking to the various RHPs andcontributing national agencies to develop in-situ, model output and satellite remote sensing
archives and providing the data to the science community. The three CEOP Archive Centers are:(1) the NCAR/Earth Observing Laboratory (EOL) Central Data Archive for CEOP Reference
Site Data; (2) the International Council for Science (ICSU) WDC for Climate which is supportedby the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPIM) and the German Climate Computing
Center (DKRZ) in Hamburg for NWP Model Output; and (3) the Satellite and Data Integration
Center at UT, which is jointly administered by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency

30(JAXA), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), and UT. These Centers abide by the CEOP
Data Policy Criteria described above, established with the data providers and this data is thenfreely available to any and all users free of any costs, with the exception of possible modest
expenses for mailing costs of any data that is requested other than through the electronic schemes
set up by the administers of each of these centers. The data users are required to comply with theuse and citing of the material in accordance with the CEOP data policies as noted for the in-situ
data, the model data and the satellite data. In this section we describe the already functioning insitu and model data archives here.
In Situ Archive
Key agreements were initiated to obtain in-situ data from 35 selected globally distributed“reference” stations, as shown in Figure 1, involved with the various CEOP RHPs. These
Reference Sites provide enhanced observations of sub-surface (soil profiles), surface (standard
meteorological and radiation), near surface (flux tower), atmospheric profiles (rawinsonde andprofiler), and ancillary data sets (radar, special observations) in a common format. All Reference
Site data are archived and disseminated by the NCAR/EOL, in Boulder Colorado. Further details
are available at: http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/.
Collection of the data from the CEOP Reference sites for the initial CEOP period has shown thatadherence by the sites to a consistent format is especially important to ensure an efficient
continuation of the CEOP dataset development and delivery process. The reference sitecharacteristics and metadata have been cataloged along with all of the information about theentire CEOP in-situ database. The data collection has been an on-going process and it is the roleof the CEOP Data Management Working Group to maintain the status of the contributions fromthe CEOP reference sites at the RHPs.
Besides being posted at the CEOP Data Management web page, the In-situ Data Archive ensuresthat each request for data from the CEOP Reference Site Archive is accompanied,automatically/electronically, by a copy of the CEOP Data Policy. Whereas, the data policy has
stood the test of time and application in CEOP, the ability for the reference sites to meet theiragreed to data contribution deadlines has proven harder, but workable. Experience in collection,
quality checking, delivery and posting of the data has shown that while data collection anddelivery are often completed as requested the final quality checks that enable the data to becertified for posting on the database must be undertaken on an iterative basis by the In-situ Data
Archive with each site spokesperson/manager. This process seems to become more efficient witheach data delivery milestone but up to now it remains a time consuming effort that is rarely
completed on the agreed to dates. This points toward the need to be more reflective and realistic
in the future with setting the dates for the data to reach the research quality level set by CEOP
and thereby be posted on the database for user access. This issue has now been factored into the
CEOP in-situ dataset development process.

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Figure 1 CEOP Reference Sites

32

Satellite Data Archive
It will be essential to integrate the data from satellites observing both land and ocean ingenerating new CEOP data sets for the overall water cycle. The work associated with satellite
data set archive is being undertaken by the University of Tokyo in collaboration with JAXA,
NASA and ESA. Dataset documentation and background information are available at:
http://monsoon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/camp-i/doc/sat_info/index.htm. A contribution by JAXA incoordination with the University of Tokyo has been established that applies to an on-going effort
to provide CEOP satellite datasets for integration with the CEOP in-situ and model output data.
The data set consists of the main water cycle parameters necessary to accomplish CEOP
scientific goals; these data are geo-coded (i.e. re-sampled to a regular LAT/LON Grid). They are
generated at three scales, 250km rectangular, monsoon regional and global scales, associatedwith product levels 1b, 2 and 3. The processing levels have also been defined to ensure a clear
understanding of the nomenclature and reduce ambiguity in the statement of requirements. The
Levels of processing have been established to be:[Level-1b] - Radiance product with full resolution at reference sites.
[Level-2] - Geophysical product at the same resolution at reference sites and monsoon regions.
[Level-3] - Statistical geophysical product in space and/or time at reference sites, monsoon
regions and global. (example: Monthly mean rain rate at reference sites, etc.)
These components consist of an image element and a metadata part element that is compliant
with the ISO-19115 metadata standard.
The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) membership encompasses the world’s
government agencies responsible for civil Earth observation satellite programs. Within CEOS,
the Working Group on Information Systems and Services (WGISS) aims to coordinate andmonitor the development of the systems and services, which manage and supply the data andinformation from participating organizations’ missions. Under this coordination framework,
NASA and ESA are providing their satellite data sets to the UT archiving system. JAXA works
as a coordinator of the CEOP satellite data archive in CEOS/WGISS.
NWP Output Archive
The basis of the NWP model output component of CEOP was a letter, which was sent in
September 2001 from the Director of WCRP to NWP and data assimilation centers worldwide
requesting analysis/assimilation and forecast model products from global and regional NWP
suites, including both operational and reanalysis systems. Nine operational NWP and two data
assimilation centers are currently contributing to this component of CEOP. To assist with theorganization of this activity, a CEOP Model Output Management Document was drafted as a
guide for the participating centers to use in setting up their processes for meeting theircommitments to CEOP. The Guidance Document addressed the two issues of (1) the model
output variables requested by CEOP and (2) the two types of requested model output, namely
gridded (in GRIB format) and site-specific time series MOLTS at each of the CEOP Reference
Sites. Further information can be found at the CEOP Model Output web page at:
http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/model/
The MPIM in coordination with the ICSU World Data Center for Climate (WDCC) in Hamburg,
Germany was designated as the CEOP model output archive center. The WDCC is administeredby the Model and Data Group (M&D) at MPIM and the DKRZ. The Model Output web site is33

located directly at: http://ceop.wdc-climate.de/. A new version of the Guidance Document will
be compiled that clarifies what model output data will be generated by the NWP Centers andGroups contributing to the model output component of CEOP and how they willinterface/transfer the data that will be handled and retained at the WDCC. The issues covered in
the document will include: (1) global versus regional products; (2) desired assimilation output;
Interval and length of free-running forecasts; (3) Operational versus reanalysis data; (4) the
CEOP schedule/archive periods; (5) the number and locations of MOLTS sites; and (6) the
homogenizing of the model output and metadata formats (i.e. standard parameters). All of thecontributing centers have been discussing these issues on periodic conference calls and haveagreed to meet these requirements as closely as possible.
Results up to this point in the CEOP model output generation effort make it clear that the transfer
aspect of the data handling effort has been progressing well. Data from all Eleven Centers(NCEP, UKMO, NASA-GMAO, NASA-GLDAS, JMA, BMRC, ECMWF, NCMRWF, ECPC,
CPTEC-INPE, and MSC) participating in CEOP have been received at the data archive centerand has either been placed into the database at the Hamburg facility, or is in the process of being
entered into the database. The current data in this archive is shown in Figure 2.

Figure2 CEOP Model Archive at MPI

3.6 Global Data Centers
There are a number of additional data sources that will be contributing to CEOP including a
number of Global Data Centers. The GRDC and the GPCC have had long-term affiliation withGEWEX and GHP and will continue this collaboration under the new CEOP.
In essence, Collaboration with these data Centers does no harm to CEOP and by strengthening
connections with them opportunities exist for improving CEOP datasets associated with river34discharge and precipitation respectively. Since the affiliation with these centers up to now has
been loosely maintained the leader of the CEOP Data Management sub-project has undertaken towork directly with the leaders of each of these Centers to strengthen the oversight and formalize
the interaction between the Centers and CEOP. While GRDC has been recognized as a GEWEXHydrometeorology Project, CEOP seeks to focus on what this designation implies, especially as
it relates to meeting specific technical and scientific criteria as enumerated in section 3.1 above.
At the core of the collaboration between CEOP and these Centers is their potential contribution
to CEOP studies through provision of quality controlled datasets that the CEOP database would
not otherwise have available. The assessment of the added value that these datasets mightprovide to CEOP as weighed against the amount of effort that would be required to make them
usable in the context of the current CEOP Data Management framework is still underway.
Action is on CEOP to continue to scrutinize its relationship with these Centers and rather than torush to formally embrace them to instead maintain an active dialog with them on all aspects ofpotential mutual benefit that might be accrued from closer formal collaboration. CEOP is
obligated to report progress on this on-going assessment process and to not taking further action
on this interface without approval of the GEWEX SSG.
At a minimum the objective of the cooperation with these Centers is to provide quality assured
data to the research community. This requires the historical data to be put through plausibility
checks and quality assurance procedures before entry into any CEOP/GEWEX database.
Background that must be taken into account to achieve successful mutual interaction includes thefact that at least in the case of the GRDC it is mandated by WMO resolutions to collect data on a
global scale, harmonize the data and provide the data to predominantly water and climate related
programs and projects of the United Nations (UN), their specialized agencies and the scientificresearch community. A complication with this situation is that the data from National
Hydrometeorology Services (NHS’s) to the GRDC is not institutionalized and is based on WMO
Resolutions on the free and unrestricted exchange of Hydrometeorological data. The scale ofissue must also be considered in that currently the GRDC is holding quality assured historicalmean daily and/or monthly discharge data for more than 7300 stations from 156 countries, as
noted below, and even though the data are available free of charge to the scientific community
more efforts are needed to add value to the data by obtaining near real-time river discharge datafrom a global baseline river gauging network for improved studies on global climate variability
and change and the verification of hydro-climatological models.
These are some of the matters that CEOP is facing as it endeavors to interact more formally onbehalf of GEWEX/WCRP with these specialized data centers.
3.6.1 Global Runoff Data Centre http://grdc.bafg.de/
The Global Runoff Data Centre (GRDC) was established in 1988 at the Federal Institute ofHydrology (BfG) under the auspices of the WMO. It is a contribution of the Federal Republic of
Germany to the World Climate Programme Water (WCP-Water) of WMO. WMO mandates anddirectly supports GRDC by its Resolutions 21 (Cg XII, 1995: Request to the member states toprovide GRDC with river discharge data) and 25 (Cg XIII, 1999: Free and unrestricted exchangeof hydrological data). An international Steering Committee is guiding and overseeing theactivities of the GRDC. The steering committee consists of representatives from WMO,

35

UNESCO, UNEP, ICSU, IAHS and partner data centres GPCC and the International
Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC).
The main objective of the GRDC is the worldwide acquisition, storage and dissemination ofhistorical and near-real-time river-discharge data in support of the predominantly water andclimate related programmes and projects of the United Nations (UN), their specialized agencies
and the scientific research community. Additionally the GRDC has the following objectives:••••

Operation and further development of the GRDC database, improvement of integration withexternal databases, contribution to the development as well as application and propagation ofinternational standards for metadata, discharge data and data structures
Preparation and maintenance of applied global data products and discharge-related geoinformation, partly in collaboration with specialized external institutions
Application of mathematical models on various scales for estimation of water balances, water
availability and coupling with climate models
Collaboration with and consulting of international organizations, other world data centres aswell as foreign institutions in the fields of hydrology, water resources as well as data
management and data acquisition. This includes active participation in a number of national
and international working groups, steering committees and panels.

There are various GRDC activities in the framework of the GEWEX. GRDC is recognized as
one of the hydrometeorological projects in GEWEX. As such the GRDC seeks to provide inputs
to the GEWEX/GHP RHP and modeling efforts by providing improved data sets. These points,
however, require close consideration before CEOP can clearly delineate the exact extent of its
association with GRDC and the potential mutual value to be added through such collaboration,
as noted above under Item 3.6.
As of end-2007 the GRDC database holds world-wide discharge data of 7,332 stations in 156
countries featuring around 276,000 station-years of monthly and daily values with an averagetime-series length of 37.7 years. Over the past 12 months data of 2133 stations from 10 countries
have been updated. Additionally the GRDC maintains the following four specialized databases:••••

Arctic Runoff Database (ARDB) containing data from over 2400 stations specifically for thearctic research community associated with the WCRP ACSYS (Arctic Climate System
Study) and the CLiC Project
Global Terrestrial Network for River Discharge (GTN-R) database for near-real time data, acontribution towards the Implementation Plan for the Global Observing System for Climate
and to GTN-H
European Terrestrial Network for River Discharge (ETN-R) database for near-real timedata, a GRDC contribution towards the European Flood Alert System (EFAS) underdevelopment by the European Union (EU) Joint Research Centre
European Water Archive (EWA) in support of the Northern European Flow Regimes fromInternational Experimental and Network Data (NE-FRIEND) research community

3.6.2 Global Precipitation Climatology Centre http://gpcc.dwd.de
The Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) was established in 1988 at the request of

36

the WMO. The Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD, National Meteorological Service of Germany)
operates it as a German contribution to the WCRP. The mandate of GPCC is the global analysis
of monthly precipitation on earth’s land-surface based on in situ rain gauge data. Since its start,
the centre is the in situ component of the GPCP. In 1994, the long-term operation of the GPCC
has been requested by WMO in order to contribute to the climate monitoring activities of the
Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). Since 1999, GPCC has been a global GCOS Surface
Network Monitoring Center (GSNMC), which has a special emphasis on precipitation. Mid
December 2006, GPCC started its newest function as the WMO Commission for Basic Systems(CBS) Lead Center for GCOS data for Europe. The German Meteorological Service (DWD)
continuously funds GPCC operation.
The main GPCC objective is the analysis of the spatial and temporal distribution of land-surface
precipitation on a monthly time-scale based on in situ rain gauge data compiled from stations
located worldwide. The aim of the GPCC is to serve user requirements esp. regarding accuracyof the gridded precipitation analyses and timeliness of the product availability. All four different
GPCC analysis products result from the same data management and analysis system. However,depending on the user requirements, esp. regarding timeliness and quality, they differ with regard
to the number of the stations included and the level of data quality control being performed.
Recent research activities supported the preparation of homogenized 50-year precipitation
climatology, used for assessment of precipitation variability and trends in the 2007 report of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
As of end-2007 the GPCC database holds world-wide precipitation data of more than 78,000
stations in more than 170 countries featuring more than 19,000,000 station-years of monthly
values. Over the past 12 months 40 countries have provided new or updated monthly
precipitation time series to GPCC. The GPCC products are adjusted to contribute to WCRP core
projects:• The GPCC Full data product is adjusted to support Global and regionalhydrometeorological research activities in the context of CEOP hydroclimate projects andstudies;• The GPCC VASClimO product is adjusted to support climate variability and change
studies in context of CLIVAR and contributes also to the IPCC Assessment Reports:• The GPCC Monitoring product and the supplementary products related to solid/liquid
precipitation and systematic error correction are useful to support studies in context of
CLIC. In addition GPCC implemented the Arctic Precipitation Data Archive (APDA).
As noted under Item 3.6 above. The connection between CEOP and GPCC still requires close
consideration before CEOP can clearly delineate the exact extent of its association with GPCC interms of the potential mutual value to be added through such collaboration.

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4. CEOP Implementation
CEOP is organized around coordinated activities in the RHPs, RS, CCS, MS and DM, withmajor contributions to these activities coming from the RHP funded activities. A summary
CEOP implementation plans is described below for each of the CEOP elements.
4.1. Regional Hydroclimate Projects
Besides focusing on their own regional GEWEX hydroclimate goals, the RHPs are making asignificant contribution to CEOP through their contribution of reference site, model and satellite
data. Particular mention should be made of the BALTEX project for its support of the Model
Data Archive at the World Data Center housed at MPI and for its support of the ICTS project at
the GKSS, the support CPPA for archiving the in situ data at NCAR and for their support of
HAP activities over the US and other global regions, and the GAME/MAHASRI project for
supporting the satellite data archive at JAXA, the Integrated Data Management at the Univ. ofTokyo, as well as the CEOP Project office at the Univ. of Tokyo.
4.1.1 AMMA http://amma.mediasfrance.org/about/index
African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) is an international project to improve ourknowledge and understanding of the West African monsoon (WAM) and its variability with anemphasis on daily-to-interannual timescales. AMMA is motivated by an interest in fundamental
scientific issues and by the societal need for improved prediction of the WAM and its impacts on
West African nations.
Vulnerability of West African societies to climate variability is likely to increase in the next
decades as demands on resources increase in association with one of the World's most rapidly
growing populations. Vulnerability may be further increased in association with the effects ofclimate change and other factors linked to the fast growing population such as land degradation
and water pollution.
Recognising the societal need to develop strategies that reduce the socioeconomic impacts of thevariability of the WAM, AMMA will facilitate the multidisciplinary research required to provide
improved predictions of the WAM and its impacts.
We are currently hindered in providing skillful predictions of WAM variability and its impacts.
There are still fundamental gaps in our knowledge of the coupled atmosphere-land-ocean system
at least partly arising from lack of appropriate observational datasets but also because of thecomplex scale interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere that ultimately
determine the nature of the WAM. The monitoring system for the WAM and its variability isinadequate with many gaps in the standard routine network and lack of routine monitoring ofsome key variables. While the next generation of satellites will undoubtedly help with routine
monitoring and prediction efforts, more research is required to validate and exploit these data
streams. Dynamical models used for prediction suffer from large systematic errors in the West
African and tropical Atlantic regions; current models have problems simulating fundamental
characteristics of rainfall such as the diurnal, seasonal and annual cycles. Finally, there is a lackof integrative science linking the work on WAM variability with work on food, water and healthimpacts. More effort needs to be made to integrate scientists working in these different areas.
Further motivation for a research project concerned with WAM variability and predictability

38

comes from recognizing the role of Africa on the rest of the world. Latent heat release in deep
cumulonimbus clouds in the ITCZ over Africa represents one of the major heat sources on theplanet. Its meridional migration and associated regional circulations impact other tropical andmidlatitude regions, as is exemplified in the known correlation between West African rainfall
and Atlantic hurricane frequency. In addition to the large-scale interactions, we know that amajority of hurricanes that form in the Atlantic originate from weather systems over West
Africa; however we know little about the processes that influence this and why only a small
fraction of these "seedlings" actually become hurricanes.
The WAM system provides an ideal framework for considering scale interactions in a monsoon
system: it possesses pronounced zonal symmetry with characteristic jets and associated welldefined weather systems. Research on such scale interactions and in particular those linking
dynamics and convection with the land surface will be relevant to other monsoon systems and isneeded in order to improve coupled atmosphere-ocean-land models used for weather and climate
prediction. In order to carry out this research extra observations are needed.
West Africa is also an important source region for natural and anthropogenic emissions ofprecursors to key greenhouse forcing agents (e.g. ozone, aerosols). For example, Africa
contributes around 20% of the global biomass burning fires. These emissions are modulated by
the activity of the WAM but in contrast to other surface impacts they feedback directly on the
climate. Long-range transport of trace gases out of West Africa has important implications forthe global oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere (which controls the level of many greenhousegases), global climate change and the transport of key constituents (e.g. water vapour, ozone
depleting substances) into the stratosphere. The fires also produce huge quantities of particles,
complex mixtures of organic materials and black carbon.
Tropical Africa is the world's largest source of atmospheric dust. Both the fire aerosols and dust
play a major role in radiative forcing and in cloud microphysics, and thus are an important partof WAM system. A key priority is to determine the transport of trace gases and aerosols from thesurface to the upper atmospheric layers and the subsequent transport by the WAM. It is thus
necessary to study the dynamics and the chemistry of the atmosphere in the same framework.
4.1.2 BALTEX http://www.baltex-research.eu/
BALTEX now has the goal of understanding past and future climate variability in the Baltic riverand sea basin. During the next several years BALTEX plans include the immediate (2007)
assessment and development of future projected climate change and variability in the Baltic Sea
Basin for major water and energy-cycle related parameters, as well as their potential impact onmarine and terrestrial ecosystems (the BALTEX Anthropogenic Climate Change (BACC)
Project). Based on the BACC assessment, research priorities and gaps related to identification
and attribution of regional climate change as well as to projections of future climate variability
and change will be identified. Climate projections for the 21st century using the coupled
regional models for the Baltic Sea basin will then be established and discussed.
BALTEX will subsequently establish and discuss assessments of the availability of water
resources based on ensemble climate projections for the 21st century in cooperation with water

39

management authorities in selected river basins and for the entire Baltic Sea basin. It will also
provide an assessment of the role of land-atmosphere interactions during major wet and dry(drought) periods, specifically for the 1995 to 2004 period, as a contribution to pan-GEWEX
activities.
A research quality long term energy and water budget data set (complete with error bars)
including both observational and model outputs will be produced, and discussed, for use in
climate trend and variability analysis, model initialization and validation studies. This will be
used to provide assessments of water resources including ground water based on ensemble
climate projections for the 21st century for the entire Baltic Sea basin. Establish long-lasting
cooperation or joint ventures with river basin management authorities for selected river basins
with the view to continuously update water resources assessments.
The second assessment of climate change and variability for the Baltic Sea basin will beestablished as one final document originating from BALTEX by the end of 2012.
4.1.3 CPPA http://www.climate.noaa.gov/cpo_pa/cppa/
As a contribution to CEOP activities, CPPA will assess land -surface process simulations in
NCEP Global Model using CEOP reference site observations. These will be complemented by anobservation and modeling study of diurnal cycles in monsoon region (NAME). The role of land
surface in drought and extremes will also be assessed. The GLDAS Participated in the GMP andinitiated modelling activities, such as, the 2nd Global Land-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment(GLACE-2) and various other model inter-comparison projects.
As part of CPPA’s contribution to HAP and HEPEX efforts, a pilot project to demonstrate multimodel ensemble hydrological prediction (streamflow, snow pack, soil moisture) on medium
range (1-2 weeks) and seasonal time scales will be launched. Uncertainties in hydrologic
forecasts (from climate forecasts, initial boundary condition, model, and predictability studies)
will be quantified (HAP). The Experimental Western and Eastern Seasonal Hydrologic
Prediction System will be transferred to the NCEP Operation Platform.
Regional field experiments to understand Mountain and Cold Season processes, especially incomplex terrain will be conducted. Dynamical downscaling and hydrologic applications of
seasonal hindcasts of the NCEP GFS model will complement these studies.
4.1.4 LBA http://lba.cptec.inpe.br/lba/site/
Input to be received
4.1.5 LPB http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/lpb/
Input to be received.
4.1.6 MAHASRI

http://mahasri.cr.chiba-u.ac.jp/index_e.html

Several river basins in Asia will be selected and used for demonstration of practical flood anddrought prediction. Water managers will be involved. Impact of short-term and seasonal weather

40

predictions will be surveyed. The JMA Asia Pacific Climate Center will be involved. Support for
PUB activities in Asia will be initiated as part of this effort.
Impact of land surface conditions on Asian monsoon will be surveyed particularly throughmodelling studies. Land surface models will be validated and improved via the use of speciallyobserved data in particular during the AMY08 period in Asia. Also comparisons of hind-castseasonal predictions will be conducted by utilizing AMY08 data.
Regional climate model comparisons may be carried out with the collaboration with otherprojects and programs such as the CEOP/ICTS. Land atmosphere interactions in special regions
like Tibet, Mongolia, Northwest China, Indochina and the like will be investigated with special
observations in AMY08. Aerosol observation over Asia will be carried out. Temporalcharacteristics of diurnal and intra-seasonal cycles, and their interactions will be surveyed within-situ, special, radar and satellite observations.
Beginning in 2009, MAHASRI will cooperate with other RHPs (CPPA) and the High Elevations
Regional study to study the impact of orography on hydroclimate in Asia will be examined.
Output of anthropogenic climate models will eventually be used for various applications. For
example, the impact of global warming on water resources will be shown over several selectedriver basins of Asia. Land-surface change impacts and aerosol-impacts that may be associatedwith these changes will also be examined.
4.1.7 MDB http://www.gewex.org/mdb.html
This RHP has contributed data to CEOP Phase 1. The soil moisture data provided has in factassisted with the development/assessment of a soil moisture algorithm for application to regional
analyses relevant to the processing of AIRS data over the Tibetan Plateau. The CEOP Co-Chair
and Senior Scientist has published results of this algorithm validation exercise and reported theoutcome to the GEWEX SSG. A summary of these results can be provided through the CEOP
International Coordination Office (petra@hydra.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp).
The MDB will expand on work investigating the interaction between surface hydrology andgroundwater, particularly in terms of managed agricultural systems, and in collaboration with theoperational centre and water authority. Efforts to improve relevant data collection anddissemination are increasing through the Bureau of Meteorology water division. This is enablinga wider community of researchers to focus on understanding and modeling the dynamic coupledsystems involved.
The coupling between the land-surface and atmosphere will be a renewed focus of future MDB
work with expanded use of regional climate models. One aim being the quantification of therelative influence of local feedbacks and distant teleconnections on drought processes within thebasin. Contributions will also be made to the ICTS GEWEX program.
Contributions to ICCS will improve with an expanded isotopic observational network within the
MDB. Isotopic data collection during future field campaigns and closer interaction withmodelers of the isotopic hydrologic cycle will also enhance the contributions to this program.

41

Much of the MDB is semi-arid and future interaction with SAS could prove beneficial to bothprograms and will be sought.
4.1.8 NEESPI http://neespi.org/
CEOP recognizes that NEESPI has its own data center, but this alone does not preclude datafrom that center to be provided to or linked with the CEOP data center. The NEESPI data policy
could, however, be problematic if it is not synergistic with the CEOP data policy. Coordination
between the CEOP Data Center at NCAR and the NESSPI data center to resolve these matters isparamount to the prospects of a mutually beneficial collaboration between CEOP and NEESPI.
CEOP will report its conclusions on this and other related matters such as the specificcontributions NEESPI will make to CEOP’s enhanced observation periods in the future. As
NEESPI develops as a GEWEX RHP it is expected that it will abide by the criteria under which
it was designated to be an RHP as specified in Section 3.1 above. If NEESPI provides the results
and outcomes implied in the context of those criteria it can be expected that the collaboration
between NEESPI and CEOP will meet its expectations. Otherwise, CEOP is required to note any
non-compliance to the GEWEX SSG for its consideration.
The Russian Hydrometeorological Centre (Moscow, Russia) in the NEESPI activities withexperiments to improve regional weather forecast with the help of the NEESPI data (e.g.,
operational remote sensing products) and modeling products (e.g., land surface schemes).
Milestone: 2010.
Opposite to North America, Europe, and several other parts of the Globe, the NEESPI domain isstill lacking many essential tools (e.g., well developed Regional Climate Models (RCMs),hydrological models, and regional reanalyses) that are a prerequisite for answering the major
NEESPI science questions. This justifies an urgent need for modern models’ development
within the Initiative that will include critical physical, biogeochemical, and even social processes(some of which are unique for the region and/or have a potential for global
feedbacks). Processes of permafrost thawing and linked to it biogeophysicaland biogeochemical feedbacks (land cover changes and methane and CO2 release into theatmosphere), energy and water cycles change associated with land cover and land use change
and other human activities in the region are closely intertwined. With the NEESPI launch, theseprocesses are being assessed within modern LSMs and RCMs. It is expected that these models
will provide their estimates of regional “global” feedbacks outside the NEESPI domain serving
as an input (e.g., in the form of better parameterizations of terrestrial biosphere processes) to
GCMs. More than 10 integrative NEESPI projects are currently clustered to address thisproblem. Throughout the entire life of the Initiative, efforts will continue to build (a) a suite ofprocess-oriented models for each major terrestrial process in all its interactions (including thosewith the society) and (b) a suite of regional models that seamlessly incorporate all regionallyspecific feedbacks associated with terrestrial processes in Northern Eurasia. The latter are
expected to contribute to Global Earth modeling (as component of global models).
NEESPI expects that during the next 2-3 years:•

Hydrological and biogeochemical models that are suited for diagnosis and prognosis of

42

•
•

changes in lake and wetland extent on the regional carbon balance of northern Eurasia will
have been established.
Enhanced models of permafrost dynamics will have been established.
An integrative environment of modeling of the dust storm dynamics in the southern half of
the NEESPI domain that includes RCM embedded into the global reanalysis product, LSM,
dust producing module, dust transportation model, and aerosol remote sensing monitoring
system to control the dangerous dust events as well as to control the modeling performance
will have been established.

4.2. Regional Studies
The RS are currently focused on specific regional areas but all have the goal to eventually entrainother RHPs, CCS, and MS to focus on global regional problems associated with the CRS, HE,
Monsoons, SAS regional studies.
4.2.1 Cold Region Study
CEOP currently has sites contributing data from Siberia, Mongolia, Tibet, Himalayas, Canadianboreal forest region, northern Germany, Finland, Netherlands and North Slope of Alaska.
During the next two years efforts would take place to expand the range of sites to include othersin the arctic and Antarctic. There are a number of special issues that are required to ensure thesites can provide the data as required. Contact points will have to be identified at each site.
Meetings and workshops will have to be planned and held. Data and metadata standards will
have to be established and adhered to. An initial joint workshop to address these issues was heldat the 2006 CEOP International Science meeting (Paris, France).
The CEOP data archive and integration facilities offer a unique opportunity to help assemble
archive and distribute datasets that would be part of the cryospheric studies in CliC. During
2005-2006 CliC and CEOP would collaborate in the design and assembly of a diverse andunique dataset that would be used to help define the snapshot of the cryosphere during the IPY
period and beyond. Datasets would include such key components as:••••

The CEOP reference sites that are located in cryospheric regions of the planet;
Special satellite data and products generated from platforms such as ICESat, CRYOSAT,
ERS, … and others;
Datasets that would be the result of CliC and CEOP facilitated field studies during the IPY;
Other IPY data collection efforts (e.g. AON, Arctic and Antarctic Buoy Programs, GTS
reported surface stations).

The Data and Information Service (DISC) for CliC offers users the ability to peruse and access avariety of information related to the cryosphere including reports, reference materials andinformation on and access to cryospheric and related datasets. DISC utilizes the ISO19115
metadata standard thus making it interoperable with the CEOP archive structure. As a first step
we would propose to link the CEOP archive to DISC. Next metadata associated with CEOP
datasets relevant to the cryosphere could be provided to the CliC International Project Office forinclusion in DISC. This will allow the cryospheric community to learn much more about the rich
CEOP datasets and permit access to these data via the CEOP archive.

43

Commitments from funding sources specifically interested in contributing to a CEOP cold
regions initiative will be sought beginning immediately with the approval for moving forwardwith this proposed activity.
4.2.2 High Elevations http://www.ceop-he.org
HE is developing similar mechanisms to work with RHPs, CCS, and MS, particularly thoseprojects where high altitude regions are present. HE is also interested in collaborating with theaerosol group in the study of natural and anthropogenic aerosol impacts on climate and thehydro-geological cycle.
Main peculiarity of HE research is related to the extremes characteristics of these sites, whose
conditions of low pressure and temperature as well as the landscape roughness of the highaltitude areas could affect data quality and representativeness.
It is furthermore important taking into account that high elevations are often located indeveloping countries where the carrying out of capacity buildings activities is very important for
local populations.
The HE research agenda includes:• studies of climatic characteristics at high altitude;• links to climatic change with energy and water budgets and their effects on glacial areas,hydrological regime, etc;
• development of high resolution modelling of atmosphere physics and dynamics in complex
topography;• global and regional climate modelling;• evaluations of the influence of aerosol on the hydro-geological cycle and climate
As part of the implementation strategy, HE will also:• collect information on data availability in existing high altitude sites;• conduct analyses of available CEOP reference sites’ data in high elevation regions;• initiate inter-comparison studies by analyzing at the same time different climate areas, tobetter understand any interaction among global, continental-regional and meso-local scales;• develop physical/chemical models specifically for high altitude environments.
The starting point of this study will be the Himalayas area where data availability and quality andmodelling infrastructures are established, and due to its importance for global dynamics andclimate.
4.2.3 Monsoons
Under the CEOP RHPs, MAHASRI in the Asian monsoon region, AMMA in the West African
monsoon region, CPPA in the North American monsoon region, LBA and LPB in the SouthAmerican monsoon region are examining, to different degrees, the hydrometeorologicalconditions under the monsoon system. Large-scale dynamics plays a major role in the monsoon
system, but the effect of surface conditions is also recognized. For example, studies have shownthat the timing of the onset of the wet season in a given region seems to respond, at least in part,to the surface conditions. Changes in surface conditions even affect the boundary layer structure,44

feeding back to dynamic elements like the low-level jet structure and ability to transport moisture
into the monsoon region (e.g., Betts and Viterbo 2005) and (Collini et al. 2008).
In addition, numerical experiments have shown that a better representation of the surface
conditions can lead to improved forecasts and simulations and more realistic evolution of themonsoons through modifications to the Bowen ratio due to the explicit representation of thevegetation processes.
The ultimate goal of MONS is to improve forecasts of monsoon variability, in particular fromintra-seasonal to inter-annual time-scales. To tackle this goal, it is needed to share common
recognition of the need to advance knowledge of energy and water cycle processes in various
monsoon regions over the major continents in the world.
CEOP MONS will address the following questions by examining the land surface-atmosphere
feedbacks that may affect the different stages of the monsoon precipitation:
What are the characteristics of land-atmosphere interactions in the evolution and variation of
monsoon system?
How do the diurnal, intraseasonal, seasonal and inter-annual variations of monsoon interact
with land surface?
What is the impact of nearby high elevated heating onto the monsoon system?
What is the role of the monsoons on floods and droughts of large river basins?
What is the role of human activity on changing the activity and/or characteristics of
monsoons?
4.2.4 Semi-Arid Studies
SAS is developing a mechanism to work with RHPs, Cross-cutting groups by entraining key
representatives from each of the CEOP working groups to develop arid/semi-arid region land
surface model simulations and applications. SAS will study of frequency of extreme droughts insemi-arid regions as well as possible increases in aridity trends and collaborate with the aerosols
group on the study of dust aerosol and impacting climate and hydrological cycles. It will also
cooperate with the Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study (MAIRS) of ESSP on the
coupled human-natural system in semi-arid Asia. The SAS research agenda includes:• Studies of atmospheric boundary layer physics and dynamics of semi-arid regions;• Analysis of water and energy cycles of air-soil-vegetation system in semi-arid regions;• Improvements in parameterization of land surface process for semi-arid regions in coupledclimate models;• Assessments of impacts of dust aerosols on the hydrological cycle and climate at regionaland global scales.
The SAS implementation strategy includes plans to:• Initiate the study in the semi-arid Asia;• Add a particular site over Loess Plateau in Northwest China;• Initiate an Asia and North America inter-comparison study;• Analyze available reference sites of CEOP in semi-arid regions;• Upscale site data using satellite observations;• Develop land surface model and aerosol-chemical model specifically for semi-arid regions45

4.3 Cross-Cutting Studies
4.3.1 Water and Energy Budget Study
Based on CEOP integrated data of observations, satellite products, and model output, WEBS will
evaluate and analyze regional water and energy budget. According to discussions during the 6th
and 7th CEOP implementation planning meetings, CEOP WEBS will:• Collection of in situ data, model output, and satellite data and products.
• Data inter-comparison study to identify model deficiencies in simulating water and energy
budget and to evaluate satellite products needed for water and energy budget study.
• Application of land data assimilation to produce multi-years soil moisture and land flux forregions with large component interactions (so-called high-impact regions, such as Tibet andsemi-arid regions).
• Evaluation of exchange and variability among surface, atmospheric, and full-column waterand energy budget profiles in high-impact regions.
• Analyze relationships between water and energy budget anomalies in high-impact regions
and relevant extreme events.
• Evaluate global water cycle using regional model inter-comparison and parameterization
sensitivity experiments to improve parameterization schemes and understanding diurnal ~inter-annual variability.
• Identify and focus on regions where water cycle simulation has trouble.
4.3.2 Extremes http://www.drinetwork.ca/extremes/
Extremes research will be carried out through several activities. This includes the potential
development of new measures of extremes for droughts and extended wet periods, updating
datasets on extremes, the analysis of several ‘case studies’ of extremes, and the examination oftrends of extremes. It may also include ‘case studies’ of extremes within climate scenarios.
A table summarizing activities within Extremes and their individual timelines is shown below:
Year
Definitions
Datasets
Case studies
Trend analyses
Workshops

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012____________________
update definitions of extremes____________________
ongoing additions of datasets_____________________________
mainly through RHPs____________________________
ongoing__ _____ annual meetings with CEOP

An Extremes workshop will be held in spring 2008 to initiate this effort.
Section 4.3.3 Aerosol-Water Cycle Interaction
The CEOP Aerosol-Water Cycle Cross-Cut (CAWC) is aimed at multi-disciplinary studies ofaerosol effects on the regional and water cycle, including forcing and responses of the climate
system. It addresses scientific issues associated with aerosol-clouds-precipitation-climate
interaction, from the perspective of the continental scale water cycle. The scientific objective of
CAWC is to unravel the physical mechanisms and multi-scale interactions associated with aerosolcontinental scale water cycle interaction, with emphases on, but not limited to, monsoon regions and46

adjacent deserts and semi-arid regions.

-

Major science issues to be addresses are:Determination of regional and global aerosol forcing functions over different biomes,
including monsoon regions, deserts, semi-deserts, vegetated land and forests.
Forcing and responses of regional and global water cycle to aerosol forcing
Aerosol physical, chemical and radiative properties.
Aerosol transport processes linking dry regions (deserts and semi-deserts), highmountains, e.g., Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau, to wet regions, e.g., monsoon andadjacent oceans.
Solar attenuation effect vs. elevated heating effect in affecting continental scale water
cycle dynamics.
Possible aerosol microphysics effects on clouds and precipitation.
Coupled aerosol-land hydroclimate processes, e.g., impact of soil moisture, snow cover,glacier processes.
Coupled aerosol-ocean-atmosphere processes e.g., SST, El Nino

CAWC will draw on the diverse expertise in the current CEOP new organization, with strong
interactions among the following elements: AMMA, RHPs (particularly, AMMA, MAHASRI,
CPPA, LBA), and synergy with the CEOP elements of Semi-Arid, High-Elevation, WEBS,Extremes. CAWC plans to implement the following initiatives in conjunction with the Asian
Monsoon Year and International Monsoon Year (2008-2012):a) The Joint Aerosol-Monsoon Experiment (JAMEX), using integrated field measurements
and satellite observations and modeling to study aerosol-water cycle interaction over
the Asian continent and adjacent oceanic regions, in conjunction with large number ofnational field campaigns in East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
b) West Africa Monsoon Modeling and Evaluation (WAMME) project, with the objective
to better understanding the influence of aerosol forcing, atmosphere-land coupledprocesses on the West Africa Monsoon and Sahel drought.
Both initiatives are now underway, with strong community support. CEOP reference data,
satellite data and field campaign observations will be used to validate numerical experiments
using high-resolution RCMs, e.g. WRF, coupled to LSM over high mountain regions, e.g.,
Himalayas, semi-deserts or desert regions, with and without interactive aerosol, and/or land
surface forcing to determine their relative roles in maintenance of the continental scale water
cycle, and causes of droughts and floods.
4.3.4. Isotopes
With the SWING Phase 1 experiments almost complete, initial planning for a Phase 2
experiment set is underway. Due to availability of new high quality satellite data, the scope ofthe experiment can extend naturally to more detailed analysis of cloud processes. The Phase 1
experiments focused on mean quantities as basic validation of isotopic modeling and capturing
primary aspects of the hydrologic cycle. The Phase 2 experiments aim to target understanding
the isotopic hydrology under perturbed conditions and in associated with variability in cloud andsurface exchange processes.
Along with the original three global models participating in the intercomparison, additional

47

groups are beginning to contribute simulations using the original Phase 1 protocol, although thishas been slow to begin due to ongoing in-house validation of new models. A related effort toconstrain existing isotope models with observed meteorology (Reanalysis, for instance) has been
underway by a small number of groups and is potentially useful new direction within the
SWING.
In response to requests from users of the existing archive data, the SWING will strive to makesimulations available for both warming scenarios (double CO2) and for glacial periods. Thesesimulations will satisfy the need to use model isotope output as constraints on global andregional water budget calculations for these epochs.
A key function of the isotope crosscut is facilitation access to isotopic datastreams (bothobservations, model simulation results and remote sensing data) that are otherwise difficult toobtain for integrative studies. This requires the establishment of data storage capabilities. For the
implementation under CEOP it is recommended that:• Each RHP to contribute (existing and new) isotope data to a common archive. This includes
precipitation, vapor, rivers, as we well as biosphere specific data (i.e., leaf, stem xylem, soil
water)• A collection of appropriate satellite data (TES, also IMG, possibly upper trop/stratosphere
via MIPAS and ACE) is available in a processed form useful to investigators.
• Continued support of existing SWING modeling activities and support of new extensions to
the SWING model standard output, and global observations, aimed to aid in isotope analysis
of RHP studies. Includes addition of new modeling groups (potentially 7+ groups, plus
possible model variants/improvements from existing groups)• CEOP provision of data center facilities for coordinated isotope measurements access RHPs
In this context the ICCS will:• Continue to host and maintain model output database for the SWING and community
members• Analyze results in a summary paper• Compile observational datasets for comparison• Develop satellite climatology of isotopes in atmospheric vapor• Establish group Phase 2 experiment based on SWING member interest, and wider
community interest
Finally, since the isotope information provided through the ICCS may be of great utility for
diagnosing cloud processes and surface exchange in models and in nature, there are many
opportunities to work with other groups, which are not presently being exploited. An example ofsuccess was the IPILPS project, which used the land models from the SWING and other models
to assess isotope surface energy and water balances
New research items that require forward thinking for CEOP integration in the ICCS include:• On going development of “isotope reanalysis” for the 20-th century, especially 1958 onward.
• Developing framework for new regional scale isotope models likely to be available in next
few years.
Isotope management under CEOP would also provide a needed framework for non-GEWEX

48

activities, including WRCP BASIN/SAIBE and FLUXNET, and allow coordination with various
IAEA networks (GNIP, GNIR, MIBA, and subsidiary national efforts).
Within the IGBP, the BASIN project (now BASIN2) bring together groups mostly working at
field sites working with water and carbon isotopes. The SWING has close contact with thisgroup and continues to interact with them though provision of data and modeling. Many of theBASIN sites and individual investigators are involved in RHPs. There is an opportunity tocompile a “GEWEX” isotope database that brings together these measurements. Actually, thelargest user of SWING results continues to be the biogeochemical community (associated with
BASIN 2). This is likely to continue though provision of data and modeling capabilities being
developed in the ICCS. Isotope modeling will be featured at an upcoming BASIN2 workshop on
global scale mapping of isotopes.
4.4 Model Studies
4.4.1 Global Models
Each of the global models contributing to CEOP has its own grid, frequency and variable list.
MAC will provide a way for CEOP science activities to better accessibility of the data. In order
to absolutely understand the results of an ensemble of analyses and the variance in the ensemble
and outliers, the contributing NWP centers will be entrained into the MAC analysis. The centers
themselves are best positioned to take the results, and review their model code and physicalparameterizations to understand and improve their own analysis systems. Regardless, evenexternal evaluations of the data have already contributed to some center's attention to specificbiases and deficiencies. In addition the resulting MAC data set should be useful to other CEOP
science activities, such as WEBS, Semi-Arid Regions and Extremes. The MAC data will be asimplified set of physical parameters and their range across the contributing models. The MAC
scientific objective is to contribute to understanding the level of uncertainty to model analyses
for these projects.
4.4.2 Regional Models
The Regional Model studies in CEOP are no different than other aspects of CEOP model
development or other CEOP implementation processes in general in that every effort is being
made to improve outcomes of all studies through enhanced interaction between CEOP groups
and other synergistic groups especially within GEWEX. As has already been highlighted The
Chair of the GEWEX Modeling and Prediction Panel (GMPP) and the Leader of the CEOP
Model Studies sub-project have made personal contact leading to direct interchange of technicaland scientific information and knowledge. As a result a new collaborative arrangement has been
instituted between CEOP and GMPP, with support of the GEWEX Executive Committee, toensure direct contact with a specific individual(s) nominated by both leaders to open lines ofcommunication about developments, which impact both activities.
In the case of each of the CEOP regional model studies this one-on-one collaborative process isbeing especially enhanced. For example, the CEOP Inter-Continental scale Transferability
Study (ICTS) highlighted below will benefit from the CEOP Model Analysis Comparison(MAC) described in Section 3.4.1. At the same time MAC, which is being led by the CEOP
Model Studies Leader, is also being presented to the GMPP and through GMPP to WGNE.
Because of the connection between MAC and GMPP that is already in place aspects of ICTS

49such as high resolution simulations will also be exposed to and discussed at GMPP and the joint
GMPP/WGNE committee meetings.
In a similar way, through the direct connection now established between the leader of the CEOP
Model Studies and the Chair of GMPP and through the technical and scientific aspects
underlying MAC as presented to GMPP, other aspects of the CEOP regional model studies suchas Scale Interaction Evaluation Experiment (SIEVE) and Cloud Microphysics Data Assimilation
System (CMDAS), outlined below, are also linked to GMPP. MAC and SIEVE will draw on
GMPP experience in data assimilation especially at regional or smaller scales. GMPP’s Global
Land Atmosphere Systems Study (GLASS) will be the specific link to MAC and, thereby, to
SIEVE for this work. In the case of CMDAS there will be links to GMPP’s GEWEX Cloud
System Study (GCSS) through more than just common datasets (International Satellite Cloud
Climatology Project data are being formatted for use by CEOP). CMDAS will draw onknowledge and experience in physically-based cloud parameterizations based on cloud resolving
models of different cloud systems that is at the heart of GCSS studies.
Again these interactions, as they have already begun to form, are being based on a one-on-one
collaborative process between each CEOP regional model initiative and GMPP without thecreation of any new groups to manage these interactions.
Inter-Continental scale Transferability Study
In order to understand ensemble means, the variance in the ensemble and outliers, thecontributing NWP centers will be entrained into the MAC analysis. They are best positioned totake the results, and review their model code and physical parameterizations to understand andimprove their own analysis systems. In addition the resulting MAC data set should be useful toother CEOP science activities, such as WEBS, Semi-Arid Regions and Extremes. The MAC data
will be a simplified set of physical parameters and their range across the contributing models.
This should contribute to understanding the level of uncertainty to model analyses for theseprojects.
The results from ICTS simulations in ‘CEOP’ will be further analyzed. Presently available data
sets from RHPs are in use for these analyses. Upcoming new data sets in CEOP will also betaken into account. From several options for additional simulations in CEOP the following are
the most likely ones:- Simulations with higher resolution- Different analysis forcing for areas where differences between global analyses are
significant- Extend time period of simulation into CEOP
- Add new domain according to NEESPI
Scale Interaction EValuation Experiment
SIEVE will interact with several CEOP projects. Interaction with MAC will be necessary toascertain the uncertainty of analyses and data assimilation systems in representing both extreme
large-scale anomalies and their regional manifestations. Such analyses are needed both as
initial/boundary conditions and verification data for regional extremes in SIEVE. In addition, thepotential exists for strong complementary between the primarily observation-oriented studies in50

Extremes and the primarily model-oriented studies of SIEVE.
Cloud Microphysics Data Assimilation System
A Cloud Microphysics Data Assimilation System (CMDAS) for meso-scale modeling has beendeveloped for use over the ocean. The sea surface can be considered as a homogeneous and cold
background in passive microwave remote sensing. The information of the atmosphere over ocean
can be readily retrieved from the passive microwave remote sensing. The cloud liquid water,
cloud ice and water vapor can be assimilated by coupling a RTM for atmosphere over ocean,
cloud microphysics schemes embedded in a non-hydrostatic model (NHM), and the AMSR-E,
TMI and SSM/I.

4.4.3 Land Surface Models
Land Data Assimilation System
A Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS) for soil moisture, land surface fluxes, and snow waterequivalent has been developed by combining the SiB2 as a model operator and a RTM for soil
layer as observation operator. The validations of the LDAS can be carried for different land
surface classification with several types of vegetations and several land surface roughness
conditions by using CEOP reference site data sets, the AMSR-E, TMI and SSM/I data, and thenumerical weather prediction model outputs.
Land-Atmosphere Coupled Data Assimilation
Two data assimilation systems, the LDAS and the CMDAS, are employed for effecting coupledassimilation of both land surface and atmosphere over land. Both systems use the same RTM(LA-RTM) and NHM for simulating evolution of surface and atmospheric conditions with time.
This system can be run as follows:
Step 1:
The LDAS with the LA-RTM as the observation operator assimilates lower frequency (6.9, 10.7
and 18.7 GHz) TB satellite observations. Cloud water, ice and light precipitation can be assumed
transparent to lower microwave frequencies, and thus the retrieved land surface conditions isrepresentative of prevailing surface conditions.
Step 2:
Output from the LDAS, which now includes some improvements to atmospheric variables,
through the refinement of the land surface condition is used to provide initial and boundary
condition for the LA-RTM embedded in CMDAS, the observation operator to assimilate highfrequency (23.8 and 89.0 GHz) TB observations, with an ice microphysics scheme being used toretrieve water vapor, cloud water, cloud ice, rain and snow columns describing atmosphericstate.
Step 3:This retrieved atmospheric condition is then fed back to the LDAS step to refine surface
condition.
The output from this scheme can be validated by the CEOP reference site data sets and RHPs
and will be used for addressing water and energy cycle needs.

51

4.4.4 Hydrologic Applications Project
HAP activities will have a number of regional foci and test-bed activities. A very important
activity is the development of an Asian Water Cycle Initiative being lead by the University ofTokyo. The regional water management concerns include water extremes (floods and droughts,
characterized by the large fluctuations of the Asian-Australian monsoon rainfall system andsubsequent large human and socio-economic impacts); water scarcity, pollution andenvironmental degradation in a region with the largest population increment in the world; andconcerns about adverse impacts of global climate change. Equally important will be thedevelopment of RHP-based and lead HAP test-beds, which will assess similar issues as well as
the usefulness of seasonal forecasts in managing water resources.
HAP activities will be implemented in cooperation with integrated regional activities, like the
Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Asian Water Cycle Initiative (AWCI),
and RHP test beds. The latter RHP activity requires the participation of RHP-based scientists,
and an important contribution of the RHP coordinators is the identification of the relevant RHP
test bed participants. In short, HAP would like to encourage the RHP to self-organize water
management test bed projects in a similar manner to the GEOSS/AWCI.
As one of the GEOSS regional activities, the GEOSS/AWCI will serve as an important
implementation activity and can serve as a model for other large regional water cycle initiatives.
To structure the GEOSS/AWCI activities, an International Coordination Group (ICG) has been
established consisting of representatives of participating countries and scientific projects. The
GEOSS/AWCI data policy is identical with the CEOP data policy. Subsequently, they
developed implementation activities that include demonstration projects in Asia that would
demonstrate effectiveness of downscaling from global to local scale and show the value of the
global integrated data sets to decision makers through the actual use of the data by the projects.
There has been a meeting on capacity building where information on best practices in theapplication of earth observations for water resource management was exchanged. These
activities will utilize CEOP models and data products, and tie directly into the water elements
under the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). Over the next year or so,
HAP expects to augment these activities with HAP-generated seasonal climate forecasts that the
GEOSS/AWCI participants can test within a water resources management framework.
It is anticipated that HAP will contribute to CEOP through a variety of activities that include thefollowing during the next 2-3 years:• Launch at least two pilot projects in GEWEX RHP basins that will utilize hydrologicalensemble prediction techniques. This would be done in conjunction with HEPEX initiative,
and should get underway in 2007.
•

Downscale and evaluate seasonal climate re-forecasts over the RHP regions using NOAA
and DEMETER seasonal models output archive. These re-forecasts need to be assessed by
RHP scientists, and is an important contribution to HAP by the RHPs.

•

Evaluate seasonal hydrological forecasts from re-forecasting studies for the initial two pilot
studies; and launch additional pilot studies in conjunction with RHP scientists.

•

Using GLDAS and the IAHS/PUB, launch several studies to demonstrate the value of using
remote sensing data in un-gauged (or under-gauged) basins.

52•

Contribute to the Global Land/Atmosphere System Study (GLASS) goal to evaluate thepredictive capability from land initialization conditions to the prediction of terrestrialhydrological variables at different time scales.

•

In collaboration with GLDAS and IAHS/PUB, determine the contribution of remote sensing
to hydrologic modeling, with particular focus on un-gauged and poorly gauged basins.

•

In collaboration with HEPEX, evaluate newly developed procedures for hydrologic ensemble
generation and their impact on seasonal hydrologic prediction for the RHP pilot test beds.

4.5 Data Management http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/
As described in the background section above, CEOP DM has already successfully set up the
CEOP data policy and distributed data archives, with the greatest functionality at the in situ andmodel data archives. These efforts will continue to evolve. In addition, during the next 5 years of
CEOP, there will be increased emphasis on satellite observations and the central data archive,
which will lead to increased interoperability and Metadata standards for hydroclimate data andthen ultimately to full data integration. These new CEOP efforts that will be launched during thenext few years are described below. Full functionality is expected by the end of 2012.
4.5.1 Distributed Integrated Archive http://jaxa.ceos.org/wtf_ceop/
Multiple agencies within CEOS WGISS, in partnership with the CEOP science community, aretailoring and developing tools to access over the Internet the various data collections with thedata services needed to support data integration. To meet various CEOP science objectives, the
CEOP science community requires data integration services that allow it to access and intercompare diverse data types from multiple sources. The WGISS agencies’ prototypes offer avariety of capabilities towards this goal.
The JAXA is developing a prototype distributed data integration system to provide user-friendly
services for discovery, analysis and visualization of CEOP (in-situ, satellite and model output)
data to water cycle research scientists globally. The prototype system provides users withmenus for selection of data and services through a standard web browser, and for access to the
CEOP data from the 3 CEOP data archive centers. The system is distributed in the sense thatwhile the main server is located in Tokyo, the data is located in archive centers, which areglobally distributed. Further, a global distribution of users is supported. The system is
integrated in multiple ways. First, while the data may be created and archived in a variety offormats the system masks the data formats and presents the data in a uniform style. Second, thesystem knows the geolocation and time of all the data sets, and coordinates the selection,
retrieval and display of the various types of data both temporally and geospatially. Thirdly, thesystem supports selection of the data through a uniform set of menus, by data type, data
providing agency, reference site and station, and supports sub-setting according to time, area andheight/depth. The system provides user-friendly services to view plots and graphs of the data,
to view data values on the screen, to provide information (metadata) about the CEOP data, or to
download data from an archive directly to the user’s (local) computer. Figure 3 shows an overallsystem diagram of the JAXA prototype system.
The NASA team prototype is focusing on the enhancement of access to its satellite data
resources by implementing access to satellite data through the OGC Web Coverage Service

53(WCS) and tailoring the OPeNDAP and WCS software to enable access to the WCS served
satellite data by OPeNDAP enabled analysis clients. These OPeNDAP enabled analysis clientsare used by many CEOP scientists. Enabling this access will enable CEOP scientists to moreeasily access and use satellite data with model and reference site data in a variety of analysis
clients such as GrADS, Matlab, IDL, Ferret, LAS, Giovanni, etc. The NASA team plans tomake their software available to other interested CEOS WGISS agencies that are interested inoffering their agency satellite data through this mechanism. In the future, additional dataservices in support of data integration may be selected to be offered through the NASA software.
Other CEOS WGISS agencies may choose to enable easier access to their satellite data with theadditional data services needed to support data integration.

Figure 3 CEOP's data integration and analysis system
4.5.2 Centralized Integrated Archive http://monsoon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ceop-dc/ceop-dc_top.htm
The architecture of the centralized data archiving and integration system is shown in Figure 4.
Diverse and large-volume Earth Observation data from i2nhomogeneous information sources is54archived by 1 Peta-Byte hard disk array and complementary tape library. Some analysis
operations such as average, difference, correlation and visualization can be applied to single ormultiple data types through the interface. The browse and analysis interface is performed bydedicated clients, which provide the users with menus, integrated access to the data, and analysis
tools. The connection between the clients and the server is based on HTTP. Users can access all
types of data through a single interface and can view the retrieved data as graphic charts or
bitmap images, depending on their dimensionality. User can integrate various observed data andnumerical model outputs easily and effectively. Identifying targeted data, date, and region, theuser can obtain analyzed outputs and then visualize the results on a display wall. 3D visual
analysis tools are also available.

Figure 4

The architecture of the centralized data archiving and integration system

4.5.3 Interoperability and Metadata
Nowadays, metadata applications are increasingly required for data description, data indexing,
and data services such as data mining. Metadata is commonly defined as "data about data",
which may provide information about the content, quality, condition, and characteristics of data.
Major applications of metadata require CEOP to: (1) Organize and maintain data in whichsignificant resources may have been invested. (2) Provide information to data catalogs and dataclearinghouses. (3) Provide information to aid data transfer.
Standardized metadata can provide data producers with the format and content needed toproperly describe their data, and to effectively and efficiently manage and maintain data. Also, it
can support data users in finding and obtaining useful data more effectively and efficiently. The
ISO TC/211 19115 metadata standard defines the schema required for describing geographic

55

information and services and provides information about identification, extent, quality, spatial
and temporal schema, spatial reference and distribution of digital geographic data. CEOP
metadata was developed in conformity to this ISO metadata standard.
An implementation approach has been introduced for metadata application to CEOP dataservices over networks.
• Clients perform service discovery operations on the registry service to find the service
providers it needs and then accesses service providers for provision of the desired service.
• Registry services help service providers and clients to find each other by acting as a registryor clearinghouse of services.
• Service providers publish services to a registry and deliver services to clients.
To improve data inter-operability, an ontology system development is now on going for
supporting target data and information from diverse data sources with high complexity. Data
integration needs to find meaning similarity and difference among different disciplines. To finddata with similar meanings, it is often necessary to confirm the definition of the terminology.
The ontology system teaches the definition. Furthermore, when the name of data is not clear, thesystem can provide several candidate data name by inputting keywords into the system.
Standardized metadata should be prepared for data exploring, confirmation of data meaning andquality, and open data sharing.
4.5.4 Data Integration
As originally produced by the various sources, the data is in a wide variety of formats andstructures. In response to this situation there was recognition of need for data management
systems for the collection, sharing and provision of data from which users can obtain precisely
the data they need, whenever they want it and in formats familiar to the science community. It isessential to transform observation data into scientifically and socially relevant information
through the systematic collection and integration of data, merging of essential related
information, and building of systems for sharing this knowledge on an international basis.
In cases in which large amounts of heterogeneous observation data are handled, this data alongwith socioeconomic and other related data must be dealt with systematically in order to produce
useful scientific knowledge and translate it into information pertinent to users. Communicatingcomparatively lighter amounts of heterogeneous data requires the standardization of data formats
and protocols, and the development of a network-linked distributed data system.
By looking at the earth observation satellite, reference site and related operational observation
systems in an integrated manner, and integrating these observed data, with numerical weather
prediction model outputs, geographical information, and socio-economic data, CEOP candisseminate usable information for sound water resources management decision making.
4.6 Global Data Centers4.6.1 Global Runoff Data Centre http://grdc.bafg.de/
The GRDC contributes to the development of international standards, such as the so-called
WMO Core Metadata Profiles of ISO 19115. Furthermore, GRDC stresses the importance of"technical data integration" in its contributions to the framework plans of a number of respective

56international initiatives.
The GRDC has the following Plans (next 2-3 years) as part of supporting CEOP:• Renewed data acquisition strategy and initiatives on a regional basis to update and expand
the excising historical database, at the same time trying to institutionalize the provision ofdata and automate data downloads from National Hydrological Services that provide theirdischarge data on the Internet.
• Complete the ETN-R project for the EU Joint Research Centre and implement near-real time
data acquisition tools and strategies• Transfer ETN-R experience to the GTN-R initiative for near-real time data acquisition• Continue to develop, support and implement metadata standards for improved data exchange• Support actively international programmes and initiatives for improved exchange and sharingof hydro-meteorological data
• Support the research community with relevant river discharge datasets and spatial products
4.6.2 Global Precipitation Climatology Centre http://gpcc.dwd.de
The GPCC has the following Plans (next 2-3 years) as part of supporting CEOP:• Production of a new mean monthly global precipitation climatology (period mainly 19611990) based on the updated GPCC normals database (more than 50,000 stations), which has
been doubled with regard to the number of useful stations compared to the previous normals
version. The climatology will be ready during February 2008;• this new data will provide a better representation of orographic rainfall effects due to the useof a higher number of stations (which are expected to lead to a better station distribution indifferent altitudes);• Production of a new version of the GPCC Full Data Reanalysis (Version 4) based on thesignificantly enlarged GPCC database. GPCC Full Data Reanalysis (Version 4) will becalculated for every month of the time period 1901-2006 in grid resolutions of 2.5°, 1.0° and
0.5° lat x lon. The new product version will be ready in Spring 2008;• Production of a new version of the GPCC VASClimO 50-year Climatology (Version 2)
based on the significantly enlarged GPCC database. GPCC VASClimO 50-year Climatology(new Version 2) will be calculated for every month of the time period 1951-2005 in grid
resolutions of 2.5° and 1.0° lat x lon. The new product version will become available during
2008;• Contribution to a Re-Analysis of the monthly gauge-satellite combined products of the GPCP
in year 2008/2009;• merging of ground-based precipitation radar products with real time available in situ
precipitation data (automatic measurements) into hourly high-resolution (1 km x 1 km)
precipitation products will be tested on a Central European scale in year 2008/2009;• testing of a new method developed by an Austrian university in context of an EU project tomerge daily near-real time observed in situ (SYNOP) based analyses of GPCC for the earth’s
land surface with satellite-based products (e.g. GPCP-1DD). The procedure might be
operationally implemented at GPCC during year 2009/2010.
The GPCC has close links to various research activities worldwide: Its products are used byresearchers in context of activities concerning the global water and energy cycle as well as withresearch into climate variability and changes. The GPCC also has close links with the GRDC,

57

esp. in context of the development of the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS) Network
on Hydrology (GTN-H) and as a member of the GRDC Steering Committee. Closer links would
be desirable between the RHPs, Regional, Crosscutting, and Modeling studies. The links to
CEOP data management and the interaction with it need to be enhanced, especially in relation to
the CEOP DM activities.
5. CEOP Deliverables
CEOP remains open to and in fact encourages a continued review of its objectives anddeliverables and will embrace every opportunity to discuss them and their timelines to ensurethat they are synergistic with other milestones with the GEWEX/WCRP internationalframework. CEOP especially wants to be compatible with the form and substance of the
GEWEX Roadmap including specific requirements for deliverables at specified points in time.
5.1 Objective 1
Produce consistent research quality data sets complete with error descriptions of the Earth's
energy budget and water cycle and their variability and trends on interannual to decadal timescales, for use in climate system analysis and model development and evaluation.
CEOP DM and associated global data centers are producing multi-year integrated prototype
hydroclimate data seta that will allow a user to get model output data, satellite data, and in situ
measurements of various hydrometeorological data, including its isotopes, for a particular in situ
location. It will eventually be possible to scale up the CEOP data to cover continental-scale toglobal regions. This data will come from in situ measurements, remote sensing, and model
analyses and simulations and will have a focus on the water cycle. CEOP expects that it will beable to provide observations of many of the fundamental variables of the water and energy cyclethat are now only available as model output. For example, CEOP data will include evaporation,
precipitation, atmospheric moisture and transport, streamflow, soil moisture, snow water,
radiation fluxes at the bottom and top of the atmosphere, turbulent and horizontal transport ofsensible heat, atmospheric and subsurface temperature. Water isotopes in precipitation,
groundwater, streamflow, water vapor will add another dimension to the developing CEOP
database. By the end of 2012, we expect that the CEOP data will become a recognized part of a
GEWEX/WCRP and perhaps eventually GEOSS distributed data center.
5.2 Objective 2
Enhance the understanding of and quantify how energy and water cycle processes contribute toclimate feedbacks.
This objective is the main focus of all of the CEOP Elements. CEOP data will be used to:• describe the connection between high altitude reference stations and regional monsoons(Africa, South America, North America, Asian/Australian);• evaluate satellite products of precipitation, aerosols, clouds and surface radiation and energy
budget with reference data;• improve our understanding of hydrologic processes in the atmosphere and on land, and theirinteractions as well as possible influence by aerosol radiative forcing.
• provide an estimate of uncertainty in various global analyses and regional simulations ofwater and energy processes and variables.

58

CEOP modeling studies, will further focus on understanding how large-scale circulation
anomalies interact with the regional energy and water cycle (e.g., land surface processes) to
focus and amplify the regional response to large-scale climate anomalies. These modelingstudies will be complemented by WEBS intercomparison and parameterization sensitivity
experiments, with emphasis on improving the diurnal to interannual variability as well as
simulation and prediction of extreme events.
5.3 Objective 3
Improve the predictive capability for key water and energy cycle variables and feedbacks
through improved parameterizations to better represent hydrometeorological processes, anddetermine the geographical and seasonal characteristics of their predictability over land areas.
All of the RHPs are connected to an NWP center as well as research with hydro-meteorologicalmodels capable of simulating and predicting the hydroclimate variable. These models will beconfronted with CEOP data in order to better understand where current physicalparameterizations may be failing. Prior research and model inter-comparisons have shown thatphysical parameterizations (especially for land surface processes and atmospheric moist physics)
are important in determining regional responses to large-scale circulation anomalies. CEOP will
have a special focus on the land surface, including soil moisture, snow cover, and complex
terrain. Besides coarse seasonal averages, an additional focus will be on predictability of hightemporal resolution features associated with diurnal to annual cycles. The interaction of aerosol
and the continental scale water cycle and their influence on water and energy cycles, droughts
and floods in monsoon and semi-arid and arid regions will be investigated through the CEOP
cross-cut studies (see Sections 3.3 and 4.3).
5.4. GEWEX Objective 4 Applications
Undertake joint activities with operational hydrometeorological services, related ESSP projects
like the GWSP, and hydrological research programs to demonstrate the value of GEWEX
research, data sets and tools for assessing the consequences of climate predictions and globalchange for water resources
The RHPs are fully committed to developing applications as part of their Technicalrequirements, which requires Interactions with hydrologic services and related groups. These
individual RHP efforts will be internationally organized within CEOP by HAP in collaboration
with other international groups such as HEPEX and the IAHS. An initial focus will be on
seasonal forecasts in gauged basins with later efforts focused on predictions in un-gauged basins(PUB), especially for predictions of extreme events. Some regions such as BALTEX are also
focused on providing assessments of water resources later in this century. Besides HAP, these
efforts will also be done in concert with LSM and regional modeling groups contributing to
CEOP and the GMPP efforts. Finally, it should be mentioned that CEOP is committed toassessing the contribution of remote sensing measurements for hydrologic applications andpredictions.
6. CEOP Contributions and Synergy with International Activities
Questions and dialog about CEOP’s unique nature has led to a clearer understanding that it is59

science driven as well as science enabling. It is important for scientists to be involved in data
related activities to ensure the value of the resultant products to the broader community. CEOP
does not, therefore, necessarily have to be shy about establishing an integrated data system, eventhough that might be an outcome of the implementation of the unique coordinated data
management scheme it has fostered.
CEOP in its new framework will work to further clarify it function/status in WCRP. Connections
with other core projects such as CliC and CLIVAR and oversight by groups such as the WCRP
Joint Scientific Committee (JSC)/WCRP Observation and Assimilation Panel (WOAP) will
result in conclusions about its unique structure and range of interactions among and between
multi-disciplinary scientists/groups and various technical and data management experts/centers.
Such a new unifying configuration should result in CEOP continuing to be a collaborating
Project within WCRP.
It is valid and appropriate for CEOP in its new configuration to expand its science scope andfrom material incorporated into its Implementation/Science Plan the new work on extremes /tele-connections; aerosols and water cycle; watershed hydrology as science issues and theextension/enhancement of data collection and analyses into cold and semi-arid regions is to bepart of CEOP’s future vision.
In the context of a clarification of its unique contribution to climate research CEOP will want torevisit its role and position in WCRP to the point of it being established as a special coordinating
Project in WCRP. These concepts/recommendations for future action and direction of the new
CEOP lead to further efforts to clarify CEOP within the context of GEWEX, WCRP and thebroader Integrated Global Observing System (IGOS) and GEO communities.
6.1. CEOP Contributions to WCRP crosscuts
6.1.1 RHP Contributions
Besides GEWEX, many of the RHPs are endorsed by other international groups because of themany crosscutting themes inherent in a regional study. For example, LBA and NEESPI are RHPs
endorsed by both GEWEX and the IGBP programmes because of their interest in understanding
the biological as well as physical controls on the regional climate. In a similar vein, LPB and
MAHASRI have a marked interest in hydrological variability and prediction, but at the sametime focus on the atmospheric controls of precipitation and evaporation and are thus endorsed by
CLIVAR as well as GEWEX. It should also be mentioned that the main areas of researchwithin the RHPs cover the following other crosscutting themes within WCRP: extreme events(floods and droughts) and monsoon systems (the South American monsoon, coordinated alsowith the Monsoon Experiment for South America –MESA).
Due to its interdisciplinary nature, NEESPI RHP has been recognized as an External IGBP
Project that contributes to several Interdisciplinary ESSP Projects such as GLP, GWSP, and
GCP. The closest coordination has been established between NEESPI and the iLEAPS Projectof IGBP. The research objectives and science plans of NEESPI and iLEAPS notably overlap(however, the NEESPI scope is regional, while the iLEAPS scope is global). The projects sharefacilities for Science Team meetings, officers' work, and jointly sponsor sessions at International
Meetings and Assemblies (e.g., the BG2.8 Session at the EGU Assembly in Vienna, April 2008).

60

Furthermore, iLEAPS International Office is hosting one of the NEESPI Regional Focus
Research Centers. This collaboration is mutually beneficial and is projected to continue.
6.1.2 Monsoons
CEOP-MONS will provide the GEWEX perspective to the WCRP crosscut activities of"Integrated Monsoon Studies (IMS)". Under the IMS, collaborations among GEWEX, CLIVAR,
THORPEX (YOTC), WWRP and MAIRS are expected. The contributions of the CEOP-MONS
to the IMS, in particular, will be in the fields related with land surface conditions and/or
processes in monsoon regions over the major continents of the world, role of high elevated land
heating onto the monsoon system and floods and drought in large river basins. In addition, therole of human activity on changing the activity and/or characteristics of monsoons, in particular,
land-use change effect should also be targeted.
JAMEX (See Section 4.3.3), which began as the previous CEOP Inter-Monsoon Studies (CIMS)
subproject, and now under the CEOP Aerosol-Water Cycle Cross-Cut (CAWC) studies, has
evolved to be a core component of the WCRP/AMY Initiative (2008-2012). JAMEX will be
the first large-scale international organized effort to study aerosol-water cycle interaction over
the Asian continent, including the Tibetan Plateau, and adjacent oceans, using an integrated
approach combining enhanced ground observations, field observations, satellite observations,and regional and global scale modeling, with major contributions from many countries in Asia.
Another CAWC initiative, WAMME (See Section 4.3.3) is focused on better understanding, andimproving representations of atmosphere-land processes including aerosols in the West Africa
Monsoon. Thanks to strong grass-root support and support from GEWEX/CEOP, WAMME
has assembled a significant number of international modeling groups to carry out modelintercomparison and evaluation. WAMME is now emerging as a prototype of an international
effort under the WCRP International Monsoon Year (IMY) initiative, involving international,
broad-base participation including scientists and stake-holders from African countries.
Furthermore, CAWC is actively involved in the new Aerosol-Clouds-Precipitation-Climate(ACPC) Initiative, sponsored jointly by GEWEX, the Integrated Land-Ecosystem-Atmosphere
Process Studies (iLEAPS), and the International Group on Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC),
which calls for highly interdisciplinary approach to address scientific and society issues arisingfrom the impending threat of climate change.
6.1.3 Extremes Contributions to WCRPThe extremes effort within GEWEX is working with CLIVAR to contribute to the WCRP
Extremes Cross-cut. From a policy perspective, in many of the extremes studies, researchers
are working directly with organizations developing policy. One example is in Canada where anational drought adaptation strategy is being developed using, in part, information from a studyof drought under GEWEX. With respect to capacity building in WCRP the global and regional
aspects of this activity are well-suited to application in all regions of the world.
6.2. CEOP Contributions to GEOCEOP in its new framework will continue to evolve as a relevant aspect of the initial61

configuration of GEO/GEOSS. The new CEOP will relate to GEO in a positive manner but the
specific ways this will be accomplished needs to be fully explored and explicitly explained in the
future.
7. CEOP Organization
As summarized by Table I, two Co-Chairs, Toshio Koike and Ron Stewart, now lead CEOP. A
chair or co-chairs also lead each of the individual CEOP elements. They are supported in thisrole by the international coordinator, Sam Benedict, as well as the International GEWEX Project
Office (IGPO).
Although the merger between the Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period and the GEWEXHydrometeorology Panel (GHP) culminated in GHP being replaced in GEWEX by the
Coordinated Energy and water-cycle Observations Project (CEOP) there should be no differencein the manner in which progress reporting is accomplished. CEOP wishes to adhere to all theexisting methods and mechanisms embraced by both of the other GEWEX Panels, namely the
GEWEX Radiation Panel (GRP) and the GEWEX Modeling and Prediction Panel (GMPP).
Whatever, provisions CEOP is directed to make to be consistent with the current GEWEX
reporting scheme especially as it makes cross links, advancements, etc. transparent and includes
data management activities will be promptly implemented. If the current reporting template is
not sufficient to prescribe the necessary path to make these activities coherent or at least coproductive in the same way the other GEWEX Panels make these clear in their reports CEOP
will want to take the examples of the GRP and GMPP Chairs methodologies and institute themin the same clear and consistent manner exhibited by those other Panels.
CEOP is further open to any suggestions on how to bring its reporting process in line with the
GRP and GMPP schemes. It would be especially helpful if CEOP could be pointed to thedescription of these methodologies as well as other important aspects of the implementation
processes employed by GRP and GMPP. Most especially, CEOP would be grateful if
comparable Strategic Implementation Plans could be provided that may have been generated andmaintained by those Panels and which have, therefore, established a baseline for the form andcontent of such reporting and planning that has withstood the test of time within the GEWEX
framework.
Table 1. CEOP Organization
FUNCTION
CEOP
cochair
CEOP
cochair
International
Coordinator
RHPs
CPPA
LBA
LPB
BALTEX

WWW sites
http://monsoon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ceop/

Representative
Toshio Koike*

Email address
tkoike@hydra.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

http://www.drinetwork.ca/extremes/

Ron Stewart*

ronald.e.stewart@gmail.com

http://www.gewex.org/

Sam Benedict*sam.benedict@gewex.org,
gewex@gewex.org

http://www.climate.noaa.gov/cpo_pa/cppa/
http://lba.cptec.inpe.br/lba/site/
http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/lpb/
http://www.baltex-research.eu/

Jin Huang
Jair Maia
Hugo Berbery
Hans-Joerg
Isemer*jin.huang@noaa.gov
jairmaia@inpa.gov.br
Berbery@atmos.umd.edu
Hans-Joerg.Isemer@gkss.de

62

AMMA
MAHASRIMDBNEESPI
Regional
StudiesCRS
High
Elevation
Monsoon cochair
Monsoon cochair
Monsoon cochair
SAS
Cross
Cutting
Studies
WEBS
Extremes
Aerosols
Isotopecochair
Isotopecochair
ModelsGlobal
(MAC)
Regional
ICTS

http://www.ammainternational.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=1
http://mahasri.cr.chiba-u.ac.jp/index_e.html
http://www.gewex.org/mdb.html
http://neespi.org/

Amadou Gaye

atgaye@ucad.sn

Jun Matsumoto
Jason Evans
Pasha Groisman

jun@eps.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp
jason.evans@unsw.edu.au
Pasha.Groisman@noaa.gov

Tetsuo Ohata
Gianni Tartariohatat@jamstec.go.jp
tartari@irsa.cnr.it

Jun Matsumoto

jun@eps.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Hugo Berbery

Berbery@atmos.umd.edu

William Lau

lau@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov

Congbin Fu*

fcb@mail.tea.ac.cn

http://www.itpcas.ac.cn/users/webs/

Kun Yang

yangk@itpcas.ac.cn

http://www.drinetwork.ca/extremes/

Ron Stewart*
Bill Lau
David Noone

ronald.e.stewart@gmail.com
dcn@Colorado.edu

Kei Yoshimura

k1yoshimura@ucsd.edu

Mike
Bosilovich*

Michael.Bosilovich@nasa.gov

Burkhardt
Rockel*Ray Arritt

Burkhardt.Rockel@gkss.de

http://www.ceop-he.org

http://icts.gkss.de

SIEVE
LSM
HAP
Data
Management
Reference
Sites/Basins
Model Output
Satellite Data
Data
Integration &Dissemination
Central Data
Integration
AsoociatedMatt Rodell
Eric Wood*rwarritt@bruce.
agron.iastate.edu
Matthew.Rodell@nasa.gov
efwood@princeton.edu

http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/

Steve Williams*

sfw@ucar.edu

http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/model/
http://monsoon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/campi/doc/sat_info/index.htm
http://jaxa.ceos.org/wtf_ceop/MichaelLautenschlager
Toshio Koike

Michael.Lautenschlager@zm
aw.de
tkoike@hydra.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

http://monsoon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ceop-dc/ceopdc_top.htm
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/wdc/

Kenji Taniguchi

http://www.eol.ucar.edu/projects/ceop/dm/

TBD
taniguti@hydra.t.utokyo.ac.jp

63

Global Data
Centres
GRDC
GPCC

http://grdc.bafg.de/
http://gpcc.dwd.de

Ulrich Looser
Tobias Fuchs*

Looser@bafg.de
Tobias.Fuchs@dwd.de

Figure 5 shows the general structure for the new Coordinated Energy and water cycle
Observations Project within GEWEX, which has now merged with the old GHP and‘CEOP’. Many members NWP centers and CEOS space agencies contribute to CEOP. A
scientific advisory group comprised of the CEOP co chairs and representatives of NWP centers
and the CEOS space agencies that contribute to CEOP will further help guide CEOP activities.
CEOP is also a project of the IGOS Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations (IGWCO)
Project, which is helping to formulate the GEOSS.
Annual CEOP meetings will be held in the fall, supplemented by meetings of opportunity at
various national and international meetings to assess progress and chart future efforts. At the firstannual meeting to be held in Sept. 2007, progress toward development of this Strategic
Implementation Plan will be discussed with the chairs of the CEOP Elements.

Figure 5 Overall Structure of the new CEOP project of GEWEX, showing the contributions by
the RHPs, RS, MS and HAP, anchored by the Data Management. CEOP depends on community
participation from the international NWP centers, Committee on Earth Observations (remotesensing) and intends to make a significant contribution to the evolving implementation of
GEOSS

64

8. Timeline
Major events planned and executed during the lifetime of CEOP are shown below. Now that
CEOP and GHP have combined it makes sense to follow the schedule of the former GHP andhave the CEOP meeting in the fall. In addition to these regular meetings, we also will continue
our ongoing international teleconferences with the CEOP community.
2007
12-14 March
25 July
31 July
21 August
22 August
6-9 September
30 September
8 October
15 October
15 November
20 November
1 December
20 December

6th International ‘CEOP’ Implementation Planning Meeting
Initial input to straw man document
First straw man document conference call (06 PDT)
Second inputs to straw man document
Second straw man conference call (06 PDT)
1st CEOP annual meeting Bali, Indonesia
Final input for crosscutting section
Conference callFirst rough draft
Final inputs to first draft
Conference call (approximate)
Second draft available
Final inputs to second draft

2008
4-5 January Executive meeting in San Diego (John, Sam and Toshio)
7 January
Submit draft to SSG
2-4 February
GEWEX SSG Buenos Aires, Argentina
May
CEOP Extremes Workshop (tentative)
Sept.
2nd CEOP annual meeting
2009
September3rd CEOP annual meeting

2010
September4th CEOP annual meeting

2011
September5th CEOP annual meeting

2012
September6th CEOP meeting and wrap-up conference

65

9. REFERENCES
Betts, A. K., and P. Viterbo, 2005: Land-surface, boundary layer, and cloud-field coupling overthe southwestern Amazon in ERA-40. J. Geophys. Res., 110, D14108, doi:
10.1029/2004JD005702
Bosilovich, M. G. and R. Lawford, 2002: Report on the Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period(CEOP) International Workshop. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 83, 1495-1499.
Bosilovich et al 2007:
Collini, E. A., E. H. Berbery, V. Barros, and M. Pyle, 2008: How Does Soil Moisture Influence
the Early Stages of the South American Monsoon? J. Climate, 21, 195-213.
Koike, T., 2004: The Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period – An initial step for integrated
global water cycle observations. WMO Bull., 53, 115-121.
Lawford, R., M. Bosilovich, S. Eden, S. Benedict, C. Brown, A. Gruber, P. Houser, T. Meyers,
K. Mitchell, J. Roads, M. Rodell, Sorooshian, S., Tarbley, D., S. Williams, 2006: US
Contributions to the Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period, Bull. Amer. Meteor Soc.,
July 2006.
Lawford, R., R. Stewart, J. Roads, H. Isemer, M. Manton, J. Marengo, T. Yasunari, S. Benedict,T. Koike, S. Williams, 2004: Advancing global and continental scale hydrometeorology:
Contributions of the GEWEX Hydrometeorology Panel (GHP). Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc.,
1917-1930
Leese (and others) 2001c: CEOP Implementation Plan. http://monsoon.t.utokyo.ac.jp/ceop/Implement.html.)
Raschke et al., 2001:
Roads, J., K. Masuda, M. Rodell, W. Rossow, 2008: GEWEX WEBS. Earth Interactions,submitted; see also http://ecpc.ucsd.edu/projects/ghp/WEBS/ ).
Sorooshian, S., R. Lawford, P. Try, W. Rossow, J. Roads, J. Polcher, G. Sommeria, and R.
Schiffer, 2005: Water and energy cycles. Investigating the links. WMO Bull., 54, 58-64.).
Stewart, R.E., J. Leese and T. Koike, 2001a: CEOP science plan and overall strategy, GEWEX
project office, 13 pp.
Stewart, R.E., J. Leese, T. Koike and R. Lawford, 2001b: CEOP implementation beginning.
BAHC/GEWEX News Joint Issue, 3-4.
Yang et al 2007:

66

APPENDIX A -LIST OF ACRONYMS
ACCESS
ACCS
ACSYS
AMMA
AMY08
ANSTO
AON
APDA
ARDB
ARM
AWCI

Australian Community Climate Earth System Simulator
Aerosol Cross-Cut Studies (CEOP)
Arctic Climate System Study
African Monsoon Multidiscplinary Analysis
Asian Monsoon Year 2008
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
Arctic Observing Network
Arctic Precipitation Data Archive
Arctic Runoff Database
Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (DOE)
Asian Water Cycle Initiative

BACC
BAHC
BALTEX
BfG
BMRC

BALTEX Anthropogenic Climate Change Project
Biospheric Aspects of the Hydrologic Cycle
BALTic sea EXperimentFederal Institute of Hydrology (Germany)
Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre

CBS
CCS
CEOP
‘CEOP’
CEOS
CIMS
CLiC
CLIVAR
CMDAS
COPES
CPPA
CPTEC
CRS
CSE
CSIRO

Commission for Basic Systems (WMO)
Cross-Cutting Studies (CEOP)
Coordinated Energy and water cycle Observations Project
Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period
Committee on Earth Observation Satellites‘CEOP’ Intercomparison Monsoon Study
CLImate and Cryosphere Project
CLImate VARiations Program
Cloud Microphysics Data Assimilation System
Coordinated Observation and Prediction of the Earth System
Climate Prediction Program for the Americas
Centro de Previsão de Tempo e Estudos Climáticos (Brazil)
Cold Regions Study (CEOP)
Continental Scale Experiment (GEWEX)
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

DISC
DKRZ
DM
DOE
DWD

Data and Information Service (CLiC)
German Climate Computing Center
Data Management
Department of Energy (United States)
Deutscher Wetterdienst (German Meteorological Service)

ECMWF
ECPC

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
Experimental Climate Prediction Center (Scripps)

67

EFAS
ENSO
EOL
ESSP
ETN-R
EU
EWA

European Flood Alert System
El Niño-Southern Oscillation
Earth Observing Laboratory (NCAR)
Earth System Science Partnership Program
European Terrestrial Network for River Discharge
European Union
European Water Archive

GAME
GAPP
GCIP
GCM
GCOS
GEO
GEOSS
GEWEX
GHP
GHz
GLACE
GLASS
GLDAS
GMAO
GMPP
GNIP
GNIR
GPCC
GPCP
GrADS
GRDC
GRIB
GRP
GSFC
GSNMC
GSWP
GTN-R
GTOS
GTS
GWSP

GEWEX Asian Monsoon Experiment
GEWEX Americas Prediction Project
GEWEX Continental-scale International Project
Global Climate Model
Global Climate Observing System
Group on Earth Observations
Global Earth Observation System of Systems
Global Energy and Water-cycle Experiment
GEWEX Hydrometeorology Panel
GigaHertz
Global Land-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment
Global Land/Atmosphere System Study
Global Land Data Assimilation System
Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (NASA/GSFC)GEWEX Modeling and Prediction Panel
Global Network of Isotopes in Precipitation
Global Network of Isotopes in Rivers
Global Precipitation Climatology Centre
Global Precipitation Climatology Project
Grid Analysis and Display System
Global Runoff Data Centre
GRIdded Binary
GEWEX Radiation Panel
Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA)
GCOS Surface Network Monitoring Centers
Global Soil Wetness Project
Global Terrestrial Network for River Discharge
Global Terrestrial Observing System
Global Telecommunication System
Global Water System Project

HAP
HE
HEPEX
HTTP

Hydrologic Applications ProjectHigh Elevations (CEOP) ProjectHydrologic Ensemble Prediction ExperimentHypertext Transfer Protocol

ICCS
ICSU

Isotope Cross Cut Study (CEOP)
International Council for Science

68

ICTS
IDL
IGBP
IGOS
IGPO
IGRAC
IGWCO
IHAS
ILEAPS
IMS
INPE
IPCC
IPILPSIPY
ISCCP
ISLSCPISO
ITTInter-Continental scale Transferability Study
Interactive Data Language
International Geosphere Biosphere Programme
Integrated Global Observing Strategy
International GEWEX Project OfficeInternational Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (Netherlands)
Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations
International Association of Hydrological Sciences
Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study
Integrated Monsoon Studies
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (Brazil)Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Isotopes in Project for Intercomparison of Land-surface Parameterization
SchemesInternational Polar Year
International Satellite Cloud Climatology ProjectInternational Satellite Land Surface Climatology ProjectInternational Standards Organization
International Task Team (AWCI)JAMEXJAMSTEC
JAXA
JMA
JSC

Joint Aerosol-Monsoon ExperimentJapan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Japan Meteorological Agency
Joint Scientific Committee (WCRP)

LBA
LPB
LIS
LSM

Large-scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia
La Plata BasinLand Information System
Land Surface Model

MAC
MAGS
MAHASRI
MAIRS
MDB
MESA
MIBA
MOLTS
MPI
MPIM
MS
MSC

Model Analysis Comparison
MAckenzie GEWEX Study
Monsoon Asian Hydro-Atmosphere Scientific Research and prediction
Initiative
Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study
Murray Darling Basin
Monsoon Experiment for South America
Moisture Isotopes in the Biosphere and Atmosphere
Model Output Location Time Series
Max Planck InstituteMax-Planck Institute for Meteorology
Modeling Studies (CEOP)
Meteorological Service of Canada

NAME

North American Monsoon Experiment

69

NAO
North Atlantic Oscillation
NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NCAR
National Center for Atmospheric Research
NCEP
National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NOAA)NCMRWF National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (India)
NE-FRIEND Northern European Flow Regimes from International Experimental and
Network Data
NEESPI
Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative
NHM Non-Hydrostatic ModelNOAA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NWP
Numerical Weather Prediction
OGC
OPeNDAP

Open Geospatial Consortium
Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol

PACS
PDO
PILPS

Pan American Climate Studies (CLIVAR)
Pacific Decadal Oscillation
Project for Intercomparison of Land-surface Parameterization
Schemes
PRUDENCE Prediction of Regional scenarios and Uncertainties for Defining European
Climate change risks and Effects
PUB
Project on Ungauged Basins
QA
QC

Quality Assurance
Quality Control

RCM
RHP
RTM
RS

Regional Climate Model
Regional Hydroclimate Projects
Radiative Transfer Model
Regional Studies (CEOP)

SAS
SIEVE
SISG
SMHI
SRB
SSC
SSG
SSM/I
SWE
SWING

Semi-Arid Studies (CEOP)
Scale Interaction EValuation Experiment
Science and Implementation Steering Group
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological InstituteSurface Radiation Budget (GRP) Project
Scientific Steering Committee
Scientific Steering GroupSpecial Sensor Microwave Imager
Snow Water Equivalent
Stable Water Isotope Working Group

THORPEXTRMM
TWG

THe Observing System Research and Predictability Experiment
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (NASA)
Transferability Working Group

70

UKMO
UN
UNEP
UNESCOUSUT

United Kingdom Meteorological Office
United Nations
United Nations Environment Programme
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
United States
University of Tokyo

WCRP
WCS
WDC
WDCC
WEBS
WESP
WGISS
WISE
WOAP
WRF
WMO
WRAP

World Climate Research Programme
Web Coverage Service (OGC)
World Data Center
World Data Center for Climate (Hamburg, Germany)
Water and Energy Budget Studies
Water and Energy Simulation and Prediction projectWorking Group on Information Systems and Services (CEOS)Worldwide Integrated Study of Extremes
WCRP Observation and Assimilation Panel
Weather Research and Forecasting modelWorld Meteorological Organization
Water Resources Applications Project

YOTC

Year Of Tropical Convection