WMO to seek satellites to monitor climate change
Pastor Dale Morgan
WMO to seek satellites to monitor climate change*
11 Jan 2008 18:00:39 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The United Nations' weather agency will ask
NASA and other space agencies next week to make their next generation of
satellites available to monitor climate change, a senior official at the
U.N. body said on Friday.
The aim is to ensure that satellites launched over the next 20 years
constantly record parameters such as sea levels and greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said.
"The main focus of the meeting next week will be the expansion of the
global observing system by satellites to not only monitor severe
weather, which is a core function, but also to monitor climate on a very
continuous and long-term basis," WMO expert Jerome Lafeuille told a news
briefing in Geneva.
Senior officials from NASA, the European Space Agency, and space
agencies in Japan, China, Brazil and India are due to attend the WMO
meeting in New Orleans from Jan 15-16.
Satellites are an essential part of efforts to track severe weather and
climate change by providing a global picture of shifts in the climate
system, rising ocean levels, impacts on land and in the atmosphere, says
the WMO.
Scientists blame climate change mainly on human emissions of greenhouse
gases from burning fossil fuels and warn it will bring extreme weather
including more heatwaves, droughts, floods and rising seas.
At least 16 geostationary and low-earth orbit satellites currently
provide operational data on the planet's climate and weather as part of
WMO's global observation system.
There are also numerous experimental satellites designed for scientific
missions or instrument technology demonstration -- measuring variables
such as wind, precipitation and temperature -- whose data WMO wants to
ensure is captured long-term.
"We know there are gaps. Climate monitoring needs very long-term
continuity of measurement," Lafeuille, who heads the space-based
observing system division of WMO's space programme, told Reuters.
"When you look at satellites programmed over the next two decades there
are a number of extremely useful satellites but there is no guarantee of
continuity of key measurements."
High on WMO's agenda will be ensuring constant monitoring of sea levels
for several decades, said the French expert.
Measuring the chemical make-up of the atmosphere -- including greenhouse
gases such as CO2 as well as aerosols -- is also key, Lafeuille said.
A record number of 17 satellites are planned for launch in 2008 by
countries from China to India and Russia, he said. "Our challenge at WMO
is to make sure programmes are complementary and that all together we
build an optimised system."