Regional Studies (RS)
An additional number of CEOP Regional Studies have been established that involve fewer numbers of investigators but which have
the potential capability to bring together interested researchers in many Regional Hydroclimate Projects (RHPs) and other parts of GEWEX interested
in common regional problems associated with Cold Regions, High Elevations, Monsoons, and
Semi-Arid Regions. The RS are currently focused on specific regional areas but all have the goal to eventually entrain
other RHPs, Cross Cutting Studies (CCS), and
Model Studies (MS) to focus on regional
and global problems associated with the respective regional studies.
Cold Region Studies (CRS)
Chair: Tetsuo Ohata (ohatat@jamstec.go.jp)
CEOP previously recognized through its WESP science and implementation review process that there is a need to advance knowledge 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 scientific community 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.
CliC believes that by working together with CEOP there is an unprecedented opportunity to document current conditions of cryosphere utilizing shared data archives
(in-situ and satellite). In addition, the assimilation and modeling capabilities of CEOP might be used as a major 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 the physical 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.
Further, it was recommended that CEOP undertake a joint initiative with the CliC project as part
of the IPY initiative (2007-2008) as part of its multi-disciplinary framework. The purpose of this effort is for CEOP to assist CliC and possibly the IPY effort as well with
a primary objective: to assess and quantify the impacts of climatic variability and change on components of the cryosphere and their consequences for the climate system, and
determine the stability of the global cryosphere; and related secondary objectives.
CEOP currently has sites contributing data from Siberia, Mongolia, Tibet, Himalayas, Canadian
boreal forest region, northern Germany, Finland, Netherlands and North Slope of Alaska. In addition, efforts are being taken to expand the range of sites to include others in the arctic and Antarctic.
CliC and CEOP collaborates in the design and assembly of a diverse and unique 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)
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High Elevations (HE)
http://www.ceop-he.org
Chair: Gianni Tartari (tartari@irsa.cnr.it)
The HE project is a concerted, international and interdisciplinary effort to further the knowledge of the physical and dynamical processes in high altitude areas.
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 inhomogeneous landscape
roughness of the high altitude areas could affect data quality and representativeness. It is furthermore important taking into account that high elevations are often located in
developing countries where the carrying out of capacity buildings activities is very important for local populations.
The main purposes of HE working group are:
- To establish a coordinated activity among the high altitude climatic stations with aims at building a network including CEOP reference stations.
- To contribute to the understanding of water and energy cycles in high elevation regions and study 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.
- To build synergies between meteorological-climate and hydrological studies in order to improve the management of water resources.
- To provide QA/QC protocols for high altitude sites installation and for data representativeness.
- To create an electronic archive of high altitude monitoring stations.
- To 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 of people, with important social consequences depending on the interaction between the three major components: environment, economics and society.
- To contribute to the capacity building of the mountain population to manage the water cycle and prevent the social consequences of climate change.
HE is also interested in collaborating with the aerosol group in the study of natural and anthropogenic aerosol impacts on climate and the hydro-geological cycle.
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 modeling of atmosphere physics and dynamics in complex topography
- Global and regional climate modeling
- 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, to
better understand any interaction among global, continental-regional and meso-local scales; and
- develop physical/chemical models specifically for high altitude environments.
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Monsoons (MONS)
Co-chairs:
Hugo Berbery (berbery@atmos.umd.edu); Jun Matsumoto (jun@eps.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp)
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.
Monsoon science has advanced enormously in the last two decades due to a wealth of new data
from satellite observations, objective analyses, and field experiments, as well as advances in
computing power and mathematical representations of coupled climate systems by numerical
models, but the forecasting skill for monsoon prediction is still not satisfactory for many social
needs. Consequently, further development of monsoon science is still needed.
Numerical experiments have shown that a better representation of the surface
conditions can lead to improved forecasts and simulations and more realistic evolution of the
monsoons through modifications to the Bowen ratio due to the explicit representation of the
vegetation processes.
The ultimate goal of MONS is to improve forecasts of monsoon variability, in particular from
intra-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?
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Semi-Arid Studies (SAS)
Chair: Congbin Fu (fcb@tea.ac.cn)
CEOP Semi-Arid Studies focus on semi-arid continental areas, which are the transition
zone between arid climates and humid monsoon climates. These areas can be very sensitive to
climate and human perturbations. The potential evaporation there exceeds the precipitation and
dry climate, low vegetation cover, low nutrition content and low capacity of water conservation
of the soil characterize the landscapes. These areas are vulnerable in global environmental
change. Both observation 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.
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 other regions 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.
Current climate models have shown the highest bias error of
simulated precipitation in summer over the arid and semi-arid Asia. This could be due in part to
lack 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 in
land surface model are developed and calibrated for use in humid areas.
SAS goals are:
- To 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.
- To assist in better prediction of climate and water resources and their management in semiarid
regions where the shortage of water supply is critical.
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 frequency of extreme droughts in
semi-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 coupled climate models.
- Assessments of impacts of dust aerosols on the hydrological cycle and climate at regional and 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.
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