GENEVA, Switzerland, February 25, 2009 (ENS) – New evidence of the far-reaching effects of global warming in the polar regions has emerged from the scientific explorations of International Polar Year 2007-2008. Snow and ice are declining in both polar regions, affecting human livelihoods as well as local plant and animal life in the Arctic, as well as global ocean and atmospheric circulation and sea level.

The IPY findings are reported in “State of Polar Research,” released today by the World Meteorological Organization and the International Council for Science.

At a time in which the global environment is changing faster than ever in human history, IPY science has increased understanding of pollutant transport, species’ evolution, and storm formation and climate change, among many other areas.

The IPY findings result from more than 160 endorsed science projects assembled from researchers in more than 60 countries.

The U.S. Antarctic Program’s South Pole Traverse team identifies and analyzes crevasses in an area known as the Shear Zone. November 2008. (Photo by Paul Thur courtesy National Science Foundation)

Launched in March 2007, the IPY covers a two-year period to March 2009 to allow for observations during the alternate seasons in both polar regions.

A joint project of the World Meteorological Organization and the International Council for Science, IPY spearheaded efforts to better monitor and understand the Arctic and Antarctic regions, with international funding support of about US$ 1.2 billion over the two-year period.

“The International Polar Year 2007 – 2008 came at a crossroads for the planet’s future” said Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of WMO. “The new evidence resulting from polar research will strengthen the scientific basis on which we build future actions.”

Catherine Bréchignac, president of ICSU, said, “The planning for IPY set ambitious goals that have been achieved, and even exceeded, thanks to the tireless efforts, enthusiasm, and imagination of thousands of scientists, working with teachers, artists, and many other collaborators.”

Taking aerial pictures at the southern coast of Samoylov Island within the Lena Delta close to the Laptev Sea in the Siberian Arctic. Summer 2008. (Photo courtesy Alfred-Wegener Institut)

It now appears clear that the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass, contributing to sea level rise. Warming in the Antarctic is much more widespread than it was thought prior to the IPY, and it now appears that the rate of ice loss from Greenland is increasing.

Researchers also found that in the Arctic, during the summers of 2007 and 2008, the minimum extent of year-round sea ice decreased to its lowest level since satellite records began 30 years ago. IPY expeditions recorded an unprecedented rate of sea-ice drift in the Arctic as well. Due to global warming, the types and extent of vegetation in the Arctic shifted, affecting grazing animals and hunting.

Other evidence for global warming comes from IPY research vessels that have confirmed warming in the Southern Ocean above the global average. A freshening of the bottom water near Antarctica is consistent with increased ice melt from Antarctica and could affect ocean circulation. Global warming is thus affecting Antarctica in ways not previously identified.

IPY research has also identified large pools of carbon stored as methane in permafrost. Thawing permafrost threatens to destabilize the stored greenhouse gas and send it into the atmosphere. IPY researchers along the Siberian coast observed substantial emissions of methane from ocean sediments.

New Zealand scientist measures the depth of Antarctic coastal sea ice. (Photo courtesy University of Otago)

In the area of biodiversity, surveys of the Southern Ocean have uncovered a rich, colorful and complex range of life. Some species appear to be migrating poleward in response to global warming.

IPY has also given atmospheric research new insight. Researchers have discovered that North Atlantic storms are major sources of heat and moisture for the polar regions. Understanding these mechanisms will improve forecasts of the path and intensity of storms.

Studies of the ozone hole have benefited from IPY research, with new connections identified between the ozone concentrations above Antarctica and wind and storm conditions over the Southern Ocean. This information will improve predictions of climate and ozone depletion.

Many Arctic residents, including indigenous communities, participated in IPY’s projects. Over 30 of these projects addressed Arctic social and human science issues, including food security, pollution, and other health issues, and will bring new understanding to addressing these pressing challenges.

Inger Marie Gaup Eira prepares for field work on EALAT, the Reindeer Herders Vulnerability Network Study, examining reindeer pastoralism in view of climate change. February 14, 2009.

“IPY has been the catalyst for the development and strengthening of community monitoring networks across the North” said David Carlson, director of the IPY International Programme Office. “These networks stimulate the information flow among communities and back and forth from science to communities.”

IPY leaves as its legacy enhanced observational capacity, stronger links across disciplines and communities, and an energized new generation of polar researchers.

“The work begun by IPY must continue,” said Jarraud. “Internationally coordinated action related to the polar regions will still be needed in the next decades,” he said.

Bréchignac concurs, “This IPY has further strengthened the ICSU-WMO relationship on polar research coordination, and we must continue to assist the scientific community in its quest to understand and predict polar change and its global manifestations at this critical time.”

The “State of Polar Research” document also recommends priorities for future action to ensure that society is best informed about ongoing polar change and its likely future evolution and global impacts. A major IPY science conference will take place in Oslo in June 2010.

Click here [www.ipy.org] to view the “State of Polar Research” report.

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GENEVA, Switzerland, December 18, 2008 (ENS) – The year 2008 is likely to rank as the tenth warmest year on record since the beginning of the instrumental climate records in 1850, although the global average temperature was slightly lower than previous years of the 21st century, according to the United Nations meteorological agency.

The combined sea-surface and land-surface air temperature for 2008 is estimated at 0.31 degrees Celsius, or 0.56 Fahrenheit, above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14C, or 57.2F, said the World Meteorological Organization, which draws on its membership of 188 member states and territories for metereological observations.

Polar bear amidst melting Arctic ice
(Photo by Arctic Al)

At the same time, the Arctic Sea ice volume during the melt season was its lowest since satellite measurements began in 1979.

The average temperature of 2008 was moderated by La Niña, a weather phenomenon that shrinks the warm water pool in the central and western Pacific. This La Niña developed in the latter half of 2007.

Climate extremes, including devastating floods, severe and persistent droughts, snowstorms, and heat and cold waves, were recorded in many parts of the world.

Europe recorded above-average temperatures across the continent. A remarkably cold winter over Eurasia stretching from Turkey to China caused hundreds of casualties in Afghanistan and China.

In North America, February was a cold month with average daily temperatures in the Midwest of the United States ranging from 4C to 5C below normal in some areas, while in South America a very cold episode due to an early Antarctic air mass saw minimum temperature drop below –6C in May in central Argentina, breaking annual absolute minimum records.

Conversely, mean July temperatures were more than 3C above average in large parts of Argentina, Paraguay, southeast Bolivia and southern Brazil, making it the warmest July in the last 50 years for many locations.

November broke historical records with central Argentina, including Buenos Aires city, experiencing its warmest November in 50 years.

In southern Australia, March brought a record heat wave with Adelaide experiencing its longest heat wave on record – 15 consecutive days of maximum temperatures above 35°C.

Drought at Hume Lake in Australia’s Murray-Darling
Basin (Photo by the Suburban Bloke)

Several heat waves also occurred in southeastern Europe and the Middle East during April, with a very warm spring observed in a large part of the rest of Europe and Asia.

Prolonged drought hit most parts of the southeast of North America at the end of July and hindered efforts to contain numerous large wildfires in California, while southern British Columbia in Canada experienced its fifth driest period in 61 years.

In Europe, Portugal and Spain had their worst drought winter in decades, while in South America, a large part of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay an intense drought which caused severe damage to agriculture.

Dry conditions in south-eastern Australia reinforced long-term drought, exacerbating severe water shortages in the agriculturally important Murray-Darling Basin and causing widespread crop failures in the area.

Heavy snow with subsequent melt, flooding and intense storms were experienced in many regions. The United States experienced 1,489 tornadoes, the most since reliable records began in 1953, and the year was one of the top 10 for tornado-related fatalities at 123.

Sub-Saharan Africa was hit by heavy rains, which caused the worst-ever recorded flooding in Zimbabwe. Extreme rainfall was recorded in northern Morocco with up to 200 millimetres in less than six hours.

In southern Asia, including India, Pakistan and Vietnam, heavy monsoon rains and torrential downpours produced flash floods, killing more than 2,600 people, and displacing 10 million people in India.

Meanwhile in South America, continuous above-normal rainfall in western Colombia and southern Brazil caused severe flooding affecting some two million people.

Destruction after Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar (Photo
courtesy International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent)

The most deadly tropical cyclone of the year was Cyclone Nargis, which killed nearly 78,000 people and destroyed thousands of homes in Myanmar.

Sixteen tropical storms formed in the Atlantic, including eight hurricanes. Five of them were major at Category 3 or higher, causing many casualties and widespread destruction.

For the first time on record, six consecutive cyclones made landfall in the United States and a record three major hurricanes hit Cuba.

In the East Pacific, 17 tropical storms were recorded, of which seven evolved into hurricanes, two of them major.

In the western North Pacific, 22 tropical storms were recorded, 10 of them typhoons, compared to the long-term averages of 27 and 14, respectively.

In the Antarctic, the ozone hole reached a maximum of 27 million square kilometers, less than the record of more than 29 million square kilometers in 2006, but larger than the 25 million square kilometers of last year.

In the Arctic, the average sea ice extent over the month of September was 4.67 million square kilometers, the second lowest on record after last year’s low of 4.3 million square kilometers. Because ice was thinner in 2008, overall ice volume was less than that in any other year.

A remarkable occurrence in 2008 was the dramatic disappearance of nearly one-quarter of the massive ancient ice shelves on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. Ice 70 meters thick, which a century ago covered 9,000 square kilometers, has shrunk to just 1,000 square kilometers today, underscoring the 30 year downward trend in Arctic sea ice.

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GENEVA, Switzerland, November 26, 2008 (ENS) – Climate-heating greenhouse gases continue to increase in the atmosphere, and last year, global concentrations of carbon dioxide again reached the highest levels ever recorded, according to an annual report released Tuesday by the World Meteorological Organization.

Greenhouse gases trap the Sun’s radiation within the Earth’s atmosphere causing it to warm. Human activities, such as fossil fuel burning and agriculture, are major emitters of the gases, which scientists recognize as drivers of global warming and climate change.

The WMO Global Atmosphere Watch coordinates the measurement of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere through a network of observatories located in more than 65 countries. The measurements are published annually in the WMO’s “Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.”

FirstEnergy’s Bruce Mansfield coal-fired power
plant in Pennsylvania (Photo by
Kiyo Komoda)

“Population growth and urban development worldwide continue to increase the use of fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas, which emit carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere. At the same time, the clearing of land for agriculture, including deforestation, is releasing carbon dioxide into the air and reducing carbon uptake by the biosphere,” the WMO states in its report.

The new figures were released just days ahead of the annual UN Climate Change Conference, taking place this year in Poznan, Poland from December 1-12.

It constitutes the half-way mark of a two-year negotiating process, set to culminate in an ambitious international climate change deal in Copenhagen next year that will take over from the Kyoto Protocol limiting greenhouse gas emissions, which expires in 2012.

In Poland, negotiators will take stock of the progress made in the first year of the talks and outline what needs to be done to reach agreement at the end of 2009.

Jay Gulledge, senior scientist with the Pew Center for Global Climate Change in Arlington, Virginia, says efforts to limit greenhouse gases are very recent and he would not expect to see a decrease at this point.

“The implementation of the binding phase of the Kyoto Protocol only began in 2008, that’s the birth year of official efforts to reduce greenhouse gases,” Gulledge told ENS in an interview. “The Kyoto Protocol is implemented separately by many countries, but very few countries have mandatory policies.”

There is a voluntary, not a mandatory greenhouse gas reduction policy in the United States, which releases into the atmosphere roughly one quarter of all global greenhouse gas emissions, although it has only about four percent of the world’s population.

“The most obvious mandatory policy is in the European Union,” said Gulledge, “with the trading system for carbon emissions that only became binding this year. I think it is too early to judge whether we have effective policy as yet.”

An ecologist who studies the carbon cycle, Gulledge says greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2015 to have “a good shot at stabililzing the climate at a safe level.”

Bushfires across Australia emitted an
enormous smoke pall loaded with
carbon over New South Wales,
Victoria, and the adjacent South
Pacific Ocean. January 2003.
(Photo courtesy NASA)

After water vapor, the four most prevalent greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs, ozone-damaging chemicals once widely used as refrigerants.

CFC levels are now slowly dropping due to emissions reductions set under the United Nations Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer that entered into force in 1989.

Carbon dioxide reached 383.1 parts per million (ppm), an increase of 0.5 percent from 2006, according to the latest numbers in the World Meteorological Organization report.

Concentrations of nitrous oxide also reached record highs in 2007, up 0.25 percent from the year before.

Methane levels increased 0.34 percent, exceeding the highest value so far, which was recorded in 2003.

Using the annual greenhouse gas index issued by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, the total warming effect of all long-lived greenhouse gases was calculated to have increased by 24.2 percent since 1990 and by 1.06 percent from the previous year.

Since the mid-18th century, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have risen 37 percent, the WMO report shows.

Gulledge points out that greenhouse gas concentrations will continue to rise for some decades even after emissions continue to drop. “We wouldn’t expect concentrations to level off until the middle of the century even with effective policy,” he said.

We can expect continued warming because the heat that has already been trapped has still not all been translated into surface temperatures, he said.

“This report doesn’t tell us anything directly about emissions trends,” Gulledge explained. “You can measure concentrations directly. The emissions themselves are reported by individual countries, whose reliability varies. And it takes longer to compile the data.”

There is a glimmer of good news concerning the greenhouse gas methane in the WMO report. While the atmospheric concentrations of other gases are increasing steadily, the growth rate of methane concentrations has slowed over the past decade, with some variations from one year to the next.

The rise of six parts per billion from 2006 to 2007 is the highest annual methane increase observed since 1998. It is still too early to state with certainty, however, that this latest increase is the start of a new upward trend in methane levels.

Human activities, such as fossil fuel exploitation, rice agriculture, biomass burning, landfills and ruminant farm animals, account for some 60 percent of atmospheric methane, with natural sources, for example wetlands and termites, responsible for the remaining 40 percent, the WMO scientists calculate.

Meanwhile, a consortium including the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said Tuesday that Africa could be absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than the continent is releasing.

Forest in the African country of Ivory Coast
(Photo courtesy Netherlands National Herbarium)

]

CarboAfrica found that Africa contributes less than four percent of the global emissions from fossil fuels, but accounts for 17 percent and 40 percent respectively of gas emissions emanating from deforestation and fires, according to the research conducted by scientists from 15 institutions.

The most important element is the balance between carbon captured through photosynthesis by Africa’s forests and savannas and gas released into the atmosphere, said Riccardo Valenti, coordinator of CarboAfrica.

“Our evidence so far indicates that Africa seems a ‘carbon sink,’ meaning that it takes more carbon out of the atmosphere than it releases,” said Valenti. “If confirmed, this implies that Africa contributes to reducing the greenhouse effect, thus helping mitigate the consequences of climate change.”

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GENEVA, Switzerland, September 17, 2008 (ENS) – The UN World Meteorological Organization and the International Organization for Standardization, ISO, have agreed to cooperate in setting international standards for weather, climate and water data, products and services.

The new procedures will “clarify the authority of WMO documents and enhance their international recognition and dissemination,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud at Tuesday’s signing ceremony in Geneva.

Sun, rain and lightning over Yuma,
Arizona (Photo credit unknown)

“This will be of particular importance to the activities of national hydrological and meteorological services in addressing standard issues,” he said.

ISO Secretary General Alan Bryden said consistent international standards will help the world respond to the challenges of climate change.

He hailed the agreement as an illustration of the increasing collaboration between the UN system and his organization.

A nongovernmental organization that forms a bridge between the public and private sectors, ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 157 countries, one member per country, with a central secretariat in Geneva that coordinates the system.

Many of the ISO member institutes are part of the governmental structure of their countries, or are mandated by their government. Other members have their roots in the private sector, as they were set up by national partnerships of industry associations.

The World Meteorological Organization already has liaison status with nearly 30 of ISO’s technical committees developing standards for hydrometry, air quality, water quality, soil quality, geographic information, solar energy, petroleum and gas industry, information technologies, marine, quantities and units.

The new agreement is intended to strengthen the development of international standards and avoid duplication related to weather, climate, freshwater and marine data.

Earlier this month, at a meeting in France, Jarraud said weather forecasts must play a greater role in planning for economic development and poverty reduction because of the impact climate change has on water resources.

Michel Jarraud heads the World Meteorological
Organization. (Photo courtesy United Nations)

“Mainstreaming climate change in decision-making processes will be central to all development and poverty alleviation efforts,” he said at the the World Water Congress, held in Montpellier, France on September 2.

Jarraud reminded participants that six of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals relate to water resource management, and that severe flooding, drought and cyclones caused by climate change are obstructing efforts to meet the goals by their target date of 2015.

World Meteorological Organization analysts predict that in the next few decades economic and social pressures will add to the growing competition for water resources between food production, other agricultural sectors and production of biofuels.

The WMO has launched an appeal for funding to set up hydrological information systems that can provide timely, accurate and comprehensive water resources information and support economic development through better land and water resource strategy planning.

The growing demand for a diminishing water supply is a serious challenge to resource management, said Jarraud. One sixth of the world’s population, mostly in rural areas, on small islands, and in regions dependant on water from glaciers and snow melt, is adversely affected by the shortage of ground water.

Adding to the challenges for water resource managers is the increasing scarcity of drinking water for people living in many cities due to falling levels of low flow rivers and rising sea levels, said Jarraud, as well as the increase in mortality rates for waterborne diseases, such as malaria and cholera, in the wettest and driest regions.

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GENEVA, Switzerland, April 6, 2008 (ENS) – The man who has just won the climate science community’s highest prize, predicts “a higher future global warming estimate than expected heretofore.”

Professor Jagadish Shukla has been awarded the 52nd International Meteorological Organization Prize for his contributions to meteorological and hydrological science.

The award was presented March 28 by the World Meteorological Organization in Washington, DC at an event hosted by the National Academy of Sciences. It recognizes outstanding work in meteorology and hydrology, as well as contributions to international collaboration in both scientific fields.

Some climate models are better than others, Dr. Shukla said in 2006 as he published the first paper ranking their accuracy. He that when the most accurate models are weighted more heavily than less accurate ones is assessing climate change, it appears that the climate is changing more quickly than anticipated.

A professor in the School of Computational Sciences, Shukla said, “Giving the higher fidelity models more weight implies a higher future global warming estimate than expected heretofore.”

Professor Jagadish Shukla in his office
at George Mason University
(Photo courtesy Institute of
Global Environment and Society)

Professor Shukla has been president of the Institute of Global Environment and Society since 1991.

He has served as professor of Earth Sciences and Global Change at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia since 1994 and as chairman of Climate Dynamics there since 2003.

WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud calls him “a pillar of the weather and climate research community along a period during which revolutionary advances in atmospheric and oceanic observation, modeling and predictive capabilities have taken place.”

WMO President Dr. Alexander Bedritsky says he has been “instrumental in developing and supporting international meteorological and hydrological efforts that have enabled the world to better understand and respond to climate change and variability,” including the World Climate Research Programme of the World Meteorological Organization, WMO, itself.

Born in 1944 in a small village without electricity, roads or transportation, and primary school building, his primary school education took placeunder a large banyan tree in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India.

He went on to earn a doctorate in Meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976.

Dr. Shukla has contributed to the understanding of the predictability of weather and climate including the Asian monsoon dynamics, deforestation and desertification.

His research has established that there is predictability in the midst of chaos and that there is a scientific basis for short-term climate prediction.

Dr. Shukla assisted in creating weather and climate research centers in India.

When India received the first supercomputer from the USA under special agreement for monsoon forecasting, he was invited by India to be the scientific leader in establishing the National Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting in New Delhi. He helped recruit and train the scientific staff, and implemented a global model to make weather forecasts for India.

The author or co-author of over 150 scientific papers, Dr. Shukla has served as chairman or member of numerous national and international panels and committees.

Dr. Shukla has been associated with the World Climate Research Programme since its inception 26 years ago when he was involved in research on coupled ocean-atmosphere models that could already skillfully predict the sea surface temperature. Under the program, he helped develop the first coupled atmosphere-ocean initiative.

He was instrumental in the creation of the weather and climate research group at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy and led the group’s activities from their inception until 1997.

For the past 34 years, he has visited his village every year and helped establish the Gandhi College in his birth village of Mirdha, India, for the education of rural students in the Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh.

As winner of the International Meteorological Organization, IMO, Prize, Dr. Shukla is carrying a name with history.

Established in 1873, the IMO is parent to today’s World Meteorological Organization, established in 1950 and designated a UN Specialized Agency in 1951.

In 1955, the World Meteorological Organization’s decision-making body, the World Meteorological Congress, created the “IMO Prize” in honor of its founding parent.

Professor Shukla is also a recipient of the Sir Gilbert Walker Gold Medal of the Indian Meteorological Society, the Rossby Medal of the American Meteorological Society and NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal.

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GENEVA, Switzerland, January 21, 2008 (ENS) – An international strategy for deployment of dozens of new satellites to help scientists better understand global warming got a boost Wednesday as the world’s space and meteorological agencies gave their support to the World Meteorological Organization proposal at a high-level space conference.

Approval came at the end of the two day meeting last week in New Orleans, Louisiana attended by top officials of space agencies from across the world.

Participants in the annual WMO Consultative Meetings on High-level Policy on Satellite Matters expressed readiness to help foster international cooperation towards an enhanced global satellite system for the coming decades.

“There is a major societal need to further develop the capacity of satellites to monitor even more accurately climate and weather,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.

At least 16 geostationary and low-Earth orbit satellites currently provide operational data on the planet’s climate and weather as part of the Global Observing System.

They are complemented by numerous experimental satellites designed for scientific missions or instrument technology demonstration. A record number of 17 satellites are planned for launch in 2008 to further strengthen the Global Observing System.

CBERS-2, the Sino-Brazilian
satellite monitoring the
environment (Photo courtesy
CBERS/INPE)

Satellite data shows that in 2006, globally averaged concentrations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, CO2, in the atmosphere reached their highest levels ever recorded.

After water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are the three most prevalent greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. Greenhouse gases are major drivers of global warming and climate change.

Satellites have been used for decades to monitor climatic and weather conditions. But better integration of satellites and the constant refinement of their capabilities are crucial to keep check on the effects of climate change, such as atmospheric changes, sea-level rise and desertification.

This can only be achieved through increased cooperation and data exchange among nations, which is at the heart of the WMO plan.

The meeting also received the first contribution by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais), which operates a joint satellite program with China monitoring the environment.

Brazil provided data and products from its space observations over South America, Africa and China, which will be freely available to WMO’s 188 member nations.

Gilberto Camara, director of the National Institute for Space Research, has said that Brazil and China will also supply the software needed to allow Earth stations to read the data supplied by the satellites.

The first station, based in South Africa, began receiving data in December Camara said, and this will be followed by a station in Kenya at the beginning of 2008, and the Canary Island and Matera, Italy, in June.

He said supplying the satellite images would be “invaluable” for African governments and organizations in particular so they could respond more effectively to natural disasters, deforestation and drought, as well as threats to agricultural production and food security.

The WMO said there has been “major progress” on the International Geostationary Laboratory to use satellites for highly elliptical orbits. The WMO runs this lab, which allows the satellites to provide almost permanent coverage of high-latitude areas for weather, ice and snow monitoring, as well as for telecommunications and data collection.

The meeting received a draft set of guidelines developed for the transition of successful research and development satellites into more permanent, operational missions. Guidelines will be submitted to the WMO Executive Council for approval.

The meeting was briefed on the start of the Regional Specialized Satellite Centre in Climate Monitoring, which the WMO says is necessary for the continuous and sustained provision of high quality essential climate variables satellite products on a global scale.

A remarkable development in 2007 was the launch by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of CarbonTracker, a global carbon cycle modeling tool that converts surface-based global greenhouse gas observations into best estimates of global distribution in the atmosphere and the net air-surface exchange of carbon dioxide.

The goal of the space-based component of the Global Observing System is to meet the observation needs of all WMO programs dealing with weather, climate, water, the atmosphere, and disaster prevention and mitigation.

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