BALTEX Phase II 2003 – 2012. Science Framework and ...

BALTEX Phase II Science Framework and Implementation Strategy 63
• Better estimates of the impact of water vapour, clouds and aerosol on the regional radiation
balance.
• Inventories of trace gas and aerosols emissions as well as fluxes of nutrients and pollutants.
• Estimates of soil water, its phase and spatial and temporal distribution including the behaviour
of aquifers.
• Error estimates of available runoff data.
• Continuous measurements of in- and outflow through belts and straits.
“Analysis of climate variability and change” (Chapter 2) requires:
• Extended instrumental and proxy data from the past and from recent and ongoing monitoring.
• More information of the interactions between atmosphere, land and ocean (driving fluxes).
• Data from downscaled global re-analysis and global climate simulations.
“Improved tools for water management” (Chapter 3) require:
• High quality, spatially extended, long record precipitation and temperature datasets.
• River discharge datasets on daily time steps.
• Temperature and soil moisture measurements to estimate evapotranspiration.
“Air and water quality studies” (Chapter 4) require:
• Time series of flux measurements.
• Long-term measurements of ice and snow conditions on land.
• Assessment of existing environmental data sets.
• Assessment of existing land surface characteristics and emission data.
Generally, specific data needs comprise both observational data and model output. Time periods
covered are decades up to two or more centuries (1800 to date). A whole suite of atmospheric, land
surface, river and sea parameters related to water and energy cycles will have to be dealt with.
Moreover, specific archiving of data on emission, transport and deposition of e.g. trace gases such as
nitrogen compounds and CO 2 aerosols is desirable for BALTEX Phase II. On the other hand, there
exist already various data bases and data centres in charge of collecting and managing environmental
data (e.g., EMEP, EEA, WMO). All these will be taken into account before starting to establish new
BALTEX data centres. A dedicated working group will address this issue. Additionally, the EU is
currently preparing a directive (INSPIRE) to enhanced data accessibility, which may change the status
of certain data.
8.3. Satellite Data
BALTEX currently has no central satellite data facility. But important satellite data are processed and
held available at several organisations contributing to BALTEX including the Free University of
Berlin, Germany; University of Bonn, Germany; Max-Planck-Institute for Meteorology, Germany;
Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Sweden and Chalmers University of Sweden.
The Satellite Application Facility for Climate Monitoring (CM-SAF) of the European Organisation for
the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) headed by the German Weather Service
(DWD) in Offenbach is a natural further candidate to be included in BALTEX. The CM-SAF
generates and archives high quality data sets on a continuous basis for a) monitoring of the climate
state and its variability, b) analysis and diagnosis of climate parameters to identify and understand
changes in the climate system, c) input for climate models to study processes in the climate system on
a European and/or global scale and for climate prediction, d) validation of climate and NWP models,
and e) planning and management purposes.
The CM-SAF concentrates, however, on operational meteorological satellites with emphasis on
Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) as the core satellite. The increasing importance also of non
meteorological satellite data and the fast development of new sensor techniques (see below) require a