Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Continental-Scale International Project A Review of Progress and Opportunities (1998) / Chapter Skim
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APPENDIX A
APPENDIX A
Pages 79-89
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From page 79... ...
Water vapor is the most powerful contributor to the greenhouse effect in the Earth's atmosphere and the main vehicle of atmospheric energy transport. As a liquid, water sustains life on Earth, is accumulated in enormous quantity in the world's oceans, plays a major moderating role in the Earth's climate, and distinguishes our planet from all others in the solar system.
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From page 80... ...
to understand, model, and predict (1) radiative processed involving cloud, aerosol, water vapor, and their impact on radiation transfer and radiation flux divergence in the atmospheric column, and (2)
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From page 84... ...
GCIP was originally conceived as a project that would continue until 2000 and then merge into a new phase of global atmospheric-hydrologic studies relying on expected new global satellite data sets. A principal scientific objective of GCIP was to measure, study and model coupled atmospheric and hydrologic processes on all intermediate scales between those captured by intensive field studies on various experimental sites, such as FIFE and BOREAS, and planetary scales that can be observed by global observing systems.
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From page 85... ...
85 o at o At ;^ o 3 ;^ Cal Cal .= o ¢
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From page 86... ...
Radiation Processes Continental-scale projects provide the opportunity to acquire special water vapor and cloud data sets derived from geostationary satellite observations that are available over continental areas with higher spatial and temporal resolution than are currently feasible for global climatologies. The same algorithms will be used by GEWEX Water Vapor Project and the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP)
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From page 87... ...
PACS emphasizes planetary-scale teleconnections and the seasonal to interannual variability of rain-producing weather systems, whereas GCIP focuses on the impact of these systems on land-vegetation-hydrology processes and the water budget of the region. The specific objectives of PACS are to improve predictive models of the "monsoons" that bring substantial rainfall to the southwestern part of the United States and Mexico and to understand relationships between such seasonal circulation patterns, the position of the intertropical convergence zone, equatorial sea surface temperature anomalies, subtropical stratus cloud decks, and the dominant tropical and extratropical cyclone tracks.
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From page 88... ...
NASA supports a variety of GCIP projects, including in situ field observations and aircraft or satellite remote sensing studies, in particular through the ISLSCP. NASA also provides data products and analyzed fields essential to the success of GCIP, notably diagnostics of cloud amount and properties through the ISCCP, surface radiation flux estimates (Langley Research Center)
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From page 89... ...
It would be advantageous for the GEWEX and GCIP climate programs to develop links to these national and international weather prediction efforts, especially when expensive field experiments are planned.
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