Global climate observing system

Abstract

Established in 1992, GCOS is a joint undertaking of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the International Council for Science (ICSU). Its goal is to provide comprehensive information on the total climate system, involving a multidisciplinary range of physical, chemical, and biological properties and atmospheric, oceanic, hydrological, cryospheric, and terrestrial processes. GCOS is intended to be a long-term, user-driven operational system capable of providing the comprehensive observations required for monitoring the climate system, detecting and attributing climate change, assessing impacts of, and supporting adaptation to, climate variability and change, as well as for application to national economic development and for research to improve understanding, modeling, and prediction of the climate system. The increasing profile of climate change has reinforced worldwide awareness of the importance of an effective global climate observing system. This system has significantly improved over the past years, but much remains to be done to meet the needs of science and society. The consequence of not meeting these requirements would be to seriously compromise the information on, and predictions of, climate variability and change.