WIGOS Vision 2040 Surface Workshop (Geneva, Switzerland, October 2016)

Marine Meteorological and Oceanographic Observations

JCOMM contribution to the WIGOS Vision 2040

Etienne CharpentierChief, Observing Systems Division, WMO

Neville Smith, co-Chair TPOS-2020 SCKaty Hill, GCOS Secretariat

Outline

1. Requirements addressed2. Current JCOMM implementation goals and

progress3. Development of new implementation targets

in response to new GCOS IP & RRR4. The Argo example5. The TPOS 2020 example6. Satcom issues7. Evolution and trends8. Conclusion

WMO Application Areas1. Global Numerical Weather Prediction2. High Resolution Numerical Weather Prediction3. Nowcasting and Very Short Range Forecasting4. Sub-seasonal to longer predictions5. Aeronautical Meteorology6. Forecasting Atmospheric Composition7. Monitoring Atmospheric Composition8. Providing Atmospheric Composition information to support services in urban and

populated areas9. Ocean Applications10. Agricultural Meteorology11. Hydrology12. Climate Monitoring (GCOS)13. Climate Applications (Other aspects, addressed by the Commission for

Climatology)14. Space Weather

Cross cutting: • Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW)• Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) 3

JCOMM responding to user requirements

• Currently JCOMM is essentially responding to GCOS Implementation Targets for the Ocean domain as stated in GCOS IP 2010 (GCOS No. 138)

• By doing so, it is believed that NWP requirements are thereby also addressed

• Additional requirements include those for marine services and metocean forecasting– Support to maritime activities, incl. transportation– Wave models– Ocean mesoscale forecasting– Tsunami monitoring– …

Example of requirements for metocean observations (in yellow where gaps identified in SoG)

Variable OCEAN GNWP HRNWP NVSRF SSLRP GCOS

Surface met. (SLP, T, U) X X X X X

Surface vector wind X X X X X X

Sea Surface Temperature (SST) X X X X X X

Surface Currents X X X X

Snow (depth, water equiv.) X X X X X

Ice thickness X X X X XSea level, tides, ocean dynamic topography X X X

Surface heat fluxes X X X

Sea Surface Salinity X X X X

Ocean profiles (T, S) X X X

Waves / Sea State X X X X X

Visibility X X

Precipitation X X X X X 6

Current JCOMM implementation goals and progress

JCOMM to develop new implementation targets in response to new GCOS IP 2016 (1/2)

O4: Development of new autonomous platforms (pilots)O27: Argo 3° x 3° (3800 units) down to 2000mO28: Argo/BGC 6° x 6° O29: 60 sections of high quality, full depth, multidisciplinary ship-

based decadal survey (GO-SHIP)O30: Build & maintain OceanSITEsO31: Maintain Tropical Moored Buoy arrayO33: Maintain & expand meteorological moored buoysO34: Strategy & impl. of wave measurements as part of OceanSITEs

& DBCP

JCOMM to develop new implementation targets in response to new GCOS IP 2016 (2/2)

O35: Establish & sustain in situ observations from sea-ice buoysO36: Sustain drifting buoy network (1250 units) to include SLPO37: Improved measurements from VOSO38: Sustain multi-decadal XBT/XCTD network in areas of

significant valueO39 to O42: pCO2 observationsO43: Implement global Continuous Plankton Recorder SurveysO44: Maintain tide gauge network (GLOSS Core Network, 300

units)O45: Design and implement global network of multi-disciplinary

glider missionsO46: Develop global animal tagging observing system

The Argo example

Argo objectives• Provide quantitative description of changing state of the upper ocean &

patterns of ocean climate variability from months to decades, including heat and freshwater storage and transport

• Enhance the value of the Jason altimeter through measurement of subsurface temperature, salinity, and velocity, with sufficient coverage and resolution to permit interpretation of altimetric sea surface height variability

• Provide data for initializing ocean and coupled ocean-atmosphere forecast models, for data assimilation and for model testing

• A primary focus of Argo is to document seasonal to decadal climate variability and to aid our understanding of its predictability. A wide range of applications for high-quality global ocean analyses is anticipated.

• 3000 floats• 10-day cycle• T & S profile data

down to 2000m• Mini T profile near

surface• Horizontal

sampling at 1000m

The Argo example

• Current target: 3000 active floats• Evolutions & trends

– Better coverage in marginal seas– Coverage in seasonal ice-zones– Enhanced sampling in some boundary currents and equatorial

regions (for TPOS 2020)– Deep Argo (6000m, 3-10 day cycle)– Biogeochemical measurements (BGC) – 10% of current fleet

(seasonal to decadal variability of biological productivity, CO2 uptake of the oceans, ocean acidification ,etc.)

• New target: 3800 active floats

Argo in marginal seas

Argo in Polar regions

North Sea, April 2016(45 floats)

Southern Ocean (<60S), April 2016 (146 floats)

The TPOS 2020 Example (1/6)• The current tropical moored buoy array is challenging

to maintain (cost of ship time, vandalism, biofouling)• Data availability suffered in 2014 and some moorings

withdrawn (TRITON)• TAO Array was initially designed for understanding of

El Niño and ENSO … now well understood

The TPOS 2020 Example (2/6)

• Tropical Pacific Observing System– System is now more diverse and includes many types of

observing platforms (buoys, Argo floats, ships, OceanSITEs, satellites …)

• TPOS 2020– Finite lifetime project– Review, re-design and refresh the TPOS

• Review user requirements for – better gridded products and model initialization– Increased understanding of critical processes & phenomena

• Use new science and technology• Strengthen inter-agency cooperation, partnerships (incl. WIGOS)• Platform neutral approach, learning from WIGOS

– Steering Group established

The TPOS 2020 Example (3/6)

• Focus on the TPOS Backbone– Requirements on variables– Requirements for observations: Recommendations– Implementation: Actions

• Includes Evolution and Transition• Currently out for Stakeholder Review

The TPOS 2020 Example (4/6)Foreseen/likely evolutions

• Satellite data complementing in situ• Some moored buoy for satellite calibration and continuous

sampling over wide band of frequencies (and include surface flux measurements)

• More near-equatorial measurements• Some higher frequency measurements helping to interpret

coarser measurements• Argo (incl. ~ 6000m) uniquely resolves the vertical density

structure over global ocean and add salinity• Gliders and other autonomous vehicles

The TPOS 2020 Example (5/6)Evolving from a grid to a regime focus

• A “bow-tie” configuration focuses moorings.• Enhancements:

– across ITCZ/SPCZ– denser near equator

The TPOS 2020 Example (6/6)Output Schedule

A sequence of major Reports plus outcomes reported through SC

OceanObs ‘19WMO CongressIOC Assembly

2019

First

1.Establish TPOS2.Interim implementation

3.Handover of responsibility

More information: www.tpos2020.org

Satellite data Telecommunication (Satcom)

• Cg-17 established Satcom Forum• 1st meeting in Madrid(27-29 Sept. 2016)

– Explore the possibility of establishing a “WMO branded disaster alerting tariff”

– Pay attention to LDC & SIDS with aim to facilitate their use of Satcom• Issues for collecting data from marine observing systems

– Global coverage– Latency of data– Cost of telecommunication– Transceivers energy consumption, omnidirectional antennas– Data processing for real-time distribution via WIS– Particle flux at orbital altitude can impact satellite operations in polar

regions– For Polar regions, very few manufacturers (if any) offer modems that will

work reliably at temperatures below -40C

Technology evolution and trends for ocean observing (1/2)

• High data rate, low power, economical Satcom• HF Radars in coastal regions (waves, currents)• Commercial ships designed for making metocean

observations• IR measurements from ships for satellite validation• Partnerships with tourist ship, fishing vessels• New autonomous platforms (sailing drones, surface-

and sub-surface- gliders, AUVs …)• Use of smart technologies for adaptive sampling

Technology evolution and trends for ocean observing (2/2)

• Use of renewable energy power sources• Multi-disciplinary observing platforms• Cost-effective global wave observations based on

GPS & MEMS• Deep ocean Argo (6000m, under ice operations)• User of acoustic technology (precipitation, wind)• Autolaunchers (ASAP, XBTs)• Instrumented animals• Submarine telecommunication cables

Conclusion• Global ocean observing system in situ observing component evolving to make best

use of lessons learned, evolving user requirements, new technologies, and to better complement satellite data

• JCOMM Working at new implementation targets in response to new GCOS IP and RRR

• New observing system design initiatives e.g. TPOS 2020 showing example for future evolutions of global ocean observing system

• OceanObs 2019 conference will be reviewing plans and options for following 10 years

• Evolution of Satcom systems will also influence technology to be used for ocean observing

• Sustaining the observing system will remain key in the foreseeable future• Existing partnerships to be strengthened, and expand with new communities,

including third parties, and the industry• WMO should be encouraging stronger engagement of NMHSs towards

implementation of the global ocean observing system in response to climate requirements, and marine services

Thank you