HE initiative at the Second Annual Meeting of CEOP

  15-17 September 2008
WMO headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland

On September 15-17, 2008, the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) Secretariat hosted the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Coordinated Energy and Water Cycle Project (CEOP) at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The main objective of the meeting, chaired by CEOP’s Co-Chairs Toshio Koike (University of Tokyo) and Ron Stewart (Dept of Environment and Geography, University of Manitoba), was to finalize the CEOP - Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP).  The SIP contains the overall scientific goals and structure for CEOP and has already been presented at the September 2007 CEOP Implementation Planning Meeting held in Bali, Indonesia and at the GEWEX Scientific Steering Group (SSG) Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in February 2008.

Presentations for each CEOP component (Regional Hydroclimate Projects, Regional Climate Foci, Cross-cutting Science Studies, Modelling Studies) were held on September 15 and 16. Representatives of the CEOP component sub-groups reported on their respective status regarding the following items: background and objectives, recent scientific achievements, contributions to GEWEX Roadmap, accomplishments toward WCRP Intermediate and Long-range Plans, data contributions/requirements, issues and next 1–3 years plans including coordination.

The agenda also included three special breakout sessions respectively on Monsoon and High Elevations, which are elements of Regional Climate Foci, and on Extremes, a component of Cross-cutting Science Studies.

Further documentation on the 2^nd CEOP Annual Meeting available at:
http://monsoon.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ceop2/meetings.html.

Following is a summary of the role and impact of the recently implemented CEOP Regional Study on High Elevations at the Geneva meeting.

September 15, afternoon: special session on High Elevations
Beth Schommer, Director General of Ev-K2-CNR Committee, opened the HE session with a brief statement on Ev-K2-CNR’s commitment to the HE initiative, which is in line with the organization’s larger strategic project SHARE (Stations at High Altitude for Research on the Environment) and which is focusing on garnering sufficient support to ensure the HE initiative is able to fulfil its objectives.

Vladimir Ryabinin, WCRP Senior Scientific Officer, presented the contribution of HE in the context of WCRP/GEWEX/CEOP, highlighting that several organizations and non-CEOP projects (e.g. IGPB, GCOS, MAP, IPCC) could benefit from collaboration with the HE working group, as might many of the RHP sub-groups of CEOP.
Current status and future perspective of HE initiative were introduced by Gianni Tartari, Chair of the HE working group and the goal and objectives of HE were summarized. 
Kenichi Ueno, Scientific Coordinator of the HE working group, next introduced the CEOP-HE scientific rationale and regional water and energy cycle researches, based on his studies in Tibet/Himalaya. 
The presentation of Elisa Vuillermoz, Executive Coordinator of the Ev-K2-CNR SHARE Project, focused on the development of a coordinated global network of high elevation monitoring stations (Reference stations for the high elevations (HE) network). 
In his closing talk of the HE session, Tartari described the HE-Science Plan and briefly outlined the HE strategy of implementation (The Proposed CEOP-HE Implementation Strategy).

September 16, afternoon: poster session
A poster on HE initiative was presented by Emanuela Manfredi within the poster session with the aim to provide an overview of HE’s goal and objectives and indicate the high altitude CEOP Reference Sites (CRSs) (CAMP Himalayas CAMP Tibet, Pakistan Karakorum Network) which constitute the foundations for establishing a coordinated global HE network.
The poster also presents the SHARE Project’s international high altitude environmental monitoring network and the potentials for synergy between the HE initiative and this project.

To download the poster.pdf click here

September 17: breakout sessions
The breakout sessions on the topics: Monsoons, High Elevations, Extremes were organized to address the CEOP scientific targets.  Koike presented a table illustrating what each group can do/wants to do for each specific element of CEOP.

Summary of the Breakout session on High Elevations
The morning breakout session on High Elevations, chaired by Tartari, was aimed at discussion of possible interactions between HE and other CEOP groups.
The session was attended by:
Gianni Tartari, Ev-K2-CNR (HE)
Elisa Vuillermoz, Ev-K2-CNR (HE)
Emanuela Manfredi, Ev-K2-CNR (HE)
Massimo Menenti, LSIIT, University Louis Pasteur (CEOP AEGIS)
Pavel Groisman, NEESPI /UCAR/NCDC (NEESPI)
Kei Yoshimura, SIO/UCSD (Isotopes)
Vladimir Ryabinin, WCRP Joint Planning Staff
Katsunori Tamagawa, The University of Tokyo - Civil Engineering Dep. (CAMP Quality Control Data System)
David Mocko, NASA (Land Surface Models)
Jianping Huang, Lanzhou University (Satellites)
Kun Yang, CAS/ITP/CMA (WEBS)
Alessandro Perotto, Epson Meteo Centre (WEBS)
Petra Koudelova, The University of Tokyo – Civil Engineering Dep. (CEOP Secretariat)

Discussions first focused on a consensual definition of “high elevations”. The definition agreed upon includes factors such as altitude along and above the timberline, high plateaus and rough relief, and any sites that directly create or influence regional climate patterns (for example in water supply), while it was asserted that low average temperature and low atmospheric pressure are not discriminating parameters to define “high elevations”. High elevations were also deemed importance because of their role in: water supply, atmospheric circulation, natural hazards and society. High elevation regions also provide unique information on land-atmosphere interactions, given the extreme difference between land surface and troposphere conditions and for the study of natural and anthropogenic aerosols.

The following issues were identified as the main scientific topics to be examined by the HE WG:
1. Observation
2. Modelling
3. Aerosol
4. Cryosphere
5. Water resources and human dimensions

All attendants expressed their interest to collaborate with HE and specific interactions between HE and other CEOP components were identified.   Such possible collaborations with other CEOP components will be included in the HE Science Plan.  Furthermore, a contribution in developing the Science Plan will be provided from Vladimir Ryabinin, while Petra Koudelova would help in facilitating contacts between HE working group and other CEOP groups.

The following questions posed by CEOP were addressed as follows during the session:

(i) Does our goal need to be updated?
Since HE began only recently and is still in a phase of implementation, at this stage its goal does not need to be updated. (HE’s goal: to study multi-scale variability in energy and water cycle, while improving observation, modeling and data management)

(ii) What metrics should be used to summarize status?
As the CEOP-HE initiative reaches full implementation, initial indicators of status can be:
- number of stations included in the HE network
- number of stations in the network applying HE management and data protocols
- number of stations in the HE network inserted as new CEOP Reference Sites
- contributions to pertinent modelling activities, in particular: regional down-scaling, modelling comparisons

(iii) What are the model products needed, what observational datasets?
- dedicated models for complex orographic areas
- data from hydrometeorological, meteorological and atmospheric monitoring stations

(iv) How can we best coordinate RHP efforts to contribute to this Foci?
A better coordination of RHPs could include division of labour and expansion of the HE working group through establishment of specific sub-groups focused on:
- selection of existing HE stations
- modelling activities on HE areas
- contribution from satellites to collect more information on HE
- research groups focused on specific HE areas (Tibetan Plateau, Central Asia, North American Mountains, Andes Cordillera, African Mountains, Alps and European Mountains)

(v) What are the plans for next 1-3 year period?
Future next 1-3 years activities include:

Conclusions
At the Geneva meeting, the HE initiative was welcomed with lively interest by the entire CEOP community. The knowledge of physical and dynamic processes in high elevation areas is incomplete and the promotion of a mechanism for sharing data collected at high elevation monitoring stations could benefit many CEOP sub-groups, especially those where high altitude regions are present.