AOPC Workplan List of collected ideas for a: Work plan towards a GCOS strategy – Including a position on how to address regional / local requests for climate observations

One idea would be to see how different countries measure ECV’s and then trial their methods as a single site to see if the different methods give different results.

I think seeing through the outcomes of the networks meeting in Ispra viz. the retooling of GUAN and GSN would have to be the #1 priority to ensure that AOPC remains relevant with visible outcomes that add demonstrable value to all stakeholders. GUAN and GSN are the marquee products and they are neglected by AOPC at considerable peril. AOPC need to back this strongly and with a real focus...

I think a greater focus on overall observing system quality, compatibility, coverage, and consistency would be a good thing. We have done this to some extent, but I don't think we bore deep enough. We often are shown maps of stations, but how many of them are reporting regularly and how is this improving over time? How many are delivering high quality data and is that improving over time? How many are making data available in near-real time? How is remote sensing being engaged with in situ monitoring to add breadth and depth to the measurement record? And finally, how does the observing system as a whole perform in regard to ECVs? (ECVs are often defined by some need and they are applied to individual measurement streams, but how does the system behave and what terms are necessary to describe that?) Having a year-to-year tracking of progress toward the grand goal of continuous, high quality data with coverage necessary to answer the pressing questions of today and tomorrow would be a good thing. It holds everyone's feet to the fire.

(i) To put into place a plan to sustain for the long term key the GUAN especially key island stations in remote areas. This is getting critical if we are not to lose some of these key stations not only for the climate record but also for ‘calibrating’ the satellite radiances. (ii) Continue to Review AOPC requirements database and update OSCAR to be consistent with them. The GCOS requirements are a valuable resource we need to maintain.

I would focus my idea/vision on the topic of International Data Centers: eg. AOPC should ensure that an official International Data Center is identified for each ECV, which is operationally available. Vision: most important ECV datasets worldwide are user- friendly and freely available from each of these official International Data Centers.

accomplish" discussion for atmospheric composition. Last time we had a good discussion on black carbon and one on greenhouse gases. I think aerosols as a whole will be important to capture, as will the direction of an integrated greenhouse gas information system.