Scientists discover only 20% of climate data accessible
Can history help us understand the present? If we are talking about changes to the Earth's climate, and improving our understanding of these changes, then the answer is yes. When we understand what happened in the recent past, we can improve our knowledge of and response to climate variations, new research from Europe shows. The study is funded in part by the EURO4M ('European reanalysis and observations for monitoring') project, which has clinched almost EUR 4 million under the Space Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The findings, published in the journal Climate Research, underline the need to recover all data recorded in perishable formats as soon as possible. Two researchers, respectively from the Centre for Climate Change at the University Rovira i Virgili (URV) in Spain and the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the United Kingdom, have discovered that 80?% of global climate data cannot be used by scientists in digital format. Only 20?% of the available data can be used for assessment purposes. The Scientific Information and News Service (SINC) quotes the lead author of the study, Manola Brunet, the head of URV's Centre for Climate Change, as saying that while some climate data in Europe goes as far back as the 17th century, 'not even 20?% of the information recorded in the past is available to the scientific community'. But the situation with European-based data is not as dire as it is in other continents, the researchers say. African and South American data are not accessible because weather observations only began there in the middle of the 19th century. 'Failure to decipher the messages in the climate records of the past will result in socioeconomic problems because we will be unable to deal with the current and future impacts of climate change and a hotter world,' says Dr Brunet, who conducted the study in cooperation with UEA's Phil Jones. Besides Spain, only Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States have given scientists the right to partially access the countries' historical climate data. All other countries around the globe will not allow such access for scientists nor for the public at large. And the refusal comes despite suggestions made by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to change their position. 'Governments should adopt a resolution within the United Nations on opening historical climate data' if we are going to be able to tackle the political and legal challenges posed by the existing problem, according to Dr Brunet. The duo contends that weather services in all nations must deal with converting all their paper-based historical climate information into digital format. The data are currently stored in archives, libraries and research centres. The manner in which the information is stored makes it a lot harder for people to access. Another sour point is that the whole point of the meteorological service was to provide much-needed information to people, not restrict it. 'The main objective is to provide a weather service to [the] public, who want to know what the weather will be like the next day,' Dr Brunet points out. One of the biggest problems is that climate science, which studies the range of atmospheric conditions characterising a region rather than focusing on weather forecasting, has become the great 'victim', as researchers in this field are having a much harder time of securing funds with which to digitise, develop and standardise data. It should be noted though, that climate services help a number of European countries, as well as Canada and the United States. Thanks to these services, researchers were able to explain and put into context the heat wave that hit eastern Europe in 2010. 'If we had access to all the historical data recorded, we would be able to evaluate the frequency with which these phenomena are likely to occur in the future with a higher degree of certainty,' Dr Brunet says. The researchers believe this kind of information could help benefit science, society and the economy.For more information, please visit: EURO4M:http://www.euro4m.eu/Space Research in FP7:http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/cooperation/space_en.html Climate Research:http://www.int-res.com/journals/cr/
Countries
Spain, United Kingdom