Harmonised Coordination of the Atmosphere, Land and Ocean Integrated Projects of the GMES Backbone (HALO)

Informazioni relative al progetto

HALO

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 502869

Progetto chiuso

Data di avvio 1 Febbraio 2004

Data di completamento 30 Aprile 2007

Finanziato da

• Aeronautics and Space: thematic priority 4 under the Focusing and Integrating Community Research programme 2002-2006.

Costo totale € 1 004 063,00

Contributo UE € 900 000,00

Coordinato da

EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR MEDIUM-RANGE WEATHER FORECASTS
United Kingdom

Exploitable results

Towards a monitoring and forecasting system for the Earth's atmosphere and oceans

The goal of the GMES Atmosphere, Ocean and Land Integrated Projects (IPs) was to deliver by early 2008 (and by early 2009 for the Atmosphere integrated project) a validated pre-operational system across a wide range of scientific disciplines, thus demanding a wide range of scientific and technical skills. For the period 2004-2007, the HALO work programme prepared the coordinated transition of the GMES Atmosphere, Land and Ocean IPs from research to operational status included optimisation of the interactions of these segments of the GMES backbone by formulating agreed recommendations to the three IPs, and to the GMES steering group in the areas of: - scientific thematic analysis and coordination of observational, modelling and data-assimilation requirements for the interacting parts of the IPs; - cross fertilization of scientific thematics leading to an improvement of knowledge, and definition of the overall scientific architecture; - identification of shared issues in the areas of data policy implementation, data acquisition, data sharing and data dissemination, leading to proposed candidate solutions; analysis of the candidate solutions; - formulation of recommendations for a coordinated transition to operations of the interacting part of the pre-operational systems developed in the three IPs. The Land, Ocean and Atmosphere IPs each needed to generate or acquire the best possible estimates of interfacial fluxes of momentum, radiation, sensible heat, latent heat and interfacial fluxes of a number of atmospheric constituents including carbon dioxide, water vapour and aerosol. Each IP would begin its work by acquiring the necessary surface flux products (or the science to generate such products) from the best available European sources. It is expected that the best European sources would be involved in one or other of the three IPs. In some cases the science existed, and would be implemented operationally in one of the IPs, to improve the products of all three IPs. An example was provided by the modelling and assimilation of remotely-sensed data on aerosol, which would be undertaken in the Atmosphere IP but will be of great importance for all three IPs. A further example for all three IPs was the development and validation of improved methods to estimate surface fluxes of carbon dioxide and water vapour. As the GMES project develops, estimation of sources for a variety of other atmospheric constituents will become a priority. There are important commonalities in the requirements of the three IPs for in-situ data and for space-based data. These requirements pose common issues of data-policy, as well as considerable technical and resource challenges in the management of the wide range of high-volume remotely-sensed data needed for the projects. The objective of the HALO SSA was therefore to optimise the efficiency of the interactions of the ocean, land, and atmosphere segments of the GMES backbone by formulating agreed recommendations to the Ocean, Land and Atmosphere IPs, and to the GMES Steering group in the areas of: - scientific thematic analysis and coordination - coordinated solutions to shared problems - recommendation for the transition to operational status. Effective coordination and management of the transition of the core services of the GMES IPs from research to operational status (R2O), poses technical, scientific and management challenges. The technical challenges concerned identification of the nature, volume and transport mechanisms of the data exchanges needed between the core services. The Halo project technical analyses and recommendations provided a guide to the detailed annexes and extensive supporting documentation. The scientific challenges of the R2O transition for GMES concern identification of the likely path of service evolution for the interacting parts of the individual services / projects, together with identification of emerging needs for modelling / assimilation capabilities, and emerging needs for observations. These matters were discussed along with management issue which can facilitate an effective transition.