18NET04 ForClimateOcean: Support for a European Metrology Network for climate

• Forschungsstelle: METAS
• Projektnummer: F-5232.30119

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Climate-change, Environment, Earth Observation, Satellites, Ocean, Land, Atmosphere, Essential-Climate-Variables (ECVs), Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs), SI traceability and measurement uncertainty, Marine measurement standards, Ocean observation systems, Quality Assurance/Quality control (QA/QC) schemes, Calibration infrastructure, Marine sensors, On-site measurements, air monitoring networks, Data Quality Objectives (DQO), greenhouse gases, aerosols, reactive gases.

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

Understanding climate change and enabling economic growth through the European Union’s "Integrated Maritime Policy" (IMP) and innovative climate services, require reliable observations of climate and ocean parameters. This 5-year project will carry out a review of metrological requirements for the climate and ocean communities and establish the European Metrology Network (EMN) for Climate and Ocean Observation as a recognised single focal point for stakeholders. It will also define a strategic research agenda (SRA) for the EMN to facilitate aligned and coordinated research by the metrology community to meet stakeholder needs and disseminate training materials to improve mutual understanding between metrologists and stakeholders.

This is a joint network project carried out in the framework of the European Metrology Programme for Innovation and Research (EMPIR) (see:http://www.euramet.org/research-innovation/empir/). The EMPIR initiative is co-funded by the European Unions's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the participating states. METAS is one of the project partners in the project.

Projektziele (Englisch)

The aim of the project is to accelerate the establishment of a strong, collaborative and long-term self-sustaining EMN for climate and ocean observation that understands and responds to stakeholder requirements. The project addresses the following objectives:

1. To establish a forum for an ongoing dialogue to understand metrological needs related to the three themes of the EMN (Land, Ocean and Atmosphere) and those of overseeing organisations operating in all three themes. Facilitating engagement with stakeholders including: policy makers, scientists and engineers (instrument builders, monitoring networks, modellers, and information service developers), research organisations, space agencies, EU bodies such as EOOS, JPI Oceans and Copernicus and international coordinating bodies such as WMO, GEO, GCOS, CEOS, etc.
2. To create a European focal point (one-stop-shop) for the provision of metrological guidance and associated services available for the climate and ocean observation user communities. To provide links and summaries of on-going and concluded national and coordinated research (e.g. EMPIR and other H2020 relevant research) and a directory of available services and expertise tailored to stakeholder needs.
3. To establish a strategic research agenda (SRA) for European Metrology in the Atmospheric, Terrestrial and Oceanic Observation areas to ensure that, for all appropriate (~50) ECVs and EOVs traceability to the SI or to a community reference can be supplied by at least one of the European NMIs or DIs. The SRA will define research priorities, strategies and roadmaps for metrology to develop the necessary knowledge and infrastructure and to interact with all the relevant international networks and coordination bodies. The SRA will cover the three ECV areas, include a section on cross-cutting techniques such as Earth Observation and will explicitly consider synergies between the different themes. The SRA will also create the conditions for the long-term operation of the EMN including interaction with the Central Facilities offered by the WMO, and other relevant metrology expertise beyond the NMIs and DIs.
4. To disseminate training material on uncertainty estimation and analysis tailored to climate and oceanographic sciences through: e-learning, webinars, video, face-to-face courses and providing ‘thesaurus like’ content to clarify and standardise key terminology.