EMERGING NEW EARTH OBSERVATION CAPABILITIES IN THE CONTEXT OF OCEAN OBSERVING SYSTEM FOR CLIMATE.

• Main Authors: Johnny Johannessen, Christian Le Provost, Helge Drange, Meric Srokosz, Philip Woodworth, Peter Schlussel, Pascal Le Grand, Yann Kerr Duncan Wingham
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.584.9971; http://www.oceanobs09.net/work/oo99/docs/Johannessen.pdf

ABSTRACT- During the first decade of the next millennium Earth Observation from satellites will be faced with two major demands, i.e. provision of continuity missions and launch of new exploratory missions. This paper addresses plans for new Earth observations in the context of Ocean Observing System for Climate at the onset of the next millennium. It highlights three quantities including ice mass fluctuations, sea surface salinity and fine resolution marine geoid. Their relevance and importance for climate are briefly reviewed in connection with important processes such as for example thermohaline circulation, sea level change, and evolution of large scale salinity events. The associated candidate satellite mission concepts are then presented in light of their objectives, scientific observation requirements and degree of complementarity and synergy. 1. INTRODUCTION. During the first decade of the next millennium relatively long time series (in some cases almost 30 years) of satellite derived quantities (including sea surface temperature, ocean wave field, near surface wind, ocean color, sea surface topography and sea ice extent, types and concentration) will become