The 10 Climate Monitoring Principles

The National Research Council (NRC 1999) recommended that the

following ten climate monitoring principles, proposed by Thomas Karl et al. (NCDC, 1995), should be

applied to climate monitoring systems:

1. Management of Network Change: Assess how and the extent to which

   a proposed change could influence the existing and future climatology

   obtainable from the system, particularly with respect to climate variability

   and change. Changes in observing times will adversely affect time series.

   Without adequate transfer functions, spatial changes and spatially dependent

   changes will adversely affect the mapping of climatic elements.

2. Parallel Testing: Operate the old system simultaneously with the

   replacement system over a sufficiently long time period to observe the

   behavior of the two systems over the full range of variation of the climate

   variable observed. This testing should allow the derivation of a transfer

   function to convert between climatic data taken before and after the change.

   When the observing system is of sufficient scope and importance, the results

   of parallel testing should be documented in peer-reviewed literature.

3. Meta Data: Fully document each observing system and its operating

   procedures. This is particularly important immediately prior to and

   following any contemplated change. Relevant information includes:

   instruments, instrument sampling time, calibration, validation, station

   location, exposure, local environmental conditions, and other platform

   specifics that could influence the data history. The recording should be a

   mandatory part of the observing routine and should be archived with the

   original data. Algorithms used to process observations need proper

   documentation. Documentation of changes and improvements in the algorithms

   should be carried along with the data throughout the data archiving process.

4. Data Quality and Continuity: Assess data quality and homogeneity

   as a part of routine operating procedures. This assessment should focus on

   the requirements for measuring climate variability and change, including

   routine evaluation of the long-term, high-resolution data capable of

   revealing and documenting important extreme weather events.

5. Integrated Environmental Assessment: Anticipate the use of data

   in the development of environmental assessments, particularly those

   pertaining to climate variability and change, as a part of a climate

   observing system’s strategic plan. National climate assessments and

   international assessments (e.g., international ozone or IPCC) are critical

   to evaluating and maintaining overall consistency of climate data sets. A

   system’s participation in an integrated environmental monitoring program can

   also be quite beneficial for maintaining climate relevancy. Time series of

   data achieve value only with regular scientific analysis.

6. Historical Significance: Maintain operation of observing systems

   that have provided homogeneous data sets over a period of many decades to a

   century or more. A list of protected sites within each major observing

   system should be developed, based on their prioritized contribution to

   documenting the long-term climate record.

7. Complementary Data: Give the highest priority in the design and

   implementation of new sites or instrumentation within an observing system to

   data-poor regions, poorly observed variables, regions sensitive to change,

   and key measurements with inadequate temporal resolution. Data sets archived

   in non-electronic format should be converted for efficient electronic

   access.

8. Climate Requirements: Give network designers, operators, and

   instrument engineers climate monitoring requirements at the outset of

   network design. Instruments must have adequate accuracy with biases

   sufficiently small to resolve climate variations and changes of primary

   interest. Modeling and theoretical studies must identify spatial and

   temporal resolution requirements.

9. Continuity of Purpose: Maintain a stable, long-term commitment to

   these observations, and develop a clear transition plan from serving

   research needs to serving operational purposes.

10. Data and Meta Data Access: Develop data management systems that

    facilitate access, use, and interpretation of data and data products by

    users. Freedom of access, low cost mechanisms that facilitate use

    (directories, catalogs, browse capabilities, availability of meta data on

    station histories, algorithm accessibility and documentation, etc.), and

    quality control should be an integral part of data management. International

    cooperation is critical for successful data management.

References:

Karl, T.R., V.E. Derr, D.R. Easterling, C.K. Folland, D.J. Hoffman, S. Levitus,

N.Nicholls, D.E. Parker, and G.W. Withee, 1995: Critical issues for long-term

climate monitoring. Climatic Change, 31, 185-221.

National Research Council (NRC), 1999:

Adequacy of Climate Observing Systems, National Academy Press,

Washington, D.C.