Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Taking the temperature of the Earth: Temperature Variability and Change across all Domains of Earth's Surface

There is a session of the same title as this blog post being organized by collaegues in the Earthtemp initiative www.earthtemp.net at next year's EGU meeting. The session details from the EGU meeting website are:

The overarching motivation for this session is the need for better understanding of in-situ measurements and satellite observations to quantify surface temperature (ST). The term "surface temperature" encompasses several distinct temperatures that differently characterize even a single place and time on Earth’s surface, as well as encompassing different domains of Earth’s surface (surface air, sea, land, lakes and ice). Different surface temperatures play inter-connected yet distinct roles in the Earth’s surface system, and are observed with different complementary techniques.

There is a clear need and appetite to improve the interaction of scientists across the in-situ/satellite 'divide' and across all domains of Earth's surface. This will accelerate progress in improving the quality of individual observations and the mutual exploitation of different observing systems over a range of applications.

This session invites oral and poster contributions that emphasize sharing knowledge and make connections across different domains and sub-disciplines. They can include, but are not limited to, topics like:

* How to improve remote sensing of ST in different environments

* Challenges from changes of in-situ observing networks over time

* Current understanding of how different types of ST inter-­relate

* Nature of errors and uncertainties in ST observations

* Mutual/integrated quality control between satellite and in-situ observing systems.

If you are interested in attending abstracts need to be submitted by Jan 9th 2013.

More info can be found at http://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2013/session/12115

We will run a guest post by the Earthtemp organizers in the coming weeks outlining what their effort involves and how it is synergistic with the International Surface Temperature Initiative. Watch this space ...