Publication Abstracts

Hansen 1993

Hansen, J., 1993: Climsat rationale. In Long-Term Monitoring of Global Climate Forcings and Feedbacks, NASA CP-3234. J. Hansen, W. Rossow, and I. Fung, Eds., National Aeronautics and Space Administration, pp. 26-35.

A brief but comprehensive overview of the Climsat rationale and more detailed information is provided elsewhere in the publication. Here we summarize reasons for the Climsat proposition, and cover some aspects not treated in the other sections. We also stress the need for certain climate monitoring other than that supplied by Climsat, especially solar irradiance, and we stress the complementarity of Climsat monitoring to plans for detailed EOS measurements.

We summarize that existing and planned observations will not provide measurements of most climate forcing and feedback parameters with the accuracy needed to measure plausible decadal changes. In this table a dash in the second column signifies the absence of calibrated data meeting the requirements in the mid 1990s. Stratospheric water vapor and aerosol requirements are not met, for example, even though the present SAGE II instrument on the ERBS spacecraft measures those two parameters accurately, because ERBS is not expected to last more than a few years and it does not provide global coverage. We stress the imminence of a potential data gap even of those parameters, such as solar irradiance and stratospheric aerosols, for which monitoring capability has been proven and currently is in place.

We find that most of the missing global climate forcings and feedbacks can be measured by three small instruments, which would need to be deployed on two spacecraft to obtain adequate sampling and global coverage. The monitoring must be maintained continuously for at least two decades. Such continuity can be attained by replacing a satellite after it fails, the functioning satellite providing calibration transfer to the new satellite. Certain complementary monitoring data are also needed, including solar monitoring from space, in order to fully meet requirements for monitoring all the climate forcings and feedbacks. The complementary data needs are discussed toward the end of this section.

We summarize the proposed Climsat measurements and compare the expected accuracies to those which are needed to analyze changes of the global thermal energy cycle on decadal time scales. We stress the need to get broader participation of the scientific community in the monitoring and analysis activity. Finally, we discuss related climate process and diagnostic measurements.

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BibTeX Citation

@inproceedings{ha06210x,
  author={Hansen, J.},
  editor={Hansen, J. and Rossow, W. and Fung, I.},
  title={Climsat rationale},
  booktitle={Long-Term Monitoring of Global Climate Forcings and Feedbacks},
  year={1993},
  pages={26--35},
  publisher={National Aeronautics and Space Administration},
  address={Washington, D.C.},
}

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RIS Citation

TY  - CPAPER
ID  - ha06210x
AU  - Hansen, J.
ED  - Hansen, J.
ED  - Rossow, W.
ED  - Fung, I.
PY  - 1993
TI  - Climsat rationale
BT  - Long-Term Monitoring of Global Climate Forcings and Feedbacks
SP  - 26
EP  - 35
PB  - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
CY  - Washington, D.C.
ER  -

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