BSRN) Scientific Review and Workshop
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14th Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) Scientific Review and Workshop 26 – 29 April 2016 Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Canberra, Australia July 2016 WCRP Report No. 17/2016 Table of Contents 1. Overview of Meeting ...................................................................................................................... 2 2. Meeting Sessions .......................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 Opening Session ..................................................................................................................... 2 2.2 New Site Proposals ................................................................................................................. 4 2.3 Instrument Issues .................................................................................................................... 5 2.4 Observations and Analysis .................................................................................................... 11 2.5 Working Group Reports ......................................................................................................... 14 2.6 Business and Discussions ..................................................................................................... 16 3. Poster Summaries ....................................................................................................................... 18 4. Participants .................................................................................................................................. 25 5. Agenda ........................................................................................................................................ 27 6. Listing of Posters ......................................................................................................................... 30 1 1. Overview of Meeting Fifty scientists, station managers, and data users presented 44 talks and 32 posters at the 14th BSRN Scientific Review and Workshop held at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) offices in Canberra, Australia on 26-29 April 2016. The local host from the Australian BoM was Nicole Hyett, who was ably assisted by a host of other BoM personnel. During the meeting, BSRN observations were reviewed, improvements in instrumentation and data reduction methods discussed, data management and quality control issues considered, and ways the data are used by the larger community were examined. In addition, a total of 12 new sites were proposed for consideration to join BSRN. The GEWEX Data and Assessments Panel (GDAP), chaired by Jörg Schulz, oversees and gives general guidance to BSRN. The BSRN project consists of volunteers operating stations that measure surface solar and infrared (IR) radiation. Most stations measure the surface radiation by making broadband solar and infrared downwelling and upwelling irradiances according to a set protocol and using highest quality radiometers. Many stations also make ancillary measurements, such as aerosol optical depth (AOD), ultraviolet radiation (UV), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), and meteorological parameters. A few stations began operating in 1992, and have accumulated over two decades of high-quality data. Currently, 59 stations have submitted data to the BSRN Archive since 1992, of which six have terminated their measurements, two are in the process of restarting their operations after long hiatus, and the rest are operational. The World Radiation Monitoring Center (WRMC) of the Alfred Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany archives the data produced by the stations (http://www.bsrn.awi.de). Below are summaries of the oral presentations made at the meeting in the order listed on the agenda. After the summaries of the oral presentations there are summaries of the poster presentations. Electronic versions of many of the presentations, including posters, are available for a limited time at: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/grad/meetings/bsrn2016.html. 2. Meeting Sessions 2.1 Opening Session Dr. Rob Vertessy, the Director of BoM, Canberra, opened the meeting on Tuesday, 26 April 2016, giving an Acknowledgement of Country as well as a welcome address. Nicole Hyett, the meeting host, chaired the opening session and discussed meeting logistics, and BSRN Project Manager, Chuck Long, gave BSRN greetings and the meeting charge. Tim Oakley, on behalf of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Director Dr. Carolin Richter, added his welcome to the participants of the 14th BSRN Workshop and thanked the Australian BoM for their kind support in hosting the meeting. He provided an update on the status of the GCOS program, which has now moved into its 3rd assessment phase with the publication of its status report in 2015, and is drafting its new implementation plan to be submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the end of 2016. This was an ideal opportunity for the BSRN community to contribute to the GCOS implementation plan, in terms of the surface radiation measurements, which will be open for public review during July and August 2016. He gave an overview of the GCOS Cooperation Mechanism (GCM), particularly a current project to support a Peruvian observatory in the purchase of suitable instrumentation so that it might be considered a candidate BSRN station. This raised the question of the minimum instrument requirements suitable for BSRN consideration and the information contained in the BSRN operations manual 2 and the Commission for Instruments and Methods of Observations (CIMO) guide. It was agreed that this would be discussed further during the management agenda items at the end of the meeting. He concluded that the BSRN, as a nominated GCOS baseline network, was one of only three networks that he was actively interested in as GCOS network manager, and that he would be looking forward to the presentations and discussions during the week. Nozomu Ohkawara updated the meeting participants on the status and implementation plan of BSRN in GCOS. Surface radiation budget is a fundamental component for climate monitoring and was designated one of the Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) in GCOS to contribute to the UNFCCC. BSRN has served as a GCOS global baseline network since 2004 and the observation data are effectively used for climate research. Recent progress of surface radiation budget observation was reported in "Status of the Global Observing System for Climate" in 2015 and it was reported that BSRN’s total data amount archived at its data center had significantly increased, but data scarce areas also remained in some regions. The new GCOS implementation plan will be updated this year to improve the climate observing system effectively. BSRN is still considered a fundamental network for climate monitoring in GCOS, also in view of the energy cycle, and is expected to continue long-term operation with an expanding network. The session ended with Gert König-Langlo, Director of the World Radiation Monitoring Center (WRMC) and the BSRN Archive (http://www.bsrn.awi.de) at the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar and Marine Research at Bremerhaven, Germany, giving a status update on the current state of the WRMC. Since July 2008, AWI has hosted the WRMC. In April 2016, 59 BSRN stations had submitted their data to the WRMC. The data import is organized in so-called “station-to-archive files” which contain all the data from one station collected during one month. There have been a total of 8761 station-month data sets from 59 stations collected in the WRMC by April 2016. All submitted station-to-archive files are read-accessible for any user who accepts the BSRN data release guidelines (http://www.bsrn.awi.de/en/data/conditions_of_data_release/). The files can be obtained via ftp://ftp.bsrn.awi.de/ by using a web browser or any ftp tool. The access to the public file archive is password-restricted. Read accounts can be obtained from the WRMC (email: [email protected]). An alternative to accessing data via ftp is the Publishing Network for Geoscientific and Environmental Data, PANGAEA (http://www.pangaea.de/), which offers more user- friendly services. The website http://bsrn.awi.de/data/data-retrieval-via-pangaea.html offers an overview and access to all submitted data in PANGAEA format. Since December 2011, all incoming data are run through a quality control in the WRMC. The station scientists are encouraged to test their data prior to submission using, for example, the BSRN-Toolbox (http://wiki.pangaea.de/wiki/BSRN_Toolbox). An updated Technical Plan for BSRN Data Management is available via the BSRN webpage or www.wmo.int/pages/prog/gcos/Publications/gcos-174.pdf. Of particular note was the announcement that Dr. König-Langlo would retire mid-2017 and step down as the Director of the WRMC. The commitment from the AWI Director Karin Lochte that AWI will continue to host the WRMC and BSRN Archive at the present level was heartily welcomed by all participants. Heartfelt thanks were extended to Dr. König-Langlo for his many years of participation in BSRN, and his excellent leadership in establishing and improving the WRMC at AWI. He was also asked to convey the BSRN community’s sincere thanks to Dr. Lochte and AWI for their past and continued support of the WRMC. A video presentation by Jörg Schulz, Chair of GDAP, who could not attend the workshop in person, was given during the afternoon poster session.