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THE GEOSS CHALLENGE: WHAT ROLE FOR THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY? J ACHACHE 1

(1) GEO Secretariat, GENEVA, SWITZE RLAND .

_2IK0Z5R10 I. The GEO Partnership to Build GEOSS The Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is leading a worldwide effort to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) over the next 10 yea rs. GEO involves 60 countries, the European Commission, and 43 international organizations. The GEOSS vision, articulated in the 10 -Year Implementation Plan, represents the consolidation of a global scientific and political consensus: the assessment of the state of the Earth requires continuous and coordinated observation of our planet at all scales. The objectives are to improve monitoring of the state of the Earth to increase understanding of Earth processes, and to enhance prediction of the behavior of t he Earth system. It requires three types of actions: Build a sustainable, comprehensive and coordinated observation system of systems. As a “system of systems,” GEOSS will work with and build upon existing national, regional, and international syste ms to provide comprehensive, coordinated Earth observations – in situ, airborne & space -based - from thousands of instruments worldwide, transforming the data they collect into vital information for society. Provide open and easy access to data anytime and anywh ere. The societal benefits of Earth observations cannot be achieved without data sharing. GEOSS will help ensure that the quality data required by users reaches them in a timely fashion and in an appropriate format. There will be full and open exchange of data, metadata, and products shared within GEOSS, recognizing relevant international instruments and national policies and legislation. Increase the use of Earth observations. Building GEOSS will require the development of scientific research and will s timulate the development of operational products, services and tools. It will, in particular, facilitate the transition from research to operations of observing systems and techniques and enable partnerships between research and operational communities. Mo st critically, achieving the vision of GEOSS will require GEO to facilitate substantial capacity -building effo rts in human resource s, institutions and observational infrastructures, particularly in developing countries. II. A Transverse Approach The approach chosen by GEO is to consider the Earth as an integrated system facing major common challenges and the GEOSS will address Nine Societal Benefit Areas: • Disasters: Reducing loss of life and property fro m natural and human-induced disasters • Health: Unders tanding environmental fa ctors affecting human health and well -being • Energy: Improving management of energy resources • Climate: Understanding, assessing, predicting, mitigating, and adapting to climate variability and change • Water: Improving water -resource management through better understanding of the water cycle • Weather: Improving weather information, forecast ing, and warning • Ecosystems : Improving the management and protection of terrestrial, coastal, and marine ecosystems • Agriculture: Supporting sustainabl e agriculture and combating desertification • Biodiversity: Understa nding, monitoring, and con serving biodiversity The rationale for adopting this cross -cutting approach is three -fold: First, there are significant synergies among user requirements and addres sing these common requirements is central to the efficient implementation of GEOSS. Second, Earth observations are always serving many societal benefit areas. For instance altimetry derived observations have benefited geodesy, oceanography, hydrology, clim atology, and ice -sheet monitoring and even tsunami detection. Maps of topography or land cover and land use, or even a geodetic reference frame for Earth observations represent products of common interest to most societal benefit areas. Third, most societa l benefit areas are interdependent. Weather and climate changing patterns for instance have important implications for many areas, including human health, water availability, food security, and energy management. III. What Role for the Scientific Community? Scientific researc h is crucial to (i) optimize the use of GEOSS observations, (ii) ensure the transition from research to operational systems, and (iii) generate new applications in existing and emerging fields. Moreover achieving the GEO objectives wi ll require: 1. Improving our understanding of basic Earth processes in and across all societal benefit area; 2. Connecting scientific communities to (i) facilitate access to, and eventually assimilation of, any relevant data whether in -situ, airborne or s pace; (ii) encourage the development of coupled models and Earth system models, in particular for water cycle modelling at the catchment level, and (iii) expand the use of specific methodologies to other disciplines, e.g. “reverse tracing of precursors” al so known as “pattern recognition” from earthquake prediction to epidemiology; 3. Developing new observation m ethodologies; 4. Linking existing methodologies to end -user applications. For instance, multi-model ensemble weather and climate predictions may be used for the prediction of crop yield and malaria incidence; 5. Adapting to new processing technologies (Web 2.0) such as distributed grid -computing and remote processing using Web services. GEONetcast – a GEO initiative to develop Earth obser vation data broadcasting worldwide – could build upon progress in this area. To achieve this, GEO will engage with the global scientific research a nd technological community, form linkages to major scientific research enterprises in each societal benefit area, a nd ensure that relevant scientists and technical experts are involved and contributing to GEOSS.