Meeting of the GEWEX Radiation Panel Working Group on Data Management and Analysis

12-16 May 2003 in Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Final Agenda for WGDMA03

12 May 2003, Monday

	0830-0900:	Introductions/Logistics [Rossow, Bates]
	0900-0930:	Goals of WCRP Satellite Projects [Rossow]
	0930-1000:	Goals of WCRP Satellite Projects [Gruber]
	1000-1030:	Break
	1030-1100:	New GEWEX Goals & Organizational Overview [Rossow]
	1100-1130:	Discussion of New Organization and Possible Activities
	1130-1200:	Project Reports [ISCCP/GPC - Rossow]
	1200-1330:	Lunch
	1330-1400:	Project Reports [GACP - Rossow for Mishchenko]
	1400-1500:	Project Reports [GPCP/GMDC - Adler, Huffman]
	1500-1530:	Break
	1530-1630:	Project Reports [GPCP/GPCC - Schneider, SRDC - Morrissey]
	1630-1700:	Discussion
	1700:		   Adjourn
	1800:		   Icebreaker

13 May 2003, Tuesday

	0830-0915:	Project Reports [SRB - Stackhouse]
	0915-1000:	Project Reports [BSRN - Ohmura]
	1000-1030:	Break
	1030-1115:	Project Reports [GVAP possibilities - Forsythe, Bates]
	1115-1200:	Exploitation of New Satellites [Adler, Hsu]
	1200-1330:	Lunch
	1330-1415:	Exploitation of New Satellites [Bates, Rossow]
	1415-1500:	Satellite & Data Center Reports [NOAA - Bates]
	1500-1530:	Break
	1530-1615:	Satellite & Data Center Reports [EUMETSAT - Holmlund]
	1615-1715:	Satellite & Data Center Reports [JMA - Hideyuki]
	1715:		   Adjourn

14 May 2003, Wednesday

	0830-0915:	Satellite & Data Center Reports [MSC - Yip, Megyes]
	0915-1000:	Satellite & Data Center Reports [CSU - Campbell]
	1000-1030:	Break
	1030-1100:	Satellite & Data Center Reports [GPCP - Janowiak]
	1100-1130:	Satellite & Data Center Reports [GPCP - Chang]
	1130-1200:	Satellite & Data Center Reports [GPCP - Ferraro]
	1200-1330:	Lunch
	1330-1400:	Satellite & Data Center Reports - Calibration [GPCP - Janowiak]
	1400-1500:	Satellite & Data Center Reports - Calibration [ISCCP SCC - Desormeaux & GPC - Brest]
	1500-1530:	Break
	1530-1630:	Satellite & Data Center Reports - Archives [Bates, Ohmura, Ritchey]
	1630-1730:	Discussion of Data Center Coordination
	1730:		   Adjourn

15 May 2003, Thursday

	0830-0845:	Liaison Reports [SeaFlux/LandFlux - Rossow]
	0845-0900:	Liaison Reports: [GCSS/DIME - Rossow]
	0900-1000:	Liaison Reports: [GLASS/ALMA & GSWP - Dirmeyer]
	1000-1030:	Break
	1030-1130:	Liaison Reports: [GHP/WEBS - Williams, Masuda]
	1130-1200:	Liaison Reports: International Precipitation WG [Gruber for Levizzani]
	1200-1330:	Lunch
	1330-1400:	WS on Objective Analysis of Precipitation [Kanamitsu]
	1400-1500:	Special Presentation: [NCDC Plans - Bates]
	1500-1530:	Break
	1530-1630:	Special Presentation: [EUMETSAT-SAF Plans - Holmlund]
	1630-1730:	Discussion of Integrated Analyses & Long-Term Datasets
	1730:		   Adjourn

16 May 2003, Friday

	0830-0915:	Discussion of Organization and Activities
	0915-1000:	Specific Plans for coming year
	1000-1030:	Break
	1030-1130:	Review of Action Items
	1130-1200:	Next Meeting
	1200:		   Adjourn

Revised Agenda Notes

Since this is the first meeting of this group, we need to spend some time getting to know each other and finding out about our past and current activities. The purpose of the meeting is to review the goals and activities of all of these projects against the new goals of GEWEX Phase 2 to look for more effective collaborations and for opportunities to expand the scope of our activities. Please review the agenda carefully as I may have forgotten some aspect or a specific data center in drafting it. The times allotted for specific presentations can also be changed somewhat, if necessary. Also and very importantly, please consider what topics, problems, ideas and issues you think we should discuss to prepare and analyze global observations of the energy and water cycle more effectively. Please send comments on the agenda by no later than the end of April.

1. New GEWEX Goals, Organizational Overview, Some Possible Tasks

GEWEX is now entering into Phase 2 with more emphasis on diagnosis and analysis of the datasets collected over the past couple of decades. The goals are to characterize the global energy and water cycle and its variability and to analyze the causes of this variability to advance understanding of natural climate variability, climate sensitivity and feedback processes. To work towards these new goals more effectively, the data management groups and activities of the several separate GEWEX global satellite data projects have been organized into a single group to work more closely on building a consistent collection of long-term, global datasets (increasing the homogeneity of the records of calibration and physical consistency), exploiting new satellites to improve analysis methods, and re-processing the longer satellite data records. These goals and possible tasks that can be undertaken will be discussed on the first and last days of the meeting.

2. Project Reports [ISCCP, GACP, GPCP, GPCC, SRB, BSRN, GVAP possibilities]

These are overview reports (nominally 45 minutes each) by the lead center for each project that should focus on reviewing project objectives, current status of funding & data processing, plans (especially for exploiting new satellites), and any problems or issues. These reports should also put forward proposals for achieving the new GEWEX goals that include such things as better coordination of satellite data calibration, re-packaging datasets into forms better suited for diagnostic studies, ways to exploit new satellite measurements, and improving the consistency among the GEWEX data products. The following discussion will consider whether the project goals are still appropriate or need to be re-formulated and how the whole set of projects can be conducted to achieve the overall understanding of the global energy and water cycle.

3. Satellite & Data Center Reports [NOAA NESDIS, JMA, EUMETSAT, CSU, MSC, CMA, GPCP polar microwave, GPCP geo IR]

These are reports of the individual data centers participating in, primarily, ISCCP and GPCP (nominally 30-45 minutes each) that should cover activities over the past 1-2 years, current status & plans, and proposed contributions towards the new GEWEX goals. In particular, the center reports should include description of activities that support or stimulate research related to GRP topics and ideas for expanded data products or data analysis activities that could improve the projects. For those centers participating in more than one project, the report should indicate how to coordinate these activities better (if appropriate).

4. Satellite & Data Center Reports -- Calibration [GPCP, ISCCP SCC & GPC]

This session concerns the activities of the three centers specifically concerned with satellite data calibration. These reports (nominally 30 minutes) should cover the current status of calibration as well as open issues and possibilities for closer collaboration among the projects. If there is information about cross-calibration of infrared and microwave sounders and other microwave instruments, reports on this topic are welcomed. If other information about activities of this type is available, reports on this would also be welcome.

The discussion following all the data center reports will consider how to increase data center coordination, what possible expansions of activity seem possible, and what new data products might be included in GRP analyses.

5. Satellite & Data Center Reports -- Archives [NCDC, BSRN, NASA]

This session concerns the status of the data archival centers for the projects (nominally 20 minute reports). The reports should not only review the status of the GEWEX data holdings but also mention other related datasets being held that might also be exploited by the GEWEX projects. If there are other archival centers being established in Europe and Asia that will have a similar role vis a vis climate datasets, their reports are also welcomed.

6. Liaison Reports: [SeaFlux/LandFlux, GLASS/ALMA & GSWP, GCSS/DIME, GHP/WEBS]

This session concerns the activities of other GEWEX and WCRP activities that could either use the datasets being produced by GRP projects or could supply needed and related datasets to the GRP projects (nominally 30 minute reports). This session includes discussion of ways to interact more effectively with these other groups.

7. Special Presentations: [NCDC Plans, EUMETSAT-SAF Plans]

Recently the so-called operational (i.e., weather) satellite agencies in the USA (NOAA) and in Europe (EUMETSAT) have been given the mandate to take specific actions to produce, create (even re-process) and distribute climate data records from satellites and other observing systems. Are there other operational agencies in Asia or other countries that have been given this mandate? This session contains special reports from these groups (nominally 45 minutes each) on their activities and plans. It is expected that the scope of GRP activities can best be expanded by a much closer collaboration with these groups. Moreover, since the GRP projects, especially the analysis components, are currently based mostly on research groups, some way has to be found to transition the lessons learned from these projects to the operational processing of these data products as part of a permanent climate observing system. A closer partnership between GRP and these agencies can begin this transition.

There will also be a presentation about a GPCP Workshop on Objective Analysis of Precipitation; this opens the discussion about other common analysis and statistical procedures that might be usefully applied to the whole GRP data collection.

8. Discussion of Organization and Activities, Plans for coming year

This final discussion session will review the reports from the participants, identify changes in activities needed to achieve the new GEWEX goals, and consider what specific new tasks the participants can undertake in the coming years. The results of this discussion should result in the formulation of new GRP strategy that coordinates all the global satellite projects and the supporting-measurement projects into a comprehensive attack on the global energy and water cycle problem. This formulation might also identify key elements that are currently missing.

9. Review of Action Items

This session will review and collect a list of specific action items for the coming year.

10. Next Meeting

After this first, lengthy re-organization meeting, it is proposed that the Working Group on Data Management and Analysis can have shorter, annual meetings in conjunction with the annual GRP meetings.

Working Group on Data Management and Analysis