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Scientific Investigations Map 3155

Terrestrial Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) at a Glance

By Susan Stitt, John Dwyer, Dennis Dye, and Edward Josberger

 

Thumbnail of and link to SIM 3155 PDF (8.09 MB) The Global Terrestrial Observing System, Global Climate Observing System, World Meteorological Organization, and Committee on Earth Observation Satellites all support consistent global land observations and measurements. To accomplish this goal, the Global Terrestrial Observing System defined "essential climate variables" as measurements of atmosphere, oceans, and land that are technically and economically feasible for systematic observation and that are needed to meet the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and requirements of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The following are the climate variables defined by the Global Terrestrial Observing System that relate to terrestrial measurements. Several of them are currently measured most appropriately by in-place observations, whereas others are suitable for measurement by remote sensing technologies. The U.S. Geological Survey is the steward of the Landsat archive, satellite imagery collected from 1972 to the present, that provides a potential basis for deriving long-term, global-scale, accurate, timely and consistent measurements of many of these essential climate variables.



First posted March 24, 2011

For additional information contact:

USGS Rocky Mountain Geographic Science Center
Box 25046, Mail Stop 516
Denver, CO 80225

http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/

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Suggested citation:

Stitt, Susan, Dwyer, John, Dye, Dennis, and Josberger, Edward, 2011, Terrestrial essential climate variables (ECVs) at a glance: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 2011–3155 (1 plate; no scale).


 



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