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The 6th Executive Panel Meeting of the Sustained Coordinated Processing of Environmental Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring (SCOPE-CM)
29-30 August 2011

Interest in climate has been growing in recent years. The Sustained Coordinated Processing of Environmental Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring (SCOPE-CM) is one of the frameworks of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) aiming to ensure continuous and sustained provision of high-quality satellite products related to the Essential Climate Variables (ECV) responding to the requirements of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). Currently, SCOPE-CM is in a pilot phase promoting the five initial projects listed below.

  1. AVHRR based data set of cloud and aerosol properties
  2. SSM/I: total column water vapour, precipitation, liquid water path
  3. Surface albedo, clouds and aerosols from geostationary satellites
  4. Atmospheric motion vectors (AMV) and clear sky radiances (CSR)
  5. Upper tropospheric humidity

The Executive Panel is a component of SCOPE-CM to propose and promote its working plans. The 6th SCOPE-CM Executive Panel meeting (SEP-06) was held in Tokyo from 29 to 30 August 2011. The participants were from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the City University of New York, WMO and JMA. The first day session of SEP-06 was held at the JMA headquarters hosted by JMA, and the second day session was held using meeting facilities near the Tokyo station as a joint session with the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Radiation Panel co-hosted by Nagoya University and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

In the meeting, the status of the five pilot projects was reviewed to identify the progress and achievement that have been made since the last meeting (SEP-05). The participants then discussed an interaction with the Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System (GSICS) which is a WMO project aiming to provide consistent satellite observing data over the world, and contributions to re-analysis activities. It was recognized that reprocessed AMV and CSR data are very beneficial to the analysis of historical climate fields. In the joint session on the second day, SCOPE-CM obtained a lot of valuable suggestions from GEWEX participants.

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Participants in the first day session at the JMA headquarters
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Mr. Akihide Segami, Director-General of Observations Department, delivering an opening address (right) with Dr. John Bates, the chair of the SCOPE-CM Executive Panel (left)
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Participants discussing in the meeting