Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
-
Book (stand-alone)T 13 Assessment of the status of the development of standards for the terrestrial essential climate variables
GTOS 68 - Fire disturbance
2009Also available in:
No results found.Fire is an important ecosystem disturbance with varying return frequencies, resulting in land cover alteration and change, and atmospheric emissions on multiple time scales. Fire is also an important land management practice and is an important natural abiotic agent in fire dependent ecosystems. Fires not only affect above-ground biomass but also surface and below-ground organic matter such as peat. Information on fire activity is used for global change research, estimating atm ospheric emissions and developing periodic global and regional assessments. It is also used for fire and ecosystem management planning and operational purposes (fire use, preparedness and wildfire suppression) and development of informed policies. The Fire Disturbance Essential Climate Variable includes Burned Area as the primary variable and two supplementary variables: Active Fire and Fire Radiated Power (or Fire Radiative Power - FRP). Burned Area is defined as the area af fected by human-made or natural fire and is expressed in units of area such as hectare (ha) or square kilometre (km2). Active Fire is the location of burning at the time of the observation and is expressed in spatial coordinates or by an indicator of presence of absence of fire in a spatially explicit digital raster map, such as a satellite image. FRP is the rate of emitted radiative energy by the fire at the time of the observation and is expressed in units of power, such as W atts (W). -
Book (stand-alone)T9 - Assesment of the status of the development of standards for the terrestrial essential climate variables
GTOS 64 - Land
2009Also available in:
No results found.Land cover change is a pressing environmental issue, acting as both a cause and a consequence of climate change. Reliable observations are crucial to monitor and understand the ongoing processes of deforestation, desertification, urbanization, land degradation, loss of biodiversity, ecosystem functions, water and energy management, and the influence of land cover changes on the physical climate system itself. A number of disciplines (geography, ecology, geology, forestry, land policy and planning, etc.) use and refer to land cover and land cover change as one of the most obvious and detectable indicators of land surface characteristics and associated human induced and natural processes. Current and future IPCC Assessment Reports are based upon an uncertain understanding of the land surface dynamics and related processes. Applications of land cover and land dynamics in climate change-related Earth System Models and Impact Assessment Models need to be better linked and coordinated. The importance of these issues requires continuous monitoring systems and data. -
Book (stand-alone)Terrestrial Essential Climate Variables for Climate Change Assessment, Mitigation and Adaptation
GTOS 52 - Biennial Report Supplement
2008Also available in:
No results found.This report reviews the terrestrial Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), which are endorsed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). Details are provided on why these observations are needed to understand the causes of climate change, analyse the potential impacts, evaluate the adaptation options and enable characterization of extreme events such as fl oods, droughts and heat waves. It highlights some of the activities being undertaken, the need for the standardization of methods and harmonization of data and the major observational gaps and funding requirements needed to allow countries and international agencies to monitor, implement and report on issues related to climate change.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
No results found.