Abstract
The climate science community has done a heroic job of using Earth observations to estimate climate change despite the fact that few of those observing systems were designed with climate change requirements, and most require substantial corrections and modifications. But what if we designed a global observing system specifically for climate change science, rather than using a collage of non optimal weather and research observations? How much faster could we unscramble anthropogenic climate change from natural variability and observation uncertainty? What would be the economic value to the world of such a system? What is the right amount for society to invest in climate research to narrow climate prediction uncertainties? What is the return on investment?
The presentation will address these questions and demonstrate that the value of such a system is surprisingly large and is controlled by the accuracy of the observations. Future opportunities to expand this type of research will be discussed, as well as relevant space missions that could address accuracy challenges in our current observations.
Economic Value of a More Accurate Climate Observing System
The climate science community has done a heroic job of using Earth observations to estimate climate change despite the fact that few of those observing systems were designed with climate change requirements, and most require substantial corrections and modifications. But what if we designed a global observing system specifically for climate change science, rather than using a collage of non optimal weather and research observations? How much faster could we unscramble anthropogenic climate change from natural variability and observation uncertainty? What would be the economic value to the world of such a system? What is the right amount for society to invest in climate research to narrow climate prediction uncertainties? What is the return on investment?
The presentation will address these questions and demonstrate that the value of such a system is surprisingly large and is controlled by the accuracy of the observations. Future opportunities to expand this type of research will be discussed, as well as relevant space missions that could address accuracy challenges in our current observations.