ENHANCING GLOBAL CLIMATE DATA EXCHANGE TO BETTER MONITOR CLIMATE CHANGE AND EMPOWER POLICY MAKERS, SCIENTISTS AND THE COMMUNITY

摘要

Climate change is considered to be one of the greatest global challenges humanity is currently facing. Its nature,processes and consequences are not yet fully understood. The gaps in the knowledge and understanding of thescience of climate change are significant because of the complexity of the phenomena affecting the climate system.Earth observation (EO) data can help in monitoring and predicting climate fluctuations, as well as exploring whatcan be done to prevent adverse consequences as a result of these fluctuations. But comprehensive and interoperabledata and information exchange among climate researchers is not a reality. EO data is generated by different satellitesystems that belong to different countries and operate, gather and distribute data using different standards. This paperexplores the political and economical elements behind the difficulty to implement a comprehensive data sharingmechanism. Considering the global effect of climate change, the paper presents new arguments, based on technicalinformation, which re-evaluates the current political-economical paradigm of data management and suggests a newperspective that may overcome current data sharing hurdles. These arguments and ideas are based on the discussionsby the young professionals and university students at the climate session of Space Generation Congress 2010. Asparameters used in monitoring climate change differ from those used for reconnaissance or meteorologicalapplications, as well as data used for fundamental scientific research has different requirements than data needed forpolitical or economic studies, the paper concludes recommending a series of initiatives that might assist in hatching acomprehensive data sharing regime and in achieving a global data sharing community including many more than justestablished space faring nations and service providers.