Earth-science technology needs for the future

摘要

In summary (Fig. 12), we obviously need model improvements. They need to be called out clearly in any planning programme to improve forecasting. That is what the nations are going to want to pay for. We need to maintain compatibility with current operational strategies. We need to develop clear strategies for operational research model improvements. That was the figures in the beginning. Observations and observing technology need to be targeted mqre towards the preciseness of the model needs. I would say we have underestimated the advantage of the GEO system, and there is a real opportunity to improve the sensors on GEO, given what we have developed at LEO. GEO has the greatest potential advantage for improved measurements and time resolution. We need to spend more time with what we call OSSEs, (which are the Observing System Simulation Experiments) which tell us what really is going to be the benefit of some kind of new measurements. And I am worried about who is looking at the end-to-end system, i.e. tracing the system all the way through the observations to the models, through the communications network. It bothers me that we really have not talked about that. For example, my calculations of the data rates would overwhelm any future system.