OVERVIEW OF THE PACIFIC ISLAND REGION GLOBAL CLIMATE OBSERVING SYSTEM (GCOS) PROGRAM

The tropical Pacific Ocean is the primary heat source reservoir for the Earth ocean-atmosphere system. As such it exerts a tremendous influence on the Earth's circulation patterns and changes therein. The well-known El Nino phenomenon appears to be a consequence of inefficient poleward energy transfer from the tropical oceans during non-El Nino years. The threat of impending climate change has focused scientist's attention on the dynamics of the tropical Pacific Ocean and atmosphere and the 'teleconnections' to the mid-latitudes.

Given the importance of the tropical Pacific, climate observations from the region are of utmost important to physical dynamics of the Pacific ocean-atmosphere. Unfortunately, due mostly political and economic reasons, the existing network of island-based climate observations has deteriorated in quantity and quality to a point where data are insufficient to conduct even the most basic trend analysis. The independent island nations have insufficient resources to repair, let alone enhance, their local climate networks. Thus, it is in the best interests are of all countries to assist local Pacific nations in training of personnel, maintenance and enhancement of their local climate observation networks. The mutual benefit of such an endeavor has been realized by the international community.

As such, the U.S. in partnership with Australia, New Zealand, and the nations of the South Pacific Regional Environment Program have taken the lead in working towards establishing a robust and sustainable Pacific Islands Global Climate Observing System (PI-GCOS) that meets the climate change and variability observations, and application needs of the PI nations and meets the associated regional and international requirements for climate observing. Finally, on July 31, 2003, there will be an Earth Observation Summit held in Washington, DC, in order to "Promote the development of an integrated Earth observation system among governments and the international community and to better understand and address global environmental and economic challenges. It will begin a process to develop a conceptual framework and implementation plan for building an integrated Earth observation system; see http://earthobservationsummit.gov for more details.