The 2024 OBPS workshop recordings are now online! So if you didn’t get a chance to attend our ObsSea4Clim sessions, this is a good chance to watch them in your own time.

Session 1: The WMO Rolling Review of Requirements and application areas

Session description: Current global challenges demand a significant worldwide upgrade of space- and surface-based observations and predictions and a solid network of regional and national actors to build observing capabilities, achieve better national, regional and global coverage, improve economic efficiency and successfully integrate these systems. The Rolling Review of Requirements (RRR) is a process defined by the World Meteorological Organization in the manual “Integrated Global Observing System”. It is a process to compile information about requirements for (ocean) observations, observing system capabilities, their cost-effectiveness, and drawing on experts and impact studies to provide guidance on the most important priorities for addressing the gaps between requirements and capabilities.

The ultimate goal is to support the regional and global climate assessments, projections and actionable indicators for a sustainable development. ObsSea4Clim focuses on refining the current global Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) and Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) framework, and on integrating it within the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS). Six application areas have been selected in the project to test and improve the EOV/ECVs framework: Sea Level, Ocean Transports, Marine Heatwaves, Ocean Mesoscale, Ocean stratification, and Sea Ice.

In this session, we presented and discussed our approach to working with RRR and EOV/ECVs framework and how the application to some of the application areas will be implemented in the next 4 years.

Session 2: Ocean-Climate Nexus – Importance of Ocean Observing for Tipping Points

Session description: Tipping points in the Earth’s climate can cause catastrophic consequences for ecosystems, biodiversity, and societies. Key knowledge gaps are the identification of the precursors of tipping points, the understanding of their downstream effects, and the development of reliable early warning indicators for climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.

The projects TipESM and ClimTip develop simulations to study tipping points and address these knowledge gaps. They utilize the most advanced Earth System Models (ESMs), which integrate novel in situ observations (from OCEAN:ICE), physical climate models, and key elements such as the continental. ice sheets, marine ecosystems, permafrost, vegetation dynamics and more. ObsSea4Clim provides further improvements of Essential Ocean Variables and Essential Climate Variables to reduce the uncertainty in climate projections of the ESMs. The work of TipESM, ClimTip, OCEAN:ICE and ObsSea4Clim highlights the importance of ocean observation for improved understanding of climate and its tipping points.

By combining the knowledge gained from the ESMs with observations, dynamical theory, and societal and ecological impact models, it is possible to assess the risks of exceeding key tipping points and the consequences of tipping on Earth systems, ecology and societies.

In this session, we reflected on the importance of international science collaboration and the use of experiment protocols jointly agreed upon by the community. Individual speakers focused on specific aspects within their expertise, and together these presentations provided a coherent overview of the interconnectedness and complexity of the ocean and climate on the global scale.