354
H.-J. Bolle, S. 1. Rasooi, P. Try
available background information in the Mediterranean area seems to be ready for
a "MEDEX". But as in the case of other GEWEX Continental-Scale experiments
(CSEs) - BALTEX, GAME, GCIP/GAPP, MAGS, and LBA (Fig. 2) some other
requirements have to be fulfilled as well, to become full CSEs under GEWEX.
These criteria are:
1. Cooperation of a Modern NWP Center
2. Commitment of Resources/Personnel
3. Regional Cooperative Mechanism for Data Collection
4. Collaborative Activity with a Water Resource Agency
5. Allow Free and open Exchange of Data.
Only if there is a unique potential to provide some transferability study support
in a unique climatic zone projects may be included which are not be able to achieve
full CSE status like CATCH in West Africa.
It is recognized that it often takes many years of planning to develop support and
infrastructure for experiments. Therefore, GEWEX is supportive of the concept of
a potential Mediterranean project, keeping in mind the criteria above as guidance
for what one would wish to see in a project. Basically it is focussed more on the
broader-scale, multinational acti vities that by their nature must involve major NWP
participation to couple with the focussed process studies of the coupled
land-ocean-atmosphere interactions.
2 Preliminary Considerations Towards A Mediterranean
GEWEX (MEDEX)
As shortly mentioned in the introduction there are four views under which an Earth
system and thus the Mediterranean System Science can be visualized:
a) The long term view at the changes of climate, vegetation, man's activities and
behaviour deduced from proxy data respectively ancient documents.
b) The empirical picture we obtain from operational and experimental
measurements of some (selected) state parameters which are spatially sampled
more or less at random and from which one tries to deduce area averages and
temporal developments over the last few centennials.
c) The remotely sensed image which provides us - because the technique is new -
at shorter time scales than the preceding two tools with completely different
quantities than from the Earth bound in situ measurements but with spatially as
well as temporarily continuous information one could only dream of a few
decades ago.
d) The model world which tries to copy and to understand nature by a structure of
mathematical relationships and to investigate the response of the system
simulated this way to external forcing by numerical experimentation. Though the
modelling world tries to reproduce the measured state parameters as good as it
can and even though it calls its model outputs "data", it must be emphasized that
these are artificial, mathematically produced, area averaged or interpolated
H.-J. Bolle, S. 1. Rasooi, P. Try
available background information in the Mediterranean area seems to be ready for
a "MEDEX". But as in the case of other GEWEX Continental-Scale experiments
(CSEs) - BALTEX, GAME, GCIP/GAPP, MAGS, and LBA (Fig. 2) some other
requirements have to be fulfilled as well, to become full CSEs under GEWEX.
These criteria are:
1. Cooperation of a Modern NWP Center
2. Commitment of Resources/Personnel
3. Regional Cooperative Mechanism for Data Collection
4. Collaborative Activity with a Water Resource Agency
5. Allow Free and open Exchange of Data.
Only if there is a unique potential to provide some transferability study support
in a unique climatic zone projects may be included which are not be able to achieve
full CSE status like CATCH in West Africa.
It is recognized that it often takes many years of planning to develop support and
infrastructure for experiments. Therefore, GEWEX is supportive of the concept of
a potential Mediterranean project, keeping in mind the criteria above as guidance
for what one would wish to see in a project. Basically it is focussed more on the
broader-scale, multinational acti vities that by their nature must involve major NWP
participation to couple with the focussed process studies of the coupled
land-ocean-atmosphere interactions.
2 Preliminary Considerations Towards A Mediterranean
GEWEX (MEDEX)
As shortly mentioned in the introduction there are four views under which an Earth
system and thus the Mediterranean System Science can be visualized:
a) The long term view at the changes of climate, vegetation, man's activities and
behaviour deduced from proxy data respectively ancient documents.
b) The empirical picture we obtain from operational and experimental
measurements of some (selected) state parameters which are spatially sampled
more or less at random and from which one tries to deduce area averages and
temporal developments over the last few centennials.
c) The remotely sensed image which provides us - because the technique is new -
at shorter time scales than the preceding two tools with completely different
quantities than from the Earth bound in situ measurements but with spatially as
well as temporarily continuous information one could only dream of a few
decades ago.
d) The model world which tries to copy and to understand nature by a structure of
mathematical relationships and to investigate the response of the system
simulated this way to external forcing by numerical experimentation. Though the
modelling world tries to reproduce the measured state parameters as good as it
can and even though it calls its model outputs "data", it must be emphasized that
these are artificial, mathematically produced, area averaged or interpolated