THE CEOS DATABASE : GCOS ESSENTIAL CLIMATE VARIABLE - Terrestrial

THE CEOS DATABASE : Missions, Instruments and Measurements

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GLOBAL CLIMATE OBSERVING SYSTEM
ESSENTIAL CLIMATE VARIABLE - Lakes

Domain

Terrestrial

Description

Information on changes in lake level and area (which are surrogates for changes in lake volume) is required on a monthly basis for climate assessment purposes. Approximately 95% of the volume of water held globally in approximately 4,000,000 lakes is contained in the world’s 80 largest lakes, which are recognised within the GCOS/GTOS Global Terrestrial Network for Lakes (GTN-L). [GCOS-195 6.3.4]

Sub-domain

Full Name

Lakes

Satellite Signficant Contribution

Yes

GCOS Actions

Action Status*	Description	Who	Time Frame	Performance Indicator	Cost Implications
T8 Cat-C	Submit weekly/monthly lake level/area data to the International Data Centre; submit weekly/monthly altimeter-derived lake levels by space agencies to HYDROLARE.	National Hydrological Services through WMO CHy, and other institutions and agencies providing and holding data; space agencies; HYDROLARE.	90% coverage of available data from GTN-L by 2012.	Completeness of database.	1-10M US$ (40% in non-Annex-I Parties).

*GCOS-195 Status Categories: Category A: Action completed, perhaps exceeding reasonable expectations. Very good progress on ongoing tasks. Category B: Action largely completed according to expectation. Good progress on ongoing tasks. Category C: Moderate progress overall, although progress may be good for some part of the action. Category D: Limited progress overall, although progress may be moderate or good for some part of the action. Category E: Very little or no progress, or deterioration rather than progress.

GCOS Products

Product	Name	Variable/ Parameter	Related Measurements/ Instruments from CEOS DB
T.1.1	Areas of lakes in the Global Terrestrial Network for Lakes (GTN-L)	Areas of GTN-L lakes Level of lakes in GTN-L	Lake level Lake Area
T.1.2	Lake level of all lakes in the Global Terrestrial Network for Lakes (GTN-L)	Areas of GTN-L lakes Level of lakes in GTN-L	Lake level Lake Area

CEOS Response

[T8 (T.1.1, T.1.2)]

2015 Update: Lake level was routinely reported by the ENVISAT altimeter until the end of the mission in May 2012. Lake levels are currently reported by the ISRO Satellite with ARgos and ALtiKa (SARAL) mission.


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