Ehrhard Raschke – författare

The search for an accurate knowledge of the transfer of energy and water in our climate system and of all participating processes is still a burning issue within environmental and climate research. More reliable ways should be found to model them in their complex interplay with cascades of processes in that system, and their impact on all our resources on earth. Such modelling needs also validation with accurate and complete observations which in turn should also enable to observe variations of climate components. These are the goals of the Global Energy and Water Experiment (GEWEX), which began its work about 8 years ago. Many advanced remote sensing capabilities have now been developed, of which only a few will enter into satellite based platforms. These new developments should be brought to the attention of a broader community of younger scientists, in particular of those countries which quite recently could open their borders for free exchanges.

The search for an accurate knowledge of the transfer of energy and water in our climate system and of all participating processes is still a burning issue within environmental and climate research. More reliable ways should be found to model them in their complex interplay with cascades of processes in that system, and their impact on all our resources on earth. Such modelling needs also validation with accurate and complete observations which in turn should also enable to observe variations of climate components. These are the goals of the Global Energy and Water Experiment (GEWEX), which began its work about 8 years ago. Many advanced remote sensing capabilities have now been developed, of which only a few will enter into satellite based platforms. These new developments should be brought to the attention of a broader community of younger scientists, in particular of those countries which quite recently could open their borders for free exchanges.

Water is the most effective agent in the climate system to modulate energy transfer by radiative processes, through its exchanges of latent heat and within cascades of chemical processes. It is the source of all life on earth, and once convective clouds are formed, it enables large vertical transports of momentum, heat and various atmospheric constituents up to levels above the tropical tropopause. Water triggers very complex processes at the earth''s continental surfaces and within the oceans. At last, water in its gaseous phase is the most important greenhouse-gas! Numerical modelling and measurements of the state of the present climate system needs a very thorough understanding of all these processes and their various interactions and forcings. This is a prerequisite for more substantial forecasts of future states in all scales of time, from days to centuries. Therefore, the management of the World Climate Research Programme established in 1988 the new programme GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment). GEWEX is specifically defined to determine the energy and water transports in the fast components of the climate system with the presently available modelling and measurement means and to provide new capabilities for the future. Research in GEWEX must further develop methods to determine the influence of climatic anomalies on available water resources.

Water is the most effective agent in the climate system to modulate energy transfer by radiative processes, through its exchanges of latent heat and within cascades of chemical processes. It is the source of all life on earth, and once convective clouds are formed, it enables large vertical transports of momentum, heat and various atmospheric constituents up to levels above the tropical tropopause. Water triggers very complex processes at the earth's continental surfaces and within the oceans. At last, water in its gaseous phase is the most important greenhouse-gas! Numerical modelling and measurements of the state of the present climate system needs a very thorough understanding of all these processes and their various interactions and forcings. This is a prerequisite for more substantial forecasts of future states in all scales of time, from days to centuries. Therefore, the management of the World Climate Research Programme established in 1988 the new programme GEWEX (Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment). GEWEX is specifically defined to determine the energy and water transports in the fast components of the climate system with the presently available modelling and measurement means and to provide new capabilities for the future. Research in GEWEX must further develop methods to determine the influence of climatic anomalies on available water resources.