Planet Under Pressure: New knowledge towards solutions
From : 26.03.2012 Till : 29.03.2012 Location : London, England
Global observations of clouds from a NASA satellite in April 1960 ushered a new era in Earth observations. Land cover, atmospheric, and oceanic measurements soon followed, and created the new science of understanding the global integrated Earth system. One of the first discoveries was the universal recognition of the complexity of Earth interactions and the daunting challenge to uncover their secrets locked within a myriad of spatial scales from millimeter turbulence to ocean basin gyres and temporal scales from millisecond to millennia. Another discovery was the utilization of Earth observations to save lives and mitigate property destruction from natural and anthropogenic causes and, in doing so, promote peace among nations. Time series of global Earth observations revealed scientific limits of knowledge on the predictability of short- and long-term phenomena such as the El Niño and La Niña, stratospheric ozone recovery, Arctic sea ice depletion, sea level rise, and so on. The symposium will describe the criticality of sustained high accuracy, well-calibrated global Earth observations, the urgency to develop new observations to fill knowledge gaps, the importance to integrate observations into models to advance the science of the global integrated Earth system, the requirement to develop seamless connectivity between the scientific community and decision makers, and the internationality of the enterprise because no single nation has the capacity or capability to achieve the vision. A robust system has tremendous potential to improve environmental decision-making services to society. The symposium will highlight the contributions of space observation and research to understand the challenges faced by the Earth under pressure. It will show the need for enhanced international collaborations, involving all nations, and for strengthened research efforts, involving a new generation of young scientists.
Internet: http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net
Posted on: 14.09.2011