Atmosphere-Land Observation and Assessment (ALOA): Aims
We aim to provide the underpinning observations and analysis of the weather, climate and Earth system, needed for:
- Monitoring the state of the atmosphere and land surface: to detect trends, episodic events and abrupt changes; to evaluate the effect of management strategies; and to assess and manage resources (water, energy, carbon...). This requires long-term and continuous observations; high quality data; and effective data analysis, quality control, storage and distribution systems.
- Model development and testing: to better understand processes and their representation in models; to parameterise models and quantify model biases, and to provide rigorous and independent verification (benchmarking) of model predictions.
- Fusing observations with models: to improve predictions by data assimilation and to diagnose trends and variability in terrestrial energy, water and carbon budgets.