Recommendation 3 of the 25th CCT (2010)

On climate and meteorological observations measurements

The Consultative Committee for Thermometry (CCT),

considering that

• global average temperature records are essential in understanding how the climate is changing;
• the consequences of these changes have deep impacts on different aspects of social, political and economic life;
• the need exists to improve the quality of data collection by assuring worldwide traceability in measurements involved in climate studies and meteorological observations, as expressed by climate-data users and during the recent WMO-BIPM joint workshop on “Measurement Challenges for Global Observation Systems for Climate Change Monitoring: Traceability, Stability and Uncertainty " (Geneva March 2010);
• the signing of the MRA by WMO will lead to closer liaison and cooperation with the thermal metrology community;
• research and coordinated analysis is required to build up a worldwide network supplying traceable baseline data sets, needed to develop more accurate models for climate change;

recommends

• to encourage NMIs and the scientific community, especially temperature metrologists, to be prepared to face new perspectives, needs, projects and activities related to the traceability, quality assurance, calibration procedures and definitions for those quantities involved in the climate studies and meteorological observations;
• to support a strong cooperation between NMIs and Meteorological Institutions at local, national and international levels;
• to encourage NMIs to work with the relevant meteorological networks to support a monitoring framework for traceable climate data over long temporal terms and wide spatial scales based on best practice metrology;
• to consider the most effective means by which CCs involved in climate and environmental activities should cooperate in order to establish a common response to the stated needs of the meteorological community; and
• to encourage CCs to alert their relevant Working Groups to the measurement, calibration and quality assurance needs of the climate change and monitoring communities.

DOI : 10.59161/CCT2010REC3E