You are invited to attend the The Global Climate Observing System Science Day, hosted by SAEON, in collaboration with SANSA, SAWS and ACCESS.

It will take place at 9.30 for 10am on Monday 28th September at the Protea Fire and Ice Hotel, Cape Town. The idea behind this science day is to promote and discuss long term climate observations in the atmosphere, terrestrial and marine systems, as well as essential climate variables and integration into models. We will have presentations from leading foreign and South African climate scientists, as well as open discussion sessions.

Please register as soon as possible (limited number of seats) here:

http://goo.gl/forms/3INX8JdxjW

The final agenda will be sent out soon.

Attendance is free and we would encourage students and postdocs as well as emerging and established researchers

This meeting is held in conjunction with the GCOS Steering committee meeting, which is being hosted for the first time in South Africa. GCOS is intended to be a long-term, user-driven operational system capable of providing the comprehensive observations required for:

•    Monitoring the climate system,

•    Detecting and attributing climate change,

•    Assessing impacts of, and supporting adaptation to, climate variability and change,

•    Application to national economic development,

•    Research to improve understanding, modelling and prediction of the climate system.

GCOS addresses the total climate system including physical, chemical and biological properties, and atmospheric, oceanic, terrestrial, hydrologic, and cryospheric components. GCOS is responsible, within the United Nations framework, for ensuring a sustained, long term, reliable system for monitoring the global climate.  An important aspect of this is the definition of Essential Climate Variables (ECVs), which are critical to our understanding of the climate

http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/gcos/documents/bams_ECV_article.pdf