A multitude of climate observation networks cover our entire planet: atmosphere, oceans and land. Together they built the Global Climate Observing System that monitors all relevant parameters in order to improve the understanding of our climate system and enhance climate services.
The need to adapt to a changing climate and eventually to mitigate climate change increasingly requires more accurate information on fluxes across the traditional domains atmosphere, ocean, land in order to improve our understanding of the major climatic cycles, carbon, water and energy.
It is GCOS' task to make sure, that the totality of all climate observation networks is more than the sum of the individual networks, forming together the one Global Climate Observing System, providing the full picture of our climate.
