The climate of our planet is a combination of all weather phenomena. Its main indicators are atmospheric pressure, air humidity, cloud cover and precipitation. A huge influence on how the climate will be in a certain territory is also exerted by where the region is located. Depending on the situation on the globe for different climates, different parts of the world are characterized by different air compositions and different indicators of atmospheric circulation. Land and sea, ocean currents, atmospheric masses, the gravitational influence of the moon, the luminosity of the sun - all this creates a complex climate system on Earth. And recently, more and more attention has been paid to monitoring climate parameters. Why so, why do we need climate monitoring, and what functions does it perform - everything is described in this article.
Weather Tracking History
The ability to predict the weather has always been important to humanity. Crop depended on rains spilled onto the ground, and dry years could easily become a real disaster. That is why it was incredibly important to know how and why the weather is changing. In ancient times, no one was engaged in climate monitoring of weather and climate, this task lay with shamans, foretellers and simply wise people who over the years of life learned the patterns of weather phenomena. That is why until now among almost all the peoples of the world, beliefs and signs that predict the weather are prevalent.
Present time
In the XX and XXI centuries, the situation, of course, has changed dramatically. For climate monitoring, huge computing power, sophisticated instruments and equipment are being used today. Now the smallest changes in the parameters that are hidden from the human eye are being read. For example, scientists who monitor the weather and climate also monitor lithospheric plate movements, magma accumulation, and more. And yet, at a time when we ceased to depend so much on the crop, and the rain that fell at the wrong time becomes only a minor nuisance - why are we monitoring the climate?
Climate Monitoring
Although we no longer depend on the vagaries of the weather, in some ways the climate affects us even more than it did thousands of years ago. This, of course, is our own fault. Take, for example, ozone holes - people living under them are many times more at risk for skin cancer. Or ice melting, which gradually raises the level of the world's oceans, which threatens flooding in the near future of many coastal cities, also has an effect on us. What about global warming? Scientists have not yet decided: is it really happening through our fault, or is our planet just going through such a natural cycle. Climate system monitoring should help us answer this question.
Weather tracking is a multi-level system. Let's start with detailed monitoring, which monitors the change of literally one or two parameters within a very small ecosystem (for example, the level of drainage of a swamp). Local does the same, but on a large scale. Regional monitoring monitors changes in climate, weather and environmental conditions throughout the region, national monitors the overall ecological state of the country, and global, as the name implies, monitors the parameters of the whole world.
Classifications
The classification of monitoring systems is often based on differences in the method of observing climate. The first type is chemical monitoring, which monitors the chemical composition and its changes in the atmosphere, water masses, soils, sediments, vegetation, and even in animals. It is about him that we most often hear when it comes to the sad state of ecology and air.
The second one is physical monitoring, which is not as visible as chemical monitoring, because it monitors parameters that rarely directly affect our lives, but can do this in the future - this is radiation, electromagnetic radiation and noise.
And the last one is biological, it monitors the state of nature by bio-indicators, that is, living organisms living in the environment, from bacteria to large animals.
The main tasks of monitoring
The main task, of course, is to identify changes in the ecosystems of anthropogenic nature, that is, caused by humans. However, it is equally important to monitor the parameters that will help identify natural disasters in the early stages. So, for example, close monitoring is carried out for each active volcano and the moment of its eruption can be predicted with almost 100 percent accuracy. Earthquakes recorded in the ocean make it possible to learn about the approaching tsunami and evacuate people from the danger zone. Hurricanes, whose birth and education are now being watched from space, have long been perfectly predictable and far less dangerous than before. However, climate monitoring is imperfect, and humanity has room to grow in this area.
How is data collected?
To calculate the patterns of weather and climate through climate monitoring, you need to know the story. Scientists study a variety of physical objects that shed light on how the weather was thousands and millions of years ago. Deposits at the bottom of the seas and oceans, rings on trees and much more reflect climate variations over many thousands of years. Thanks to these discoveries, for example, radiocarbon analysis was invented, which allows you to accurately determine the age of the find. A comparison of the past climate with the present makes it possible to determine the level of anthropogenic effects. Naturally, scientists of all countries are involved in such large-scale projects.
About weather
Climatic weather monitoring is also an international activity. Data collected by artificial Earth satellites, as well as thousands of weather observation stations, are sent to international data centers, where they are processed and analyzed. The weather predicted in this way is subsequently distributed by national services and falls into the news reports of all countries. Since the weather is an extremely changeable phenomenon, data from the international center is requested several times a day and is constantly updated. More or less accurately determine the weather can only be a day or two, but the accuracy of such predictions is not 100 percent, it is absolutely possible to know the weather only 10-12 hours in advance. And for long-term forecasts, more statistical data on the weather of past years are used, which, of course, can not give guarantees.
International monitoring
Back in 1975, by joining forces, the world community created a system of global environmental monitoring - GMES. Since then, the sphere of international relations has developed, and since the mid-2000s, the world has been implementing an interstate project of a global system for the study of the Earth, which is coordinated by the efforts of the Earth Observation Group. The long-term project involves more than 70 countries, including Russia.
The main objective of the project is to accelerate the integration into a single information system of most environmental data sources. The development of computer technology now allows you to combine a huge amount of data into a coherent system, suitable for analysis and simple for the user. The success of the project in the distant future can be considered the creation of a system that automatically and with great accuracy predicts weather events and cataclysms.
Observation stations in Russia
Climate monitoring in the CIS is a highly developed industry. Currently, about 900 stations are monitoring the climate. Some of them have been operating since the days of the Soviet Union, and some are completed and equipped after the collapse. Of these, about 700 monitor the temperature of the atmosphere, and about 100 stations monitor the flow of air. All data received by them is recorded and processed on a monthly basis, and each data archive undergoes a mandatory check for deviations, these deviations can occur due to breakdown or malfunction of the device. Every day, data from about 230 stations are sent to international centers.
In addition to the parameters necessary for monitoring climate and weather, global data are also collected in Russia. For example, data on changes in snow cover in the European territory of Russia, seasonal changes in floating ice in the Caspian Sea. Data is collected on the area and volume of sea ice in the Antarctic and in the western part of the Arctic. All these parameters are extremely important for understanding global atmospheric processes.
The future of environmental monitoring
At the moment, climate monitoring has taken a big step forward compared to the last century. However, much more needs to be done to improve and refine forecasts. For example, due to the imperfection of technology and mathematical models, it is currently extremely difficult to fully monitor the weather over the oceans. The weather and climate monitor is still using obsolete physical and moral equipment. Outdoor devices at meteorological stations still include commonplace mercury thermometers and buckets for determining the amount of precipitation. Some countries do not participate in international climate monitoring projects, thereby reducing the amount of data received by humanity. There is ongoing debate about the economic feasibility of improving monitoring systems. The findings of human influence on nature are often ignored; not all countries take at least some measure to improve the situation.
As a result, even though humanity has advanced far in the issue of climate monitoring, the creation and implementation of full-fledged mathematical models that will predict at least the weather with great accuracy is still a long way off.