News
GCOS encourages the use of Digital Object Identifiers
Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) attribute a unique reference to an electronic data set. They provide a permanent identifier that links the user to the current version of the relevant data sets. In view of the growing importance of data sharing, scientific experts from both the Atmospheric and Terrestrial Observational Panel for Climate recently discussed DOIs, as these can help researchers to discover relevant data more easily and attribute the data in a way that appropriately acknowledges its source. DOIs will in future enable to measure data usage to estimate its impact and influence. GCOS Panels encourage international data centres to introduce DOIs for their data records of Essential Climate Variables and recommend dataset producers in general to follow this practice.
For more information on this topic, read the discussion paper from the 2013 Session of the Terrestrial Observing Panel for Climate (TOPC): 
PDF
Local observations - for global understanding
The Swiss GCOS Office produced a short overview film, titled "Local observations - for global understanding”. View the video here:
GCOS 1992-2012 - 20 Years in Service for Climate Observations
The year 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), the system dedicated to ensuring provision of the observational data and information that is the foundation for decisions on climate.
The GCOS Programme formally celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Global Climate Observing System on Friday, 29 June 2012 during the 64th WMO Executive Council meeting in Geneva. The celebration provided an opportunity to review the origins of the GCOS, to take stock of the accomplishments of GCOS in the first twenty years of its existence, and to think ahead about new opportunities and challenges for GCOS.
Agenda of the
Symposium "GCOS – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow": PDF
Download the presentations as zip-archive (92 MB)
Download the brochure: "GCOS 1992-2012 - 20 Years in Service for Climate Observations"
Upcoming events
GCOS newsletter
The following GCOS reports have been published recently:
| Summary Report and Recommendations from the Eighteenth Session of the GCOS/WCRP Atmospheric Observation Panel for Climate (AOPC), Geneva, Switzerland , 2-5 April 2013 | GCOS-169 | PDF |
| Summary Report of the Fifteenth Session of the GCOS/WCRP Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate (TOPC), Geneva, Switzerland, 6-7 March 2013 | GCOS-168 | PDF |
Report of the Fifth GCOS Reference Upper-Air Network Implementation and Coordination Meeting (GRUAN ICM-5), De Bilt, the Netherlands, 25 February - 1 March 2013 |
GCOS-167 | PDF |
| GCOS Workshop on Observations for Adaptation to Climate Variability and Chang, Offenbach, Germany, 26–28 February 2013 | GCOS-166 | PDF |
| Report of the Twentieth Session of the WMO-IOC-UNEP-ICSU Steering Committee for GCOS, Geneva, Switzerland, September 2012 | GCOS-164 | PDF |
| Report of the Eighth GCOS Cooperation Mechanism Board Meeting, Geneva, Switzerland, 3 September 2012 | GCOS-163 | PDF |
| Report of the 5th Global Terrestrial Network for Hydrology (GTN-H) Coordination Panel Meeting, Tokyo, Japan, 12-13 March 2011 | GCOS-162 | PDF |
Report of the Fourth GCOS Reference Upper-Air Network Implementation and Coordination Meeting (GRUAN ICM-4), Tokyo, Japan, 5-9 March 2012 |
GCOS-161 | PDF |
| Assessment of the Status and Needs for Climate Observations in South America 2003-2011, February 2012 | GCOS-160 | |
| Report from the Strategy Meeting for the Implementation of the Global Climate Observing System in South America, Guayaquil, Ecuador, 13-15 March 2012 | GCOS-159 | |
| Summary Report and Recommendations from the Seventeenth Session of the GCOS/WCRP Atmospheric Observation Panel for Climate (AOPC), Geneva, Switzerland , 1-3 May 2012 | GCOS-158 | PDF |
| Summary Report of the Fourteenth Session of the GTOS/GCOS/WCRP Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate (TOPC), Geneva, Switzerland , 1-2 March 2012 | GCOS-157 | PDF |
Report from the Third Coordination Meeting of CBS Leads Centres for GCOS, Hamburg, Germany, 11-13 October 2011 |
GCOS-156 | PDF |
| Report from the WIGOS Pilot Project Meeting on GRUAN Observing Practices and Governance, Geneva, Switzerland, 25-27 January 2012 | GCOS-155 | PDF |