GCOS Climate Monitoring Principles

The GCOS Climate Monitoring Principles outline essential guidelines for designing and operating climate monitoring systems across all domains and essential climate variables (ECVs). They emphasize the importance of assessing changes, maintaining observation continuity, ensuring data quality, documenting metadata, addressing data gaps, and integrating user needs. For satellite systems, specific principles focus on calibration, overlap between systems, and maintaining consistent, long-term data records. These principles, adopted by global organizations, aim to ensure a coordinated, reliable approach to climate monitoring that supports assessments, applications, and informed decision-making.