Observation activities are interrupted and data gaps appear
  Climate science research encounters "epidemic storm"

  Scientists cannot travel and therefore cannot clean and maintain sensors used in ocean observation programs.

  Image source: British "Nature" magazine website

  "Long-term ecological research" project in the remote areas of the Antarctic McMurdo dry valley and other remote areas were suspended.

  Image source: British "Nature" magazine website

  International epidemic operations

  "If there is no epidemic, I should be at sea now." The team led by Ed Deville of Oregon State University will go to sea from Oregon and the Washington coast every year to renovate and clean more than 100 precision sensors. These sensors are part of the scientific network of the "Ocean Observation Program", which costs $ 44 million annually.

  But now, like many scientists, he can only watch the loss of precious data, and he is helpless to reduce the performance of the instrument.

  The British "Nature" magazine website pointed out in a report on April 13th that as climate and ecological monitoring projects collapsed because of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, climate change and weather data will soon have gaps and gaps. In the short term, it may affect the accuracy of the weather forecast, and in the long term, it will affect climate research.

  Interruptions and gaps in scientific data collection

  Researchers estimate that in some cases, the data collected regularly by the observatory for decades will be interrupted. Frank Davis, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said: "The disruption of the scientific record may be unprecedented."

  Davis is the executive director of the "Long-Term Ecological Research" (LTER) project. The project consists of 30 ecological sites, extending from the northernmost tip of Alaska to Antarctica. The LTER network covers cities and villages, allowing scientists to study ecological processes over decades—from the impact of snowfall on the mountains of Colorado to the impact of Baltimore stream pollution. He said that data from some sites may be interrupted for the first time in more than 40 years. "This is a painful thing for the scientists involved."

  Other maritime monitoring programs face similar data disruptions. Scientists often board various commercial container ships, collect data and deploy various facilities to measure weather, ocean currents and other characteristics. Justin Parks, a marine technician at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, is responsible for one of the plans. He said that although most ships are still drifting at sea, the travel ban means scientists can no longer board.

  Parks said that port strikes and political turmoil had also caused some voyage interruptions, but to her knowledge, this was the first time the entire project had been interrupted for such a long time.

  Emma Heslop, an expert on the ocean observation project of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in Paris, France, said that maritime observations are essential for weather forecasting and recording long-term data on ocean health and climate change. Her team is currently trying to assess the degree of damage caused by the new coronary pneumonia pandemic to the entire ocean observation field.

  Some researchers say they have been affected. In the past 2 months, they found that the number of observations on board has been declining-since the beginning of February, the number of sites reporting data has decreased by 15%. Although scientists in this field are trying to find other ways to collect important data, the situation may worsen as the new coronary pneumonia pandemic spreads. She said: "The longer the limit time, the longer it will take for our observation activities to resume."

  Has affected the accuracy of the weather forecast

  According to the US "Technology and News" website reported on April 8, recently, the European Center for Medium-Term Weather Forecast (ECMWF), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have all paid attention to the new coronary pneumonia epidemic. The impact of meteorological observations and forecasts.

  A NOAA spokesperson said: “Commercial flights can provide valuable weather data. Under normal circumstances, more than 3,500 commercial aircraft worldwide provide more than 250 million observations each year. During the entire flight, the aircraft can provide information about air pressure, temperature, wind speed and Data such as wind direction also provides atmospheric humidity data in some cases. "

  In a recent press release, Lars Rishogaard, director of the Earth System Division of the Infrastructure Division of the World Meteorological Organization, said: "As the weather observation data obtained by aircraft continues to decrease, the reliability of climate forecasts will gradually decline. "

  The data provided by NOAA shows that as of March 31, the amount of meteorological data provided by US flights has dropped to half of the normal level. The ECMWF report states that since March, the amount of meteorological data reported by the agency to European aircraft has decreased by 65%; the amount of meteorological data reported by global aircraft has fallen by more than 40%, and this situation will continue at least until this summer. Of course, satellites and meteorological balloons can fill some gaps, but some data provided by aircraft cannot be replaced. British National Meteorological Agency spokesman Graham McGee said that the global aviation industry ’s losses have increased and have had a tangible impact on researchers ’climate research records.

  He estimates that the reduction in the observation data provided by the aircraft will increase the agency ’s forecast error by 1% to 2%, and that the accuracy of weather forecasting will be more affected in areas where flights frequently travel.

  The British Meteorological Office has more than 250 weather stations in the United Kingdom, which can provide continuously and daily collected atmospheric and meteorological data. Mai Qi said that at present, these systems are operating normally. But once a problem occurs, it is difficult to send someone to solve it.

  Automated systems may escape

  Nonetheless, some atmospheric monitoring data is collected with little or no human intervention, and these projects can continue to operate without fear of the impact of new coronary pneumonia.

  WMO's "Global Observing System" (GOS) is one of the agency's three major weather monitoring programs in the world, providing WMO's 193 member countries with various atmospheric and ocean surface measurement data, observation data from satellite and ground observation platforms and commercial aircraft Among them, most of the ground and satellite components can work automatically. At present, they are not directly affected by the new coronary pneumonia epidemic and can continue to play a role in the short term.

  In addition, the "Advanced Global Atmospheric Experiment" has observation stations in 13 remote areas around the world, which can measure ozone-depleting compounds, greenhouse gases and other trace components in the atmosphere. Many of these systems can also work automatically, with only one or two people on each workstation. , Perform routine maintenance work to keep the instrument running. Atmospheric chemist Ray Weiss of the Scripps Research Institute was in charge of the project. He said that so far, two instruments have been damaged, but the loss of one instrument or even the entire site has temporarily compromised the network's monitoring capabilities.

  Alle Andrews, the head of the NOAA greenhouse gas monitoring program, also said that the impact of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic on the network is "relatively small." So far, less than 5% of all NOAA sites have lost data.

  Meteorologists are also finding new ways to collect data. For example, ECMWF has been extracting wind data from Aeolus satellite since January. NOAA has also collected billions of ground observation data from other sources, including weather balloons, surface weather observation networks, radars, satellites, and buoys.