This Union Session will explore visions on new water cycle observing systems.

Major space agencies are planning new satellites that will provide new and additional space-based observations of the water and energy cycles components. It is expected that these observations will lead to improved applications (e.g. in agriculture, water and energy management) and scientific understanding the Earth’s climate. Overall the level of innovation presented in the future missions is limited, whether in sensor design, the synergistic use of the data with other data or the delivery of the information to users.

In this session, invited speakers will offer their vision on directions that observing systems (in-situ to satellites) should take over the next 30 years to provide the needed (and currently unprecedented) temporal and spatial resolution needed for science and management applications.

Topics may include new sensor concepts from geostationary and/or polar orbits; integrated sensor packages focusing on specific applications (e.g. extreme weather, hazards, ET); the potential for long-term airborne monitoring systems; advancements in merging data collected from ground-to-space; and the direct delivery of this information to the communication devices of users.