About GTN-H

Global greenhouse warming is already impacting the Arctic regions of the world to a greater extent than in temperate and tropical regions. Changes in snow accumulation and melting, a reduction in the extent of sea ice and increases in freshwater fluxes to the Arctic Ocean have already been observed. Freshwater inputs exert a surprisingly large impact on the water circulation of the Arctic Ocean and on the global ocean circulation as well.

Download GTN-H Flyer as .pdf file here.

Goals of GTN-H

Aims at a global hydrological network of networks
Plans and implements projects that facilitate access to hydrological networks and observation data, and generates derived products
Forms an essential component for integrated global and regional hydrological products

Main Objectives

The main objective of the GTN-H is to make available data from existing global hydrological observation networks and to enhance their value through integration. GTN-H thus underpins the generation of datasets suitable for:

Research in the areas of global and regional climate change
Environmental Monitoring
Hydrology and water resource management

International Context

The GTN-H is a joint effort of the World Meteorological Organization / Climate and Water Department (WMO/CLW), the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS), co-sponsored by WMO, UNEP, IOC and ICSU, and the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS), co-sponsored by WMO, UNESCO, ICSU, UNEP and FAO.

GTN-H represents the observational arm of the Group on Earth Observations / Integrated Global Water Cycle Observations Theme (GEO/IGWCO).

Selected Achievements

Prototype system for the on-line near-real-time data access for over 400 river gauge stations worldwide
Access to a first guess global gridded precipitation product
First-time on-line access to a global water quality database
Prototype definition of a hydrological metadata standard, based on the WMO core metadata standard