The search for an accurate knowledge of the transfer of energy and water in our climate system and of all participating processes is still a burning issue within environmental and climate research. More reliable ways should be found to model them in their complex interplay with cascades of processes in that system, and their impact on all our resources on earth. Such modelling needs also validation with accurate and complete observations which in turn should also enable to observe variations of climate components. These are the goals of the Global Energy and Water Experiment (GEWEX), which...

The search for an accurate knowledge of the transfer of energy and water in our climate system and of all participating processes is still a burning issue within environmental and climate research. More reliable ways should be found to model them in their complex interplay with cascades of processes in that system, and their impact on all our resources on earth. Such modelling needs also validation with accurate and complete observations which in turn should also enable to observe variations of climate components. These are the goals of the Global Energy and Water Experiment (GEWEX), which...

Water is the most effective agent in the climate system to modulate energy transfer by radiative processes, through its exchanges of latent heat and within cascades of chemical processes. It is the source of all life on earth, and once convective clouds are formed, it enables large vertical transports of momentum, heat and various atmospheric constituents up to levels above the tropical tropopause. Water triggers very complex processes at the earth's continental surfaces and within the oceans. At last, water in its gaseous phase is the most important greenhouse-gas Numerical modelling and...