The goals of this working group are to establish an inventory of existing records of Essential Climate Variables derived from observations from space, to plan the production of more Climate Data Records and to optimise planning of future satellites to expand records and avoid data gaps.
This meeting followed a workshop of the SCOPE-CM (Sustained, Co-Ordinated Processing of Environmental Satellite Data for Climate Monitoring) international initiative supported by the World Meteorological Organisation and a network of operators of environmental satellite systems, where work plans for cooperative Climate Data Record generation projects were established.
Eumetsat’s climate monitoring activities encompass re-calibration and inter-satellite calibration, production of homogeneous series of basic observations by reprocessing and downstream production of Climate Data Records for Essential Climate Variables. The activities involve the distributed network of Satellite Application Facilities, in particular the Climate Monitoring SAF led by DWD, and contributions to selected cooperative projects with international partners.
On 10-12 March, Eumetsat will support a workshop in Grainau, Germany, gathering the users of its Climate Monitoring Satellite Application Facility, led by the Deutsche Wetterdienst, to discuss the usage and development of satellite-based climate monitoring products and services in response to user needs.
The engagement in global climate services in 2014 will culminate in the Climate Symposium that Eumetsat is organising with the World Climate Research Programme in Darmstadt on 13-17 October. Bringing together international climate scientists, experts from space agencies as well as high-level representatives from other stakeholders, the symposium will discuss how satellite operators could jointly address the scientific challenges identified in the 5th IPCC Assessment Report.
About Eumetsat
The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites is an intergovernmental organisation based in Darmstadt, Germany, currently with 29 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom) and two Cooperating States (Bulgaria and Serbia).
Eumetsat operates the geostationary satellites Meteosat-8, -9 and -10 over Europe and Africa, and Meteosat-7 over the Indian Ocean.
Eumetsat also operates two Metop polar-orbiting satellites as part of the Initial Joint Polar System (IJPS) shared with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Metop-B polar-orbiting meteorological satellite, launched on 17 September 2012, became prime operational satellite on 24 April 2013. It replaced Metop-A, the first European polar-orbiting meteorological satellite, which was launched in October 2006. Metop-A will continue operations as long as its available capacities bring benefits to users.
The Jason-2 ocean altimetry satellite, launched on 20 June 2008 and exploited jointly with NOAA, NASA and CNES, added monitoring of sea state, ocean currents and sea level change to the Eumetsat product portfolio.
The data and products from Eumetsat’s satellites are vital to weather forecasting and make a significant contribution to the monitoring of environment and the global climate.
(source: Eumetsat) and spacenewsfeed