What can #SatelliteObservations contribute to #ClimateChange and extreme-event research?
At this week’s Final Meeting of the German “#ClimXtreme II” consortium (#ClimateChange and #ExtremeEvents), I had the opportunity to present some insights and thoughts how EUMETSAT's satellite observations can help to advance #ClimateScience and the study of extremes. In short: Our satellites are not just providing weather imagery—they have become a fundamental component of #ClimateResearch infrastructure.
Long-term satellite records now span more than four decades, enabling the detection of changes in e.g. cloudiness, land surface temperature, radiation, soil moisture, precipitation, sea level, atmospheric composition, and many other #EssentialClimateVariables. Significant effort is invested into reprocessing of these observations and they also provide consistent spatial coverage across regions where conventional observations are sparse or unavailable.
Several developments can support further research activities on extreme-events:
🛰️ 40+ years of #Meteosat observations provide opportunities to analyse long-term changes (e.g. in convective storms and precipitation-producing weather systems).
🛰️ The "GEO-Ring" initiative is creating a harmonised global geostationary satellite climate record, combining observations from multiple international satellite operators. This will provide near-global radiance observations every 30 minutes over multiple decades—a new and unprecedented basis for studying climate variability and extremes.
🛰️ New climate data records from EUMETSAT's Satellite Application Facilities cover a long list of key variables linked to droughts, heatwaves or the water cycle, including soil moisture, land surface temperature, radiation and global precipitation. (You might also follow them here: EUMETSAT CM SAF, EUMETSAT H SAF, EUMETSAT OSI SAF, EUMETSAT LSA SAF, ...)
🛰️ Next-generation satellites such as Meteosat Third Generation and Metop-SG will deliver substantially improved observations of convection, lightning, atmospheric composition and surface processes, helping to better observe and understand high-impact events.
🛰️ Satellite observations are important input for #Reanalyses, #ClimateModel evaluation and emerging AI-based #EarthSystem prediction approaches, and thereby support research at the interface between observations, process understanding and prediction (and Laurence Rouil also gave interesting insights into related activities at European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts - ECMWF / Copernicus ECMWF).
Climate-change research depends on long, homogeneous and well-characterised observational records. Building and maintaining these records requires international collaboration—and satellite observations are playing a still growing role in providing the evidence base needed to understand and respond to a changing climate.
Thanks for the invitation to the meeting (hosted at Deutscher Wetterdienst).
