Observing changes to the Earth’s climate is vital to informing policies and actions that address the consequences of a changing climate, manage risks and enhance resilience. The European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Climate Change Initiative (CCI) research programme in 2008 in response to this need. The CCI is a coordinated Research & Development programme that generates robust, long-term, global satellite-derived datasets for key indicators of climate change known as Essential Climate Variables (ECVs). These ECVS are specified by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) and support, not only, the climate information needs of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) but also the wider climate community. The CCI harnesses 40 years of Earth Observation archives and combines them with data from both Third party and current missions including the Copernicus Sentinel missions. Under CCI there are currently 24 dedicated ECV project teams developing 22 ECVs. In this talk, the speaker will introduce the ESA Climate Change Initiative as well as some of the ECV projects, with a specific focus on those that can be used in support of Terrestrial Carbon science.
Clement Albergel is a scientist working at the ESA Climate Office in the UK where he develops climate applications related to terrestrial surfaces. Prior to ESA he has held position in the research departments of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) as well as of the French Meteorological service (Meteo-France) working on land surface analysis. His activities at ESA are mainly shared between ESA Climate program (ESA Climate Change Initiative), program in support of international development (GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE (esa.int) and EOAFRICA (EO AFRICA – Research and Development Facility (eoafrica-rd.org), all implemented under the Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes.
Webinar was recorded on June 30, 2022