Case studies for establishing an architecture for climate monitoring from space

The report describes a number of case studies that demonstrate the direct or indirect value of Earth observation satellites for climate services. Climate services, i.e. climate information prepared and delivered to meet a user’s needs (HLTF, 2011), are recognized as vital for decision-making in climate-sensitive societal areas, such as food security, water management, disaster risk reduction, and the health sector. Against a backdrop of human-induced climate change and the imperatives of adaptation and mitigation, reliable, quality-controlled climate information at global level is essential. Satellites are uniquely placed to provide a global perspective on the climate system, to contribute to the monitoring of 26 Essential Climate Variables (GCOS, 2011), as well as to inform regional and local climate analyses. Starting from the end users’ perspective and their needs, the 14 case studies in this report are intended to demonstrate to decision-makers, funding agencies, and climate service users at all levels of the importance of satellites for preparing climate services. The report shows that in most cases, satellite data are complemented with other sources of information (from surface-based observing systems, models, socio-economic data) to generate the service. Coordination of climate observing and modeling systems and the integrated use of climate data are therefore essential for advancing the development of climate services. The report supplements the Strategy Towards an Architecture for Climate Monitoring from Space (Dowell et al., 2013), a joint coordination effort by space agencies and WMO in support of the GFCS, and provides a basis for validating the proposed end-to-end Architecture (and its “logical view”) from a user perspective.

BOJINSKI Stephan;  DOWELL Mark;  ECKMAN Richard;  GICHONI Ignatius Gitonga;  HUSBAND Robert;  LECOMTE Pascal;  ZHANG Wenjian; 

2016-02-29

World Meteorological Organisation

JRC96139

978-92-63-11162-3,   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC96139,