Climate Sense

[

] 114

The ESA Climate Change Initiative:

foundations, objectives and benefits

Dr Volker Liebig, Director, Earth Observation Programmes, European Space Agency

limate – including the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the

cryosphere, land masses, and anthropogenic influences

– has, since the beginning of space-based Earth obser-

vation, been a central observational target. The first satellites

launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) at the end of

the 1970s were meteorological missions. This Meteosat series

opened a wide range of applications, as well as laying the foun-

dation for over 30 years of operational weather monitoring

and forecasting. Today we continue with the second genera-

tion of Meteosat missions, even while the third generation is

under development and looking to deploy from 2015 onwards.

These early European efforts have created long-term records

of meteorological and climate observations and have led to the

creation of a specialized agency – European Organisation for

the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). ESA

and EUMETSAT provide a stable basis for European meteoro-

logical observations.

Since the advent of multi-purpose ESA Earth observation missions with

the launch of ERS-1 in 1991, followed by ERS-2 in 1995 (still functional

today) and Envisat in 2002, climate-related data have been

increasingly obtained and analysed for scientific purposes. A

better understanding of the functions and interactions of the

various spheres of the Earth, as well as the role humans play

therein has ever since been a central part of both data gath-

ering and scientific analysis. Such new quasi polar-orbiting

missions allowed for different kinds of observations, as well

as serving as precursors to an operational polar-orbiting,

climate monitoring system. The latter was realized with

the launch of the first MetOp satellite in 2006. The ESA

Earth Explorer missions – specialized satellites focusing

on themes of scientific interest and urgency – perfectly

complement the organization’s efforts to better understand

climate development, climate change and the anthropo-

genic element therein. The first of these satellites – the

Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer,

a mission to map the Earth’s gravity field in unprecedented

accuracy –was successfully launched in March 2009. Two

more missions – the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity

mission (SMOS) and ESA’s ice mission CryoSat – are also

bserving

, P

redicting

and

rojecting

limate

onditions

Envisat ASAR mosaic from mid-August 2008 showing an almost ice-free Northwest Passage. The direct route through the Northwest Passage is highlighted in the

picture by an orange line

Image: ESA