More accurate monitoring of climate change from satellites

"The changing climate will have a sustainable influence on our highly industrialised society. We all must learn to live with the consequences of the climate change and adapt ourselves to it.

Without the results of observation, i.e. facts, the necessary political decisions, which the climate change is forcing us to make, will not meet with general acceptance. This is why area-wide monitoring of the climate with satellites is becoming increasingly important," declared Wolfgang Kusch, President of the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD), at a press conference held in Berlin to mark the launch of a European project on climate monitoring from satellites.In March 2007, a European consortium started its operational activities, with the full focus on climate monitoring from satellites. The so-called CM-SAF, which is the abbreviation for 'Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring', is led by the DWD on behalf of EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. "The CM-SAF will make it possible to monitor natural and anthropogenic climate changes and evaluate them as to their temporal development and spatial impact. The advantage of this is apparent: The more we know about our environment and climate, the more we can adapt ourselves to the changes," pointed out Dr. Lars Prahm, Director-General of EUMETSAT.

He added that this task, considering its scope, the required expertise and the high costs involved, makes international distribution of responsibilities necessary. Together with its European co-operation partners, i.e. the National Meteorological Services of Belgium, Finland, the Netherlands (KNMI), Sweden, and Switzerland, the DWD has developed and set up an operational system for the provision of high-quality climate monitoring products from satellite data.

The CM-SAF will, for the first time in Europe, use satellite data on a routine basis to better observe and understand the climate. The CM-SAF provides products which supply information on important components of the climate system, such as the radiation balance of the Earth, water vapour content, and cloud cover.

The SAF data contribute not only to climate monitoring, but also help to make optimum use of solar energy, to improve climate forecasting models and, on the whole, to improve our understanding of the climate system. "This highlights the importance of the CM-SAF in the current climate discussion," said Prahm.

Satellite data supplement the traditional measuring networks
Satellite data supplement and improve the measurements and observations from traditional networks, such as weather stations, weather radars or weather balloons. Providing full area coverage from space, they can help to fill the 'white spots' on the meteorological map, oceans, for example, where far too few weather data are collected, or the upper layers of the atmosphere where data collection is only possible with weather balloons at specific points.

Another important aspect is the measuring of atmospheric conditions that cannot be recorded from the Earth's surface, e.g. the radiation conditions at the top of the atmosphere. "All these supplementary data extend our knowledge of the climate system enormously - and besides that help to improve our weather and severe weather forecasts", said Kusch.

EUMETSAT
The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites is an intergovernmental organisation with currently 20 European Member States (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom) and 10 Cooperating States (Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and the Czech Republic).

EUMETSAT is operating Meteosat-8 and -9 over Europe and Africa, and Meteosat-5,-6 and -7 over the Indian Ocean. Metop-A was launched in October 2006 and is presently undergoingcommissioning. The data, products and services from EUMETSAT’s satellites make a significant contribution to weather forecasting and to the monitoring of the global climate.

More information:
Please contact Livia Briese (EUMETSAT), Tel: +49 6151 807 839, press@eumetsat.int
Uwe Kirsche (DWD), Tel: +49 69 8062 4500, pressestelle@dwd.de