10th ESA Climate Change Initiative Colocation Meeting

Online meeting from 9-11 September 2020

Climate from Space: the evidence

From their unique vantage point, satellites provide key lines of scientific evidence to understand the climate.

What is the Climate Change Initiative?

The CCI aims to realise the full potential of the long-term global Earth Observation archives that ESA has established over the past 30 years, as a significant and timely contribution to the ECV databases required by UNFCCC.

Essential Climate Variables: the projects

Twenty-two dedicated projects are developing long-term global data records, as part of ESA’s Climate Change Initiative, to track changes across the oceans, atmosphere and land

ESA Missions relating to Climate

Satellite missions carry a wide variety of instruments, using both passive and active sensing techniques, and exploit different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The climate of a region is its predominant weather conditions, averaged over many years

Scientific evidence for warming of the climate is unequivocal (IPCC Fifth Assessment Report, 2013)

CCI uses climate knowledge and technical capabilities from across ESA Member States to support research and development.

Satellites observing Earth provide a clear picture of changes across the entire planet, measuring and monitoring our vast oceans, land, atmosphere and areas that are difficult to reach, such as the polar regions.