Transfer of ECV data products to climate services
Major operational climate services adopt 25 ECV products & systems developed by the ESA Climate Change Initiative
Over 25 climate data records and processing systems, developed by the ESA Climate Change Initiative and provide the observed evidence record for several key aspects of the climate, have been transferred and adopted by Europe’s major operational climate service providers.
By handing over mature prototype climate data products the ESA CCI ensures European citizens have access to reliable access to climate information and tools to support decision-making.
Operationalising CCI ECV products
A total of 22 have been transferred to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, with a further 3 adopted by EUMETSAT. As well as maintaining the operational systems they also perform temporal extensions of CDRs on a regular basis.
Datasets now available operationally, but based on CCI R&D include concentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide or methane), sea-ice thickness, sea level, sea-surface temperature, land cover and ocean colour and are readily available by each organisations online data stores. These data products are routinely used in the C3S European State of the Climate report and other monitoring activities.
Supporting climate services: on-going research
Once transferred, the CCI continues to provide research and development input to support the evolving needs of the climate services to, for example, update processing algorithms and accommodate data from new, and future, satellite missions.
Developing ECV products
The CCI focusses on performing pre-operational R&D, using the best available science, to develop data products that address a suite of Essential Climate Variables.
Project activities focussed on ECV develop product development include specification, algorithm development and improvement, uncertainty characterisation, product generation, pre-operational system definition, sizing and demonstration.
The aim of CCI is not to build operational processing systems. Instead, CCI develops and demonstrates earth observation (EO) retrieval techniques and software systems for pre-operational ECV production in a research context.
