Little Picture - essential variables
a Little Picture represents the climate variables monitored from space
Essential Climate Variables are the key aspect of the Earth system used to understand and monitor climate change. The European Space Agency's Climate Change Initiative uses satellite observations to create reliable, long-term datasets for 27 of these important variables.
ESA tracks various ECVs from sea surface temperature, greenhouse gas
concentrations to land cover changes. These data enable scientists to identify trends, improve predictions of change and better understand climate cycles, feedbacks and tipping points.
Collectively, these records inform decisions to tackle climate change and protect our planet's future.
About
The Little Picture graphic does not use datasets but highlights the Essential Climate Variables that ESA is generating to understand the Earth system.
Data
The Little Picture merely represents the 27 Essential Climate Variables under development by the ESA Climate Change Initiative
Code
There were no scripts used to build this Little Picture
Licence
This Little Picture is published under CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.
The big picture
The European Space Agency (ESA), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) work closely together to measure, process & make space-derived information about the climate available.
ESA
The mission of the Climate Change Initiative (CCI) is to realise the full potential of the long-term global Earth Observation archives that the European Space Agency (ESA), together with its Member states, has established over the past 40 years, as a significant and timely contribution to the climate databases required by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The ESA Climate Office provides a free & open CCI data facility bringing together ECV data from across its twenty-seven climate science projects, including a CCI Data Standards and a CCI Toolbox.
ECMWF
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) supports society by providing freely available authoritative information about the past, present and future climate in Europe and the rest of the World. C3S is one of the six thematic information services provided by the Copernicus Earth Observation Programme of the European Union, and has been entrusted by the European Commission to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). One of the core components of C3S includes the Climate Data Store (CDS). This is a one-stop shop for climate information. It provides free and easy access to a wide range of climate datasets via a searchable catalogue. A freely available online toolbox allows users to build workflows and applications suited to their needs.
EUMETSAT
EUMETSAT operates missions both to provide weather and climate data for its member states, and as an entrusted entity under the Copernicus programme. Several missions are operated collaboratively with ESA, providing complimentary expertise and data processing, to process and distribute land, marine, and atmosphere relevant products for users. Data from EUMETSAT operated missions is frequently available in near-real-time, facilitating rapid monitoring and forecasting. Via EUMETCast, the EUMETSAT Data Services, or WEkEO, users can access data in ways that suit their needs. The data is used by the EUMETSAT satellite applications facilities, as well as across the various Copernicus Services.
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