Speaker
Description
Water vapour is the single most important natural greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, thereby constraining the Earth’s energy balance, directly and indirectly through the water vapour feedback mechanism. In addition, water vapour is a key component of the water cycle. There is consequently the need to consolidate our knowledge of natural variability and past changes in water vapour and to establish climate data records (CDRs) of both total column and vertically resolved water vapour for use in climate research. This is the objective of the ESA Water Vapour Climate Change Initiative (WV_cci).
Within WV_cci a global total column water vapour (TCWV) data record was generated by combining microwave over the ice-free ocean with near-infrared imager based TCWV over land, coastal ocean and sea-ice. The data record relies on microwave imager observations, partly based on a fundamental climate data record from EUMETSAT CM SAF and on near-infrared observations from MERIS, MODIS and OLCI. Both, the microwave and near-infrared data streams are processed independently and combined afterwards by not changing the individual TCWV values and their uncertainties. The latest version of the data record is freely available to the public via 10.5676/EUM_SAF_CM/COMBI/V001. A new version will be released in 2025 which relies on more sensors, improved stability and uncertainty characterisation and a high-resolution regional product will be generated as well.
This presentation will briefly introduce WV_cci and the data records and then focuses on: new developments and improvements, results from validation and comparison to various other data records, results from variability, temporal change analysis and example applications.
| You plan to attend | On site (at FZ Jülich) |
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