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Global Environmental Data IClimate

Evelyn Uuemaa

Spatial Data Studio

EODIS NASA Worldviewhttps://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/

Main organisations for global climate data

ESA (European Space Agency)http://cci.esa.int/

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Informationhttps://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/

• Land-Based Stations

• Satellite

• Radar

• Models

• Weather Balloons

• Marine and Ocean

• Paleoclimatology

• Severe Weather

Katrina

Sources of Climate Data• Before 1950, very sparse, unreliable data.

• Since 1950, reliable global data. –Ocean temperature and pressure are based on data from ships.

–Most land data, (solar, precipitation, temperature and pressure) comes from weather stations.

• Since 1981, data has been available from earth orbiting satellites.‒ Since 1999 TERRA, the flagship of the NASA earth observing system, is providing

much more detailed data.

• Radar

• Weather Balloons

• Models

• Paleoclimatology

Near Real-Time Data

• The NASA land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS provides free Access to global Earth Science data and imagery within3 hours of observation

Land-Based Stations & Ships

• Land-based observations are collected from instruments sited at locations on every continent. They include temperature, dew point, relative humidity, precipitation, wind speed and direction, visibility, atmospheric pressure, and types of weather occurrences such as hail, fog, and thunder

Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN)

Data available at: ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/daily/ Ross McKitrick

Interpolation

https://docs.qgis.org/2.2/en/docs/gentle_gis_introduction/spatial_analysis_interpolation.html

Seasonal changes in precipitation in Africa based on monthly averages

Radar

• Radar, an acronym for RadioDetection and Ranging, is an object detection system that uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction of movement, and speed of objects. The antenna transmits pulses of radio waves or microwaves, which bounce off any object in their path. The object returns a tiny part of the wave's energy to a dish or antenna.

Doppler Radar is good for detecting precipitation

Weather Balloon Data• Weather data from the atmosphere, beginning at three

meters above the Earth's surface, are considered weather balloon or upper air data. These data are obtained from radiosondes, which are instrument packages tethered to balloons that are launched from the ground, ascend through the troposphere into the stratosphere, and transmit back to a receiving station on the ground.

• The Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA) consists of radiosonde and pilot balloon observations at over 2,700 globally distributed stations. The earliest data date back to 1905, and recent data become available in near real time.

Paleoclimatology

Satellites

EOS

(Earth Observing

System)

Main types of orbit

Temporal resolution

• What temporal and spatial resolution is needed for your problem

-View the same location at all times

-View the whole globe often

-View a spot at high spatial resolution

A-Train Afternoon Constellation

Challenges in EOS

• Science requirements drive the operations concepts both themissioon and the constellation design.

AURA

AQUAExample:

Science requirement:

Aura’s Microwave Limb

Sounder (MLS) instrument

needs to view the same air

mass on the horizon that

Aqua observed 8 minutes

earlier by looking down.

Solution: Aura orbits 8-15

minutes behind Aqua,

offset 215 km West.

AURA

• Carries 4 instruments:

‒ HIRDLS — High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder —measures infrared radiation from ozone, water vapor, CFCs, methane and nitrogen compounds

‒ MLS — Microwave Limb Sounder — measures emissions from ozone, chlorine and other trace gases, and clarifies the role of water vapor in global warming.

‒ OMI — Ozone Monitoring Instrument — uses ultraviolet and visible radiation to produce daily high-resolution maps.

‒ TES — Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer — measures tropospheric ozone in infrared wavelengths, also carbon monoxide, methane and nitrogen oxides.

Vertical profile view from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument on NASA's AURA

Distribution of water vapor molecules over Earth's tropics

AQUA

• Aqua carries 6 instruments:‒ AMSR-E — Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS — measures cloud properties, sea

surface temperature, near-surface wind speed, radiative energy flux, surface water, ice and snow.

‒ MODIS — Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, also measures cloud properties and radiative energy flux, also aerosol properties; land cover and land use change, fires and volcanoes. This instrument is also aboard Terra.

‒ AMSU-A — Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit — measures atmospheric temperature and humidity.

‒ AIRS — Atmospheric Infrared Sounder — measures atmospheric temperature and humidity, land and sea surface temperatures.

‒ HSB — Humidity Sounder for Brazil — VHF band equipment measuring atmospheric humidity.

‒ CERES — Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System, Flying Models 3 and 4, measure broadband radiative energy flux.

Carbon Dioxide in Earth’s Mid-Troposphere April 2013 Monthly Averageobtained from NASA’s AQUA Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)

TERRA• Terra carries five instruments that observe Earth’s atmosphere, ocean,

land, snow and ice, and energy budget. Taken together, these observations provide unique insight into how the Earth system works and how it is changing. Terra observations reveal humanity’s impact on the planet and provide crucial data about natural hazards like fire and volcanoes.

• ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer). ASTER is the only high spatial resolution instrument on the Terra platform.

• CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System)• MISR (Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer)• MODIS (Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)• MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere)

Sequence of images and cloud-top height observations for Hurricane Wilma(2005) by TERRA

These global scale composite images show where more or less shortwave radiant energy is reflected back into space (left), and where more or less longwave radiant energy is emitted to space (right). TERRA

What do they measure?

CERES

Models

• Looking into the past, present, and future, four broad categories of modeled data are available through NOAA :

‒ Reanalysis

‒ Numerical Weather Prediction

‒ Ocean Models

‒ Climate Prediction

Reanalysis• Through a variety of methods, observations from various instruments

are added together onto a regularly spaced grid of data. Placing all instrument observations onto a regularly spaced grid makes comparing the actual observations with other gridded datasets easier. In addition to putting observations onto a grid, reanalysis also holds the gridding model constant.

Numerical Weather Prediction

• Numerical Weather Prediction uses mathematical models of theatmosphere and oceans to predict the weather based on currentweather conditions.

• NWP focuses on taking current observations of weather and processing these data with computer models to forecast the future state of weather.

Ocean models

• Ocean models are numerical models with a focus on the properties of oceans and their circulation. Ocean models play a large role in aiding our understanding of the ocean's influence on weather and climate.

Climate prediction• Climate prediction is similar to numerical weather prediction, but the

forecasts are for longer periods. Special numerical models are used to alter trace atmospheric gases (carbon dioxide and methane, for example), sea ice and glacier cover, changes in incoming solar radiation, and a host of other parameters.

Downscaling

Jeremy Litell, 2010

Different types of Downscaling

• Simple (Giorgi and Mearns, 1991) – Adding coarse scale climate changes to higher resolution observations (the delta approach)

– More sophisticated - interpolation of coarser resolution results (Maurer et al. 2002, 2007)

• Statistical – Statistically relating large scale climate features (e.g., 500 mbheights), predictors, to local climate (e.g, daily, monthly temperature at a point), predictands

• Dynamical – Application of regional climate model using global climate model boundary conditions

Confusion can arise when the term „downscaling‟ is used – could mean any of the above

Uncertainties

• A finer scale does not necessarily mean the projections are more realistic or better constrained.

• Generally, all methods can be stepped down from the monthly to a daily or finer time step but you have to make certain assumptions that can add to uncertainty.

• Additional key questions:

‒ Is more to be gained by finer downscaling?

‒ Is it worth the additional cost and potential uncertainty?

‒ How does the scale of information match the detail of the ecosystem impact model being used?

Jeremy Litell, 2010

Incorporating climate models into otherecosystem models (i.e. vegetation, habitat)• Explicit models: climate is a direct predictor of an ecosystem

response. Direct relationships reduce uncertainty.

• Implicit models: climate impact on ecosystem response is indirect (e.g., model predictors are elevation, lat/long, or site index, not temp or precip directly)

Models based on direct relationships between climate and ecosystem response are one way to reduce uncertainty in projections – reduces the risk for false assumptions about causation vs correlation

Jeremy Litell, 2010

Hovmöller diagramGlobal rainfall

How does Hövmöller diagramm work?

References

• Nasa Webinar: Environmental Data Management Best Practices• NASA Earthdata Webinar: Environmental Data Management Best Practices:

Part 2 Geospatial• NASA Webinar: NetCD what? An Ecologist’s Guide to Working with Daymet

and other NetCDF formatted Data• NASA webpage• NOAA webpage• Integrating Climate Change and Forest Vegetation Models for Adaptation

PlanningTools for managing uncertainty in a changing climate by Jeremy Littell

• The influence of anthropogenic surface processes and inhomogeneities on gridded global climate data by Ross McKitrick