ESA’s Climate Change Initiative
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change leads international efforts to combat climate change and limit global temperature rise to less 2°C above what it was in pre-industrial times, as set out in the Paris Agreement. Robust scientific evidence of change is fundamental this challenging task.
Through its Climate Change Initiative (CCI), ESA develops a suite of satellite data records of key components of the climate system, known as Essential Climate Variables (ECVs). Scientists use ECVs to study climate drivers, interactions and feedbacks, as well as reservoirs, tipping points and fluxes of energy, water, and carbon. These climate-quality datasets are a major contribution to the evidence base used to understand climate change and to predict the future, which drives international action.
Information derived from satellite data can contribute to more than half of the 54 ECVs identified by the Global Climate Observing System.
Scientific excellence
Expert science teams drawn from ESA Member States undertake research to generate the CCI ECVs that track changes across the world’s oceans, atmosphere and land. All the CCI data products have fully characterised uncertainties and are validated using independent, traceable, in situ measurements. A growing body of climate data records are now available freely via the CCI Open Data Portal.
ESA’s Climate Office oversees additional research projects that use multiple ECVs to address complex science questions, including closing the global and regional carbon and sea-level budgets.
The Climate Modelling User Group is a dedicated forum links the climate modelling community to Earth observation experts, thereby fostering collaboration across the CCI programme.
Impact
Thanks to the CCI, around 650 peer-reviewed research papers have been published. This body of work supports the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's headline statements in both its 5th Assessment Report and Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate.
The Climate Office works closely with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites and climate services such as the Copernicus Climate Change Service, to ensure coordination and complementarity.
Supporting researchers
The CCI supports over 450 scientists working in a myriad of institutes across ESA Member States to carry out the research and development the projects require.
A post-doctoral fellowship scheme supports early-career scientists to undertake research into the changing Earth system, exploiting the CCI data products in the process. The Climate Office hosts research fellows and young graduate trainees, and is also a partner on the UK Oxford Doctoral Training Programme, and the Steering Committee of the UK Earth Observation Centre for Doctoral Training.
Climate hub
Bringing together academia and industry, the Climate Office is the point of contact for organisations searching for global climate information, data, and new opportunities.
Working closely with specialist ESA teams, the Climate Office supports the preparation of upcoming satellite sensors and missions.
Through national, European and global networks, the Climate Office promotes opportunities arising from ESA projects relating to climate mitigation, adaptation and resilience. The team also coordinates on new methodologies for data quality and assurance, and on artificial intelligence for understanding the climate.
International outlook
The Climate Office represents ESA as an observer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as a member of the Joint Committee for Earth Observation Satellites and the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites’ Working Group, as member of the Group on Earth Observations’ Working Group on Climate, and as part of the World Climate Research Programme’s Data Advisory Council. The team has strong links with other space agencies, and a partnership agreement with the global research network Future Earth.
Communicating climate
Through the Climate Office’s knowledge exchange project, a new online application is being developed to visualise the CCI datasets along with an online toolbox for data analysis and packs of education resources to help students and the wider public access datasets and learn more about climate change.
Get the data
The ESA Climate Change Initiative's Open Data Portal provides free and Open Access to +100 high-quality satellite-derived climate datasets.
