GAIA-CLIM
The GAIA-CLIM (Gap Analysis for Integrated Atmospheric ECV CLImate Monitoring) project has been recently funded in the frame of the call EO-3-2014 ‘Observation capacity mapping in the context of Atmospheric and Climate change monitoring’ of EU framework program for Research and innovation Horizon2020. The project will start on March 1^st , 2015, and the Kick-off meeting will be hosted by the CNR-IMAA in Matera. The project sees 21 partners involved, including European insitutions, met service and US partners, such as ECMWF, MetOffice, NOAA, under the coordination of NERSC (Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center).
The project will develop appropriate methods to map reference quality comparators onto EO measurements. It will document gaps in the current observing system and all aspects of measurement uncertainty mapping, and propose strategies to address these including recommendations regarding future funding of surface and sub-orbital observing capabilities to meet long term EO comparator needs. Finally, it will develop tools to aid end users through a ‘virtual observatory’. The project will significantly increase the quality and use of ground based data for validation of satellite sensors and climatological models, with relapses of considerable interest for several sectors (climate, ocean monitoring and extreme events, land conservation, …) and end users (meteorological services, civil protection, space agencies, environmental agencies, …).
CNR will coordinate the activities aiming at reviewing the current observing capability from existing networks and stations at European and global scale for at least the core Essential Climate Variables related to the atmosphere, land and ocean.
CNR will also cooperate in the frame of the activities that will provide a comprehensive characterization of the total uncertainty budget for the measurements of water vapour and aerosol optical properties in the upper atmosphere using lidar and microwave techniques.
Finally, CNR will provide support to the study of the problems related to the collocation mismatch of ground based and satellite measurements.”
Task 1.2: Metadata collection