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Environment and climate: The space perspective - Simonetta Cheli
1. Environment and climate:
The space perspective
Dr. Simonetta Cheli
Head, Coordination Office of the ESA Earth Observation
Programmes
21 December 2011, Rome
2. Point of departure: Earth from space
• Called a “fragile oasis”,
Earth is our home with
finite resources
• Powered by the Sun
• Newly “discovered” with
the advent of the space age
3. The human race: ever growing
• According to the UN
Population Reference
Bureau, the world’s
population is reaching the
new milestone of 7 Billion
in October 2011
• The speed of growth is
alarming, with estimated 9
Billion by mid-century
4. The human footprint: not just a metaphor
Credit: University of Heidelberg
Example 1: The global distribution of NO2 as an indicator of atmospheric pollution.
Data are based on observations from Envisat. Correlation with human settlements
and (industrial) activity.
5. The human footprint: not just a metaphor
Example 2: Artificial surface patterns as result of human land use for agriculture /
food production (Phoenix, Arizona; and Imperial Valley [USA]).
6. The human footprint: not just a metaphor
Credit: University of Sheffield
Example 3: Traces of human activity in hostile environments – soil irrigation in the
southern Sahara as seen by the Envisat mission (detail).
8. The vantage of outer space
Credit: University of Sheffield
The advantage of satellite
observations from space:
Perpetual observations
Global coverage
Short revisit cycles and long-term
data sets
“Accessibility” through over-flight
Newest measurement technologies
International cooperation
9. In orbit: ESA Earth Observation missions
17 missions in space by
2015
More than 4000 projects
worldwide use their
data – increasing
further
More than 100 Terabyte
of data per year
30 partner missions
10. The discovery of the “System Earth”:
Earth systems science
Earth system science
seeks to integrate various
fields of scientific study to
understand the Earth as a
system.
It considers interaction
between the atmosphere,
hydrosphere, lithosphere
(geosphere), biosphere,
and cryosphere.
11. The IPCC Report 2007
– a 3.4°C increase in annual temperature (up to
3.7°C in spring), and
– a 23% decrease in winter rainfall, and
– a 13% decrease in spring rainfall
Precipitation: decrease in arid
regions and increase in wet areas
Storms: significantly stronger
Sea level rise: up to 48cm until 2100
Global temperature increase between
+ 2.4 and 6.4 degrees until 2100
Point of departure: A changing
environment
Surface air temperature anomalies
for southern Africa until 2100
Africa: Predictions for the southern
African region (averaged):
12. GMES: Global Monitoring for Environment &
Security
Flagship programme of EU and ESA:
European independency and contribution
to GEO
The Sentinel-Satellites and partner missions
will provide long-term space observations
7 satellite launches between 2013 and 2015
Services for a multitude of users and benefits
for all European citizens & beyond
EC discusses extension of GMES Africa
Open and Free Data Policy planned
13. The work of science
communities and ESA
for 11 selected ECVs
has started
ESA is coordinating
the programme at
international level, e.g.
with EUMETSAT and
EU
The Climate Change
Summits in
Copenhagen &
Cancun have
underlined the
importance of this
activity
The “ESA Climate Change Initiative”
Surface temperature changes based on natural forcings only (blue) or
natural and anthropogenic forcings (pink); observation average (black)
Source: IPCC 2007
14. UN Development Goals
Water: the “ blue gold” of
the 21st
century
The geopolitics of climate
change: stability, security
of supply
Access to and use of
energy
From global warming to
global warring
Climate Change: a threat to security –
demanding better preparedness
15. Climate Change and Security: an inherent link
Climate variations influence:
agricultural productivity
resource availability
health risk
migration patterns
and ultimately
conflict level of societies
* ‘2500 Years of European Climate Variability and Human
Susceptibility’, Büntgen et al., Science, 2011
16. A recent study in NATURE (Hsiang et al., Aug. 2011) found that in El Nino years,
twice as many civil wars occurred on global level, suggesting that there is a link
between climatic developments and societal stress levels.
Civil conflicts and climate: an association
17. Example: The Dafur Crisis – assistance from
orbit
• Satellite maps and geographical information
products directly for users in the field
• Use of ten sensors from nine spacecraft
• Envisat's ASAR identifies roads, shows land
relief and is sensitive to the presence of water
• Maps are produced within 10-12 hours of
satellite image acquisition
• Information is supplied to NGOs to intervene
more effectively
18. Conclusions
Spaceship Earth: not only a metaphor
Climate and environmental variations
have a fundamental impact on how we
live, behave and plan our actions
Worsening conditions lead to stress on
societies
Space technologies help to assess the
state of the planet and understand its
functioning
Space applications help the sustainable
management of food and water resources
and to release stress on societies
19. ESRIN – the ESA centre in Italy
Some 30.000 visitors per year
and a wealth of international
scientific conferences
642 staff and contractors are
working on site
– Earth Observation
– Vega Department
– Corporate Informatics
– Telecommunications
– Contracts, Site, Personnel,
Communication
– ASI Science Data Centre
– ESA Security Office