UK Scientists Win Roles in Climate Change Programme

UK scientists have won the lead in over €5million worth of contracts, in a new initiative to unlock the complexities of climate change. The ESA Climate Change Initiative, will use Earth Observation (EO) to help generate Essential Climate Variables (ECV’s) for our planet. The UK Space Agency has contributed £15 million over 6 years to the ECV programme, or approximately 20% of the overall project budget.

Essential Climate Variables (ECV’s) describe key environmental parameters which, taken together, are able to describe our past, present and future climate on Earth and include atmospheric variables, such as ozone content, snow cover, fire disturbance and ocean salinity. David Williams from the UK Space Agency said, “This outcome reflects the impressive UK record in Earth Observation data handling, data assimilation and climate modelling. Excellent programmes like these mean the UK can help lead European efforts to understand the changing face of our planet.”

Following a competitive bidding process to address 10 ECV’s, UK scientists have won involvement in every successful bid and will lead on: 1) sea surface temperature; led by Dr. Chris Merchant at the University of Edinburgh; 2) Ocean Colour; led by Dr Shubha Sathyendranath at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory; and 3)The Climate Modelling User Group (CMUG); led by Dr. Roger Saunders at the Met Office.