UK modelling hub helps power climate action
A new UK-based project office that coordinates international climate modelling efforts is set to make key contributions to the rejuvenated global drive to promote a greener, more sustainable future.
It is based at ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT) in Oxfordshire, which is also home to the agency’s focal point for climate-related research, called the Climate Office.
The new project office will work with expert modellers around the world to improve long-term projections of environmental change, helping the international community act to combat the climate crisis.
These activities were highlighted this week during a launch event held at the ESA’s Living Planet Symposium, organised to showcase the latest developments in the field of Earth observation.
Recognising the growing importance of climate modelling, the World Climate Research Programme – which helps to coordinate global climate research – selected ESA to host the new project office to support the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), an initiative that uses modelling to better understand past, present and future environmental changes.
Initiated by the World Climate Research Programme in 1995, CMIP brings together dozens of climate modelling centres from countries around the world.
As part of the project, scientists validate climate models by testing how they perform against real-world observations, helping to identify how models could be improved to better represent the environment. This gives greater confidence to future projections of the climate.
The project office at ECSAT will facilitate these efforts by providing crucial scientific and technical support to CMIP’s modelling centres.
Model outputs delivered by CMIP are having an increasing impact on society, supporting the activities of governments and private industry. CMIP also makes vital contributions to global climate assessments from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Director of the CMIP International Project Office Eleanor O’Rourke said: “By coordinating climate simulations across a range of models, CMIP helps to evaluate their performance, leading to improvements in how the model represents the earth system and providing a better understanding of past, present, and future climates. The growing importance of CMIP is demonstrated through its contributions to successive IPCC assessment reports.”
Head of ESA’s Climate Office Susanne Mecklenburg said: “Hosting the new CMIP office aligns with ESA’s long-term strategic commitment to provide high-quality observation-based climate data records to support the modelling community.
“The accurate spatial and temporal view provided by satellites helps to reduce uncertainties in climate models, gives greater confidence in their results and ultimately supports nations to deliver effective climate action and fulfil their pledges under the Paris Agreement.”
