Earth System Science The contribution of remote sensing

Remote Sensing (GRS-20306)

Contents

Definition of Earth System Science (ESS) Examples of ESS approaches (and limitations)

● Climate change (temperature) ● Carbon cycle (land sink/source)

ESA developments

Earth Science (Wikipedia)

Earth science (also known as geoscience, the geosciences or the Earth Sciences), is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth.

There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth science. The major historic disciplines use physics, geology, mathematics, chemistry, and biology to build a quantitative understanding of the principal areas or spheres of the Earth system.

Earth Science

Interdisciplinary and interaction based research fields in the Earth Science are

● Biogeochemistry follows the cycling of elements through the spheres

● Mineralogy considers the rock-forming minerals on the atomic length-scale as part of geosystems

● Paleoceanography and paleoclimatology use the properties of sediments, ice cores, or biological material to infer past states of the ocean, atmosphere or climate

● Meteorology describes, explains and predicts the weather ● Climatology describes and explains the climate. ● Atmospheric chemistry describes, explains and predicts the

chemical composition of the atmosphere ● Hydrology considers the flow of water through the Earth. ● Geo-Information, providing methods used in Cartography,

Geoinformatics (GIS), Geostatistics, Geodesy and Surveying for the Earth

Earth System Science

Many scientists are now starting to use an approach known as Earth system science which treats the entire Earth as a system in its own right, which evolves as a result of positive and negative feedback between constituent systems. The systems approach, enabled by the combined use of computer models as hypotheses tested by global satellite and ship-board data, is increasingly giving scientists the ability to explain the past and possible future behaviour of the Earth system. Complex computer models which seek to model several

different parts of the Earth system and the interactions between them are known as Earth system models. Many are based on Global climate models and include sub models for the ocean, atmosphere, biosphere and other parts of the earth system. These interactions are of particular importance when trying to understand changes over decades to centuries and longer periods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_system_science

Example 1: Predicted temperature rise (IPCC)

Predicted temperature rise in 2100 using various models and scenarios. From this result, it remains undisputed that a temperature rise will take place.

Example 2: Carbon cycle

Main open questions: ● Where and how large

are the terrestrial carbon sinks?

● How are they distributed among biomes?

● What are the key processes which regulate the terrestrial component of the carbon cycle?

● How to measure the carbon budget of regions, or continents and verify policy measures

http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov

Rast, M., Baret, F., van de Hurk, B., Knorr, W., Mauser, W., Menenti, M., Miller, J., Moreno, J., Schaepman, M.E., & Verstraete, M. (2004). SPECTRA - Surface Processes and Ecosystem Changes Through Response Analysis. ESA Publications Division, ESA SP-1279(2), Noordwijk.

Example 2: Global carbon balance

Future questions: ● How will the

biospheric uptake evolve?

● Is the current biospheric sink stable in time?

● Are there unknown feed-backs?

Knorr, 2002

Left columns: 1980-1989 / Right columns: 1990-1999

Rast, M., Baret, F., van de Hurk, B., Knorr, W., Mauser, W., Menenti, M., Miller, J., Moreno, J., Schaepman, M.E., & Verstraete, M. (2004). SPECTRA - Surface Processes and Ecosystem Changes Through Response Analysis. ESA Publications Division, ESA SP-1279(2), Noordwijk.

Example 2: Model divergence

Main issues ● Different descriptions of biosphere/atmosphere interactions result

in significant impact of parameterisations on long term predictions ● Divergence of models owing to different parameterisations

Rast, M., Baret, F., van de Hurk, B., Knorr, W., Mauser, W., Menenti, M., Miller, J., Moreno, J., Schaepman, M.E., & Verstraete, M. (2004). SPECTRA - Surface Processes and Ecosystem Changes Through Response Analysis. ESA Publications Division, ESA SP-1279(2), Noordwijk.

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ESA Science Strategy

The Changing Earth ● an updated science

strategy for ESA’s Living Planet Programme

● Consultation on the strategy with the scientific community was undertaken

● the document addresses Earth science through the five topics: oceans, atmosphere, cryosphere, land and solid Earth and identifies the challenges for each of these

● particular emphasis is put on the Earth system approach, and on the effect of mankind on that system

Simon, P.C., Hollingsworth, A., Carli, B., Källen, E., Rott, H., Partington, K., Moreno, J., Schaepman, M.E., Mauser, W., Flemming, N.C., Visbeck, M., Vermeersen, B.L.A., Van Dam, T., Reigber, C., Grassl, H., Bougeault, P., England, P., Friis-Christensen, F., Johannessen, J., Kelder, H., Kosuth, P., Pinardi, N., Quegan, S., & Sobrino, J.A. (2006). The Changing Earth. In (ed B. Battrick), Vol. SP-1304, pp. 83. ESA, Noordwijk (NL).

ESA’s Living Planet Programme

Related organisations

IGBP (http://www.igbp.net/) ● International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme

GEO (http://www.earthobservations.org/) ● The intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO) is

leading a worldwide effort to build a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) over the next 10 years

CEOS (http://www.ceos.org/) ● Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) membership

encompasses the world's government agencies responsible for civil Earth Observation (EO) satellite programs, along with agencies that receive and process data acquired remotely from space

GMES (http://www.gmes.info/) ● The ‘Global Monitoring for Environment and Security’ (GMES)

represents a concerted effort to bring data and information providers together with users, so they can make environmental and security-related information available to the people who need it through enhanced or new services.

National Space Agencies ● ESA, NASA, JAXA, IRSA, CSA, etc.

Questions ???