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Applications and projects
Earth Observation Center
Applications and projects
Projects: Civil Security - Environment
Projects: Land Surface
Applications and Projects: Atmosphere
According to the current plans of space agencies and satellite operators, in the course of the next two decades over 100 satellite-based instruments will be providing a wealth of data about the earth’s atmosphere from ground level up to the border to outer space. The spectrum extends from detecting trace gases and aerosols to clouds, precipitation and radiation to global measurement of temperature and wind. In parallel, powerful data communication and analysis systems will be established in order to make these data available in a standardized format and ready to use worldwide in near-real-time.
Anwendungen und Projekte: Atmosphäre
ENDORSE is involved in the user-driven creation of so-called ‘downstream services’ for the renewable energies sector of the European Union’s Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) Programme. Based on the GMES services for land, atmosphere and security, specific applications will be developed together with users from the fields of solar energy, wind energy, distributed power networks, bioenergy and daylighting for buildings.
The goal of the ESA project aerosol_cci, a climate change initiative, is to design consistent prototype algorithms for the production of long-term aerosol data sets from several European earth observation sensors. The project starts with an in depth analysis and comparison of the retrieval results for several existing algorithms. Based on this analysis, elements of community algorithms and harmonized retrieval are then developed. Topics of investigation are the different assumptions and approaches for modeling optical aerosol properties, how to deal with surface reflectance and its anisotropy, cloud masking, and the use of auxiliary data sets.
Within Europe’s family of GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) projects, MACC-II (Monitoring Atmospheric Composition and Climate, phase 2) deals with the atmosphere. DLR is in charge of the MACC solar radiation service and the interface to MACC-II users. Furthermore, DLR contributes satellite-based information on stratospheric ozone chemistry, tropospheric trace gases and aerosols.
The Sahara is a huge reservoir for the introduction of dust into the atmosphere, which can be carried as far as the Americas in air currents. In the SAMUM (Saharan Mineral Dust Experiment) project, the optical effects of mineral dust will be investigated in detail. A team of eight national institutes will take in-situ aerial as well as remote sensing measurements and combine them with models to derive information on the spatial distribution and transport of these dust layers as well as their physical and chemical composition.
- Volcano Monitoring (PROMOTE and EXUPERY)
Volcanic eruptions not only endanger the local population, they can also have a negative effect on air traffic. Because the eruption clouds of volcanoes threaten the functioning of airplane engines, operators of aircraft needs to be promptly informed about volcanic eruptions so that flight paths can be modified accordingly.
Virtual Institute "Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus" (UFS)
The Environmental Research Station Schneefernerhaus (2650 a.s.l.) on the mountain Zugspitze is an internationally linked center of competence for high altitude, climate and environmental research with focus on development, demonstration and operation of innovative technologies in the context of atmospheric and climate research, satellite validation, model verification, quality assurance for value added products (e.g. in the framework of GMES), analyses for the understanding of climate system processes, environmental and high altitude medicine, early detection of natural hazards, cosmic radiation and radioactivity. The UFS has the status of a global station within the Global Atmosphere Watch Programme (GAW) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It is in addition part of the NDACC program and linked with the ICSU/WMO World Data Center for Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere (WDC-RSAT), which is hosted by DFD.
As part of the EU Seventh Framework Program, the EnerGEO project was established to devise a strategy for estimating the influence of the exploitation and use of energy resources on the environment and various ecosystems. This assessment will be based on models and remote sensing data. The strategy is to be demonstrated making use of pilot projects involving a variety of energy sources, including fossil fuels, biomass, solar energy and wind power.
Helmholtz Alliance Planetary Evolution and Life
The Helmholtz Alliance is using an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the relationships between the formation of planets and the evolution of life. Entire planets are included in the study, from their outer envelopes of magnetosphere and atmosphere to their core. Beginning with Earth, other planetary bodies in our solar system will also be studied, such as the earthlike planets Venus and Mars. But moons are also a subject of investigation, on which life is at least theoretically possible according to present knowledge. The wide-ranging methodologies being developed may also even involve planets outside our solar system.
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