Dieter Klaes

Hyperspectral Earth Observation from IASI: Five Years of Accomplishments

The Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) forms the main infrared sounding component of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellitess (EUMETSATs) Meteorological Operation (MetOp)-A satellite (Klaes et al. 2007), which was launched in October 2006. This article presents the results of the first 4 yr of the operational IASI mission. The performance of the instrument is shown to be exceptional in terms of calibration and stability. The quality of the data has allowed the rapid use of the observations in operational numerical weather prediction (NWP) and the development of new products for atmospheric chemistry and climate studies, some of which were unexpected before launch. The assimilation of IASI observations in NWP models provides a significant forecast impact; in most cases the impact has been shown to be at least as large as for any previous instrument. In atmospheric chemistry, global distributions of gases, such as ozone and carbon monoxide, can be produ...

Atmospheric measurements from the MSG and EPS systems

Abstract The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and the European Space Agency (ESA) are currently developing the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) and the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS). The first satellites in these series, MSG-1 and METOP-1 (METeorological Operational satellite) are expected to start providing validated observations of the atmosphere and the underlying surfaces in 2002 and 2005, respectively. The three MSG satellites will carry a 12-channel imager, the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) and a Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) radiometer. EPS, as the European contribution to the US/European Initial Joint Polar System (IJPS), will deliver imagery and soundings from the morning orbit, while the NOAA Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite (POES) and Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) systems will continue to cover the afternoon orbit. The MSG and EPS systems are briefly introduced with emphasis on their innovative capabilities for observing the atmosphere.

Recent Advances in Satellite Data Rescue

AbstractTo better understand the impacts of climate change, environmental monitoring capabilities must be enhanced by deploying additional and more accurate satellite- and ground-based (including in situ) sensors. In addition, reanalysis of observations collected decades ago but long forgotten can unlock precious information about the recent past. Historical, in situ observations mainly cover densely inhabited areas and frequently traveled routes. In contrast, large selections of early meteorological satellite data, waiting to be exploited today, provide information about remote areas unavailable from any other source. When initially collected, these satellite data posed great challenges to transmission and archiving facilities. As a result, data access was limited to the main teams of scientific investigators associated with the instruments. As archive media have aged, so have the mission scientists and other pioneers of satellite meteorology, who sometimes retired in possession of unique and unpublished...

The joint polar system: Towards the second generation eumetsat polar system

This paper present the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) polar orbiting satellite programmes. EUMETSAT operates today two polar orbiting satellites of the EUMETSAT Polar System in the so-called morning orbit with an equatorial descending crossing-time of 09:30 UTC. They constitute the European contribution to the Joint Polar System (JPS). The two satellites, denoted Metop-A and -B are part of the three satellite EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS). The third satellite of this first generation polar satellite series will be launched towards the end of 2018. In parallel EUMETSAT is preparing for its EPS Second Generation (SG) constellation. This is a twin-satellite system with three satellites each. The Metop-SG A-satellites form the imaging platform with the optical imaging, infrared and microwave sounding, aerosol imaging and radio occultation missions. It also hosts the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission. The Metop-SG B-satellites are dedicated to microwave and submillimeter-wave imaging, scatterometry and radio occultation. It also hosts the ARGOS data collection system. This paper gives and overview of these two EUMETSAT programmes.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Recent Advances in C-Band Scatterometry

The 23 papers in this special issue are grouped into the following headings: 1) Instrumentation, Calibration, Validation, and Processing; 2) Ocean Applications; 3) Land Applications (soil moisture, vegetation, and land freeze/thaw cycles); 4) Polar Snow and Ice Applications.