Copernicus Service catalogue
app-climate-monitoring-cci
The "Climate monitoring facility: comparing model and observations datasets" is an interactive web based application designed to demonstrate and study regional and global climate impacts of climate change. It allows users to display Climate Data Records (CDRs), including the essential climate variable (ECV) datasets produced by the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) ECV projects, and reanalysis products.
The graphical output from this application allows users to study signals in the time-series of monthly average statistics and long-range trends and, where data is available, it is possible to compare observation and model data on the same charts.
The geographical regions used in this application contain areas defined in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 6th Assessment Report (IPCC AR6). The AR6 regions are climatologically consistent regions encompassing a representative number of grid boxes.
This application is the result of collaboration between Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the European Space Agency Climate Model User Group (CMUG). It is driven by the ESA CCI ECVs comprising of satellite measurements, ERA5 - the fifth generation ECMWF atmospheric reanalysis of the global climate, and ORAS5 - Ocean Reanalysis System 5. ERA5 currently describes the global history of the atmosphere for the period from 1979 till present time, using a combination of forecast models and data assimilation systems to 'reanalyse' past observations. ORAS5 is the ECMWF OCEAN5 ocean analysis-reanalysis system, it uses the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) ocean model and the NEMOVAR ocean assimilation system.
The application provides a choice of several climate variables and data sources, spatial aggregation is presented as selectable regions on the interactive map. Selecting a region produces three charts for that region:
- Time series of absolute values for a range of statistics: monthly mean, seasonal trends, annual trends.
- Time series of anomalies for a range of statistics: monthly mean, seasonal trends, annual trends.
- The statistics are calculated from monthly mean anomalies and the anomalies are calculated with respect to the data availability period with only full years included.
- Climate stripes for the monthly mean anomalies.
User-selectable parameters
- Variable: monthly mean climate fields. Some variables are available from several datasets. Variables from different datasets have undergone a unit conversion to make them homogeneous across different datasets.
- Data source: source of data. Options are: Observations and Model. Observations cover all satellite observations. Model data cover reanalyses (currently ERA5).
- Geographical zones (AR6 IPCC defined) for spatial averaging are displayed as a selectable layer on the map and colour coded according to the land-sea mask: light blue - seas only, light orange - land only, light grey - land and seas.
| INPUT VARIABLES | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Units | Description | Source |
| Aerosol optical depth | ~ | Aerosol optical depth (AOD, or sometimes Aerosol optical thickness) is a measure of the degree to which transmission of light through a volume of atmosphere is reduced due to extinction (scattering and absorption) by aerosol. It is equivalent to the integral of the extinction coefficient over a vertical column of unit cross section. Typical global average aerosol optical depth is about 0.15; in rare cases atmospheric aerosol optical depth can reach 3. Typically aerosol optical depth observations are reported at the mid-visible reference wavelength of 550 nm. Sensor on satellite: AATSR on Envisat; Algorithm: ENS (product based on an ensemble of algorithms); Version: 3.0. | Satellite aerosol properties |
| Carbon dioxide | ppm | Column-average dry-air mole fraction of atmospheric carbon dioxide (XCO2) L3 product derived from satellite observations. Average molar mixing ratio (or mole fraction in micro mole carbon dioxide (CO2) per mole dry air) of the total atmospheric column (excluding water vapour molecules) from Earth surface to the top of the atmosphere. The number of CO2 molecules in the column per surface area divided by the number of dry air molecules above the same surface area (note that the size of the surface area cancels in the ratio. Note that the 'X' in XCO2 indicates that the reported quantity is a 'mole fraction'. | Satellite carbon dioxide |
| Chlorophyll-A | mg m-3 | Mass chlorophyll-a per unit of volume of near-surface water. | Ocean colour |
| Methane | ppb | Column-average dry-air mole fraction of atmospheric methane (XCH4) L3 product derived from satellite observations. Average molar mixing ratio (or mole fraction in micro mole methane (CH4) per mole dry air) of the total atmospheric column (excluding water vapour molecules) from Earth surface to the top of the atmosphere. The number of CH4 molecules in the column per surface area divided by the number of dry air molecules above the same surface area (note that the size of the surface area cancels in the ratio. Note that the 'X' in XCH4 indicates that the reported quantity is a 'mole fraction'. | Satellite methane |
| Sea ice concentration | % | This parameter is the fraction of a grid box which is covered by sea ice. Sea ice can only occur in a grid box which includes ocean or inland water according to the land-sea mask and lake cover, at the resolution being used. This parameter can be known as sea-ice (area) fraction, sea-ice concentration and more generally as sea-ice cover. | ERA5 |
| Sea ice concentration satellite | % | Original ('raw') estimates of sea ice concentration produced by the algorithm before the application of various processing filters, the ESA CCI AMRS product. | Satellite Sea Ice Concentration |
| Sea surface height | m | Vertical distance between the actual sea surface and a reference surface of constant geopotential with which mean sea level would coincide if the ocean were at rest. This variable is a 2D field. | ORAS5 |
| Sea surface height satellite | m | This variable is an absolute dynamic topography. Sea surface height above the geoid computed as the sum of the sea level anomaly with the mean dynamic topography. | Satellite Sea Level |
| Sea surface temperature | oC | This parameter (SST) is the temperature of sea water near the surface. In ERA5, this parameter is given by HadISST2 before September 2007 and OSTIA from September 2007 onwards. In observations, this parameter is the global and spatially complete estimate of daily average ocean temperature adjusted to a standard depth of 20 cm; available as a Combined Product at Level 4. | ERA5, Satellite SST |
| Soil moisture | % | This parameter (SM) is the volume of water in the upper soil level. In ERA5, this parameter is the volume of water in soil layer 1 (0 - 7cm, the surface is at 0cm). In observations, this parameter is the content of liquid water in a surface soil layer of 2 to 5 cm depth expressed as the percentage of total saturation. | ERA5, Satellite SM |
| Total column ozone | kg m-2 | This parameter is the total amount of ozone in a column of air extending from the surface of the Earth to the top of the atmosphere. In ERA5, this parameter can also be referred to as total ozone, or vertically integrated ozone. In observations, the parent variable is the Atmosphere mole content of ozone: Vertical integration from the surface to the top of the atmosphere of the number of moles of ozone above a unit area; it was converted to kg m-2. | ERA5, Satellite ozone |
| OUTPUT VARIABLES | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Units | Description |
| Area averaged absolute values | Varies | Absolute values, averaged over a selected geographical domain, for a range of statistics. |
| Area averaged anomalies | Varies | Anomalies with respect to a selected climate reference interval, averaged over a selected geographical domain, for a range of statistics. Climatological period used in this application equals to the data availability period minus 1 year. |
