The Summer School Programme

The Summer School Alpbach 2010 will address innovative mission concepts aiming to increase our knowledge of key processes of the global climate system. These missions will help us to observe essential climate parameters that are needed to close major gaps in our present understanding of the Earth system and its components that determine the climate from regional to global scale.

The past decades have shown an accelerating trend of global warming, associated with an increasing number of extreme weather events, the retreat of polar ice masses, and severe deterioration of the environment in various parts of the world. In order to better understand the natural and human components of the climate system and to develop efficient strategies for mitigating anthropogenic climate change, it is necessary to improve the scientific understanding of Earth system processes. This is addressed by the World Climate Research Programme and related initiatives, pursuing a comprehensive strategy for climate observations and modelling, that comprises the collection and analysis of global climate data sets, detailed process studies, and the development of analytical and predictive models for climate change.

The global observing system of operational meteorological satellites delivers systematic data sets on several important climate parameters. In addition, dedicated satellite missions, such as the Earth Explorers of ESA's Living Planet Programme, focus at specific climate system components or processes. However, there are still many open questions in climate change science, for whose answers new concepts are needed. It will be the task of the summer school to identify observational gaps in climate science and elaborate solutions, based on innovative satellite missions.

The lectures will focus on the role of Earth observation satellites in climate monitoring and research, addressing the scientific background as well as technical concepts. The status of present satellite capabilities for climate observations will be reviewed, covering the main elements of the climate systems: the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and cryosphere. Gaps in the present observing systems will be identified and strategies for employing the satellite data for climate process modelling will be introduced. The objective of the lectures is to give the students the scientific background and technical information needed to define and elaborate a space mission for observing essential parameters of the climate system.