August 18, 2021

EOC contribution to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report

The United Nations’ climate change report of “Working Group I” recently published with nearly 4,000 pages is massive and clearly state "it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, oceans and land".

The science behind the report is based on Earth observation data and climate models. Satellite data provide global information on key climate measurements, so called Essential Climate Variables, (ECVs), that allow us to measure and monitor different aspects of the climate system.

EOC provides a number of ECVs, in particular homogenized data records of ozone derived from different European satellite sensors since 1995. Two ozone ECVs from EOC are being used in the latest IPCC report, the first one dedicated to total ozone and the second one to tropospheric ozone.

Ozone and climate are linked. A depleted ozone layer (so called ozone holes) is common not only in the Antarctic but during the last years such events are also occurring in the North hemisphere and the resulting increased solar radiation (harmful ultraviolet rays) interacts with the changing climate with major consequences to the Earth's natural systems.

S5P-Tropomi__O3__25Sep2020-18Oct2020

 
Furthermore, it is expected that the increase of temperature will have a negative impact to air quality with an intensification in the number and intensity of days with high levels of tropospheric ozone.

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