| Project | Summary | PI Europe | PI China | Domain | Full text |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MONITORING AND MODELLING CLIMATE CHANGE IN WATER, ENERGY AND CARBON CYCLES IN THE PAN-THIRD POLE ENVIRONMENT (CLIMATE-PAN-TPE) | Executive Summary:The Third Pole Environment centred on the Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas feeds AsiaÔÇÖs largest rivers which provide water to 1.5 billion people across ten countries. Due to its high elevation, TPE plays a significant role [...] | Prof.. Bob Su, Inst Geo Inform Science and Earth Obs., NETHERLANDS | Prof.. Yaoming Ma, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research (ITP/CAS),, CHINA | Climate Change | Executive Summary:The Third Pole Environment centred on the Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas feeds AsiaÔÇÖs largest rivers which provide water to 1.5 billion people across ten countries. Due to its high elevation, TPE plays a significant role in global atmospheric circulation and is highly sensitive to climate change. Intensive exchanges of water and energy fluxes take place between the Asian monsoon, the plateau land surface (lakes, glaciers, snow and permafrost) and the plateau atmosphere at various temporal and spatial scales, but a fundamental understanding of the details of the coupling is lacking especially at the climate scale. Expanding westward from the Third Pole, the Pan-Third Pole region covers 20 million km2, encompassing the Tibetan Plateau, Pamir, Hindu Kush, Iran Plateau, the Caucasians, the Carpathians, etc. and is home to over 3 billion people. Climate change is expected to dramatically impact the water and energy as well as carbon cycles and exchanges in the Pan-TPE area and consequently alter the water resources, food security, energy transition and ecosystems as well as other related societal challenges. Monitoring and modelling climate change in Pan-TPE reflect key societal issues and contribute to the science component to other international initiatives, e.g. UN sustainable development goals (SDG), GEO societal benefit areas and the ESA EO science for society strategy.Thus the objective of this CLIMATE-Pan-TPE project is: To improve the process understanding of the interactions between the Asian monsoon, the plateau surface (including its permafrost and lakes) and the Tibetan plateau atmosphere in terms of water, energy and carbon budgets; To assess and monitor changes in cryosphere and hydrosphere; and to model and predict climate change impacts on water resources and ecosystems in the Pan-Third Pole Environment. A core innovation of the CLIMATE-Pan-TPE project is to verify or falsify recent climate change hypotheses (e.g. links between plateau heating and monsoon circulation, snow cover and monsoon strength, soil moisture and timing of monsoon) and projections of the changes of glaciers and permafrost in relation to surface and tropospheric heating on the Tibetan plateau as precursors of monsoon pattern changes and glaciers retreat, and their impacts on water resources and ecosystems. Method: We will use earth observation, in-situ measurements and modelling to advance process understanding relevant to monsoon scale predictions, and improve and develop coupled regional scale observation and hydroclimatic models to explain different physical links and scenarios that cannot be observed directly.Deliverables: The deliverables will be scientific outputs in terms of peer reviewed journal publications, PhD theses and data sets in terms of novel data records and modelling tools of essential climate variables for quantification of water, energy and carbon cycle dynamics in the Pan-Third Pole Environment.Funding: The sub-projects described in the work packages will be performed by funded research projects by PhD and postdoc researchers of the participating partners. |
| MONITORING EXTREME WEATHER AND CLIMATE EVENTS OVER CHINA AND EUROPE USING NEWLY DEVELOPED CHINESE AND EUROPEAN REMOTE SENSING DATA | Extreme weather and climate events are events in which the state of weather and climate deviates seriously from its mean state, and they are typically rare. One of the most visible consequences of climate change leads to changes in the [...] |
Dr. Abhay Devasthale, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), SWEDEN | Prof.. Fuxiang Huang, National Satellite Meteorological Center, China Meteorological Administratration, CHINA | Climate Change | Extreme weather and climate events are events in which the state of weather and climate deviates seriously from its mean state, and they are typically rare. One of the most visible consequences of climate change leads to changes in the frequency, intensity, spatial extent, and duration of extreme weather and climate events. In recent years the severe disasters resulted from heat waves, heavy downpours, severe storms, and wild fires are frequently reported in the media with astonishing economic losses all over the world. For examples, the extreme cold wave occurred in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of China in Jan 2016 was rare in meteorological record and called the ‘century cold wave’, frequent Arctic sudden warming events are regarded as extraordinary, and the extreme heat wave happened in north Europe in July 2018. This project will focus on monitoring extreme weather and climate events over Europe and China using Chinese and European newly developed remote sensing data. Specific scientific focuses of the proposed project are: (i) monitoring winter extreme warming or cold events over China and Europe; (ii) monitoring severe ozone depletion events over China or Europe; (iii) monitoring extreme summer heat waves over China and Europe; (iv) monitoring extreme precipitation events over China and Europe. This research is a joint project between National Satellite Meteorological Center (NSMC), China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI). SMHI’s participation will be partly covered by the on-going project “Simulating Green Sahara with Earth System Model” supported by Swedish Research Council VR. The SU and SMHI team will apply for additional funding from the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA) for more detailed scientific research on extreme events based on the data obtain within this project. The NSMC’s work will be partly supported by the on-going project funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China. The NSMC team will also apply for additional funding from Chinese Academy of Sciences. The ozone sounding data over the Tibetan Plateau will be available for the project. Last name |
| PACIFIC MODULATION OF THE SEA LEVEL VARIABILITY OF THE BEAUFORT GYRE SYSTEM IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN | It is crucial to monitor and understand regional sea-level changes that can differ from Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) both in terms of magnitude as well as governing forcing and mechanisms (Stammer et al., 2013). For instance, while changes in [...] | Prof.. Johnny Andre Johannessen, Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, NORWAY | Prof.. Jianqi Sun, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, CHINA | Climate Change | It is crucial to monitor and understand regional sea-level changes that can differ from Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) both in terms of magnitude as well as governing forcing and mechanisms (Stammer et al., 2013). For instance, while changes in salinity can have significant distinct impact on regional sea level change, such as in the Arctic Ocean, it has minor effect on GMSL. Quantifying the natural variability in the regional sea level change is also urgent in order to distinguish it from a potentially forced (anthropogenic) signal. Furthermore, the role of remote impact of climate variability in one region on the other needs to be well-understood. Climate change in the Pacific can, for instance, impact Arctic warming and the sea ice (Li et al., 2015; Svendsen et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2020). How this translates to sea level change remains unclear. The aim of this study is to examine and relate the sea level variability of the Beaufort Gyre (BG) in the Arctic Ocean to natural climate variability of the Pacific Ocean. The sea level variability of the Beaufort Gyre (BG) is influenced by the changes in steric height and ocean mass. Hence the freshwater and heat stored in the BG can have significant impact on the sea surface height. The anticyclonic circulation of BG is driven by a semi-permanent atmospheric circulation pattern, the Beaufort High (BH). The resulting Ekman convergence associated with BH advects and stores freshwater and sea-ice in the Beaufort Sea and can contribute to halosteric changes in sea-level. Since the altimetry era the sea-level in the Beaufort Sea basin has increased much faster than the average rate of increase in the Arctic Ocean sea-level (Zhang et al., 2016). Although many studies (e.g., Armitage et al., 2016, 2017; Zhang et al., 2016) have investigated this there are still many unanswered questions. The project objectives are to: (i) assess the role of variability of atmospheric modes in the Pacific Ocean and the Arctic Ocean on the BH and on the sea level variability of the region; (ii) advance the current understanding of the different mechanisms influencing the sea-level variability in the BG; (iii) validate climate models using observations and assess the sea level change with respect to natural versus anthropogenic origin; A suite of satellite data, ocean (TOPAZ, GREP) and atmospheric reanalysis data (ERA-I, ERA-5) together with climate model outputs (CMIP5, CMIP6) will be used to address these objectives. Methodologies include: Spatio-temporal analysis of observed sea level in conjunction with atmospheric forcing; EOF and composite analysis of regional atmospheric data to capture seasonal to decadal changes in the dominant atmospheric forcing; statistical analysis (e.g., correlation analysis) of monthly ocean model data and satellite data to understand the changes in the sea ice and halo steric and thermosteric variability; use of monthly climate model output (CMIP5 models and CMIP6) from control as well as historical simulations to assess whether the observed changes can be attributed to natural variability (in a first step by using a moving window analysis to detect the observed pattern in the simulations). Outcomes include: Advanced understanding of the mechanisms governing observed sea-level variability in the BG; The role of teleconnection between Pacific and the Arctic sea level; An assessment of the observed variability reproduced by CMIP5 (and eventually CMIP6) models, setting the stage for computing model weights by developing a performance metric and eventually decrease uncertainty in projections of sea level in the considered regions. Deliverables: Technical report; 3 publications in high impact journals; training of young scientists. Funding Sources: Bjerknes Center for Climate Research, Norway and internal funding from NERSC. Support from Chinese resources. Possible future funding from RCN, ESA, and Horizon Europe projects. |