P Fuchs’s research while affiliated with German Meteorological Service and other places

The foundations for all observation of meteorological phenomena on a global scale were laid in 1780 with the foundation of the Mannheim Societas Meteorologica Palatina. 80 Germany has a very long tradition of climate observation, including the longest time series of near-surface temperature and air pressure taken at the world's oldest mountain station at Hohenpeissenberg since 1781. Furthermore, there are continuous monthly climate data available starting in 1881 in the form of precipitation amounts from 59 stations and mean temperatures from 43 stations. Germany holds long time series of atmospheric and hydrological climate variables, the continuation of which is well secured into the future. However, sustainability is not always secured especially for ocean and terrestrial observations. Even though not all relevant data are available at national level in a standardised form, the wealth of measured data allows for most accurate statements on the climate in Germany and its development. The challenges ahead are to further standardise observing systems and ensure the availability of Germany-wide data, together with fulfilling the Herculean task of digitizing existing historical paper data. A necessary prerequisite to efficiently and sustainably implement the German Action Plan for Adaptation under the German Adaptation Strategy of the Federal Government is to have an integrated view of all relevant climate variables. This inventory report on national climate observing systems gives a detailed overview of climate-relevant variables of atmosphere, ocean and land measured in Germany. It is the first ever broad compendium of German climate observation addressing to climate research and decision-makers.

As component of EUMETSAT's activities in climate monitoring, the Satellite Application Fa-cility on Climate Monitoring (CM-SAF; www.cmsaf.eu) provides climate monitoring products derived from meteorological satellites. The CM-SAF's product suite has recently been extended to the Arctic. Several cloud parameters (cloud fraction; cloud type; cloud top height / temperature / pressure) as well as surface albedo are derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR) on-board polar-orbiting satellites (NOAA-17/18/19 and MetOP2). CM-SAF's operational processing environment generates daily and monthly mean products with a spatial resolution of 15km*15km on a day-to-day basis. The processing exploits AVHRR data at full spatial resolution (approx. 1.1 km at nadir) for all available overpaths (approx. 43 per day for three satellites) and is based on algorithms that were provided by the "EUMETSAT SAF in Support to Nowcasting and Very Short-Range Forecasting". These are based on multi-spectral threshold techniques applied to each pixel of the satellite scenes. Operational production started with January 2009. Selected months in 2007 had been generated for product validation. In this contribution we illustrate features of these datasets and show results of validations against ground-based measurements (synoptic manual observations) and other satellite instruments. In agreement with other studies, the data indicate that for some part of the Arctic, low cloud amounts occurred in summer 2007 which could be a contributing factor to the unprecedented rapid melting of sea ice during the polar summer of 2007. The new CM-SAF products offer additional opportunities for such analyses and regular monitoring of such processes. In support of the International Polar Year the same products have also been reprocessed for winter 2007/08. Currently the reprocessing of a long time series starting 1982 based on global AVHRR data (at approx. 4 km resolution) is prepared.

As component of EUMETSAT's activities in climate monitoring, the Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM-SAF; www.cmsaf.eu) provides climate monitoring products derived from meteorological satellites. A variety of satellite instruments is exploited in order to provide information on various components of the atmospheric energy and water cycle. The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR) are in operation on-board polar-orbiting satellites since more than two decades. They therefore allow in principle to provide long-term satellite based climate monitoring products that also cover regions with only sparse ground-based measurements. Currently, CM-SAF provides several cloud parameters (cloud fraction; cloud type; cloud top height / temperature / pressure) as well as surface radiation parameters that derived from AVHRR observations in near-real time for Europe and the Arctic. For Europe, the product suite also includes cloud physical products (cloud liquid water path, cloud optical thickness). CM-SAF's operational processing environment generates daily and monthly mean products with a spatial resolution of 15km*15km on a day-to-day basis. The current version exploits AVHRR data (NOAA-17/19 and MetOP2) at full spatial resolution (~1.1 km at nadir) for all available overpaths (~ 43 per day for the three satellites) and is based on algorithms that were provided by the "EUMETSAT SAF in Support to Nowcasting and Very Short-Range Forecasting". These are based on multi-spectral threshold techniques applied to each pixel of the satellite scenes. Operational processing of the Arctic products has been started with January 2009. Selected months in 2007 had been generated for product validation. In this contribution we illustrate features of these datasets and show results of validations against ground-based measurements (synoptic manual observations) and comparisons to other satellite products. In agreement with other studies, the data indicate that for some part of the Arctic, low cloud amounts occurred in summer 2007 which could be a contributing factor to the ice melt during the summer of 2007. In support of the International Polar Year CM-SAF has also processed these data for winter 2007/08. CM-SAF currently reprocesses a long-time series of AVHRR data starting in 1982. Based on intercalibrated radiances, the same cloud and radiation parameters will be provided with global coverage. Beyond the long-term monitoring of the climate system, these datasets also provide opportunities to validate climate model simulations, especially hindcasts of the last decades.

The low cloud amounts over the Western Arctic Ocean in summer 2007 have been proposed as one contributing factor to the unprecedented rapid melting of sea ice during the polar summer of 2007. Such analyses and the continuous monitoring of such processes require stable long-term satellite based climate monitoring products. As component of EUMETSAT's activities in climate monitoring, the Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM-SAF; www.cmsaf.eu) provides climate monitoring products derived from meteorological satellites. In 2009 the CM-SAF's product suite has been extended to the Arctic. Several cloud parameters (cloud fraction; cloud type; cloud top height / temperature / pressure) as well as surface albedo are derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR) on-board polar-orbiting satellites (NOAA-17/18 and MetOP2). CM-SAF's operational processing environment generates daily and monthly mean products with a spatial resolution of 15km*15km on a day-to-day basis. The processing exploits AVHRR data at full spatial resolution (~1.1 km at nadir) for all available overpaths (~43 per day for the three satellites) and is based on algorithms that were provided by the "EUMETSAT SAF in Support to Nowcasting and Very Short-Range Forecasting". These are based on multi-spectral threshold techniques applied to each pixel of the satellite scenes. Operational processing has been started with January 2009. Selected months in 2007 had been generated for product validation. In this contribution we illustrate features of these datasets and show results of validations against ground-based measurements (synoptic manual observations). In agreement with other studies, the data indicate that for some part of the Arctic, low cloud amounts occurred in summer 2007 which could be a contributing factor to the ice melt during the summer of 2007. In support of the International Polar Year CM-SAF has also processed these data for winter 2007/08. Currently the reprocessing of a long-time series starting 1982 is prepared.

The Satelite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring has implemented a new processing environment for AVHRR-based climate monitoring products. AVHRR measurements from NOAA-17, NOAA-18 and MetOp-A are utilized to generate daily and monthly means of several cloud parameters for Europe and the Inner Arctic: Cloud fraction, cloud types, cloud phase, cloud top height, cloud optical thickness and cloud liquid water path.

As component of EUMETSAT's activities in climate monitoring, the Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM-SAF; www.cmsaf.eu) provides climate monitoring products derived from meteorological satellites. The CM-SAF's product suite has recently been extended to the Inner Arctic. Several cloud parameters (cloud fraction; cloud type; cloud top height/temperature/pressure) as well as surface albedo are derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR) on-board polar-orbiting satellites (NOAA-17, NOAA-18 and MetOP2). CM-SAF has implemented an operational processing environment that generates daily and monthly mean products with a spatial resolution of 15km*15km on a day-to-day basis. The processing exploits AVHRR data at full spatial resolution (~1.1 km at nadir) for all available overpaths of the polar-orbiters (~ 43 per day for the three satellites) and is based on algorithms that were provided by the „EUMETSAT SAF in Support to Nowcasting and Very Short-Range Forecasting (NWC-SAF)". These are based on a multi-spectral threshold technique applied to each pixel of the satellite scenes. Start of operational production is planned for January 2009. Selected months in 2007 have already been generated for product validation. In this contribution we illustrate features of these datasets and show results of validations against ground-based measurements (synoptic manual observations) for selected months in 2007. In agreement with other studies, the data indicate that for some part of the Arctic, low cloud amounts occurred in summer 2007 which could be a contributing factor to the unprecedented rapid melting of sea ice during the polar summer of 2007. The new CM-SAF products for the Arctic offer additional opportunities for such analyses and regular monitoring of such processes. The data could be valuable for validation of process studies within the International Polar Year.

The Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM-SAF) aims at the provision of satellite-derived geophysical parameter data sets suitable for climate monitoring. CM-SAF provides climatologies for Essential Climate Variables (ECV), as required by the Global Climate Observing System implementation plan in support of the UNFCCC. Several cloud parameters, surface albedo, radiation fluxes at the top of the atmosphere and at the surface as well as atmospheric temperature and humidity products form a sound basis for climate monitoring of the atmosphere. The products are categorized in monitoring data sets obtained in near real time and data sets based on carefully intercalibrated radiances. The CM-SAF products are derived from several instruments on-board operational satellites in geostationary and polar orbit, i.e., the Meteosat and NOAA satellites, respectively. The existing data sets will be continued using data from the instruments on-board the new EUMETSAT Meteorological Operational satellite (MetOP). The products have mostly been validated against several ground-based data sets both in situ and remotely sensed. The accomplished accuracy for products derived in near real time is sufficient to monitor variability on diurnal and seasonal scales. Products based on intercalibrated radiance data can also be used for climate variability analysis up to inter-annual scale. A central goal of the recently started Continuous Development and Operations Phase of the CM-SAF (2007?2012) is to further improve all CM-SAF data sets to a quality level that allows for studies of inter-annual variability.

Daily and monthly mean products are available on a (90 km)² sinusoidal global grid. For each variable the mean value, error statistics and number of observations are given.