The Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure (ACTRIS) is the pan-European research infrastructure (RI) producing high-quality data and information on short-lived atmospheric constituents and on the processes leading to the variability of these constituents in natural and controlled atmospheres.
ACTRIS delivers precision data, innovative services, and procedures regarding the 4D variability and the physical, optical and chemical properties of short-lived atmospheric constituents. This is to improve the current capacity to analyse, understand and predict past, current and future evolution of the atmospheric environment. ACTRIS serves a vast community of users working on observations, experiments, models, satellite data, analysis and prediction systems. ACTRIS offers access to advanced technological platforms for exploring atmospheric processes crucial for air quality and climate change.
By integrating European ground-based stations equipped with advanced atmospheric probing instrumentation, ACTRIS helps respond to the grand challenges faced by our society by enabling a deeper understanding of atmospheric processes, improving our resilience to climate change, and air quality, contributing to assessing the effects of air pollution on public health and ecosystems. Currently, ACTRIS network of stations provides long-term observational data for 135 different atmospheric variables measured, comprising different trace gases, aerosol variables measured near the surface, aerosol and cloud profile variables.
ACTRIS products and services support local, regional, national and international authorities and organizations for (i) monitoring air quality at background level, but also in areas affected by high levels of air pollutants due to technological accidents, unfavorable meteorological conditions, natural phenomena (e.g., volcano eruptions, desert dust transfer), etc.; (ii) increasing public awareness, knowledge and debate as regards the air quality and the potential impacts on public health and the environment; and (iii) contributing in the strategic design of appropriate policies and measures in the short- and/or long-run for tackling the negative impacts of air pollution, with a view to maximizing social welfare.
ACTRIS is responding to challenges in science, innovation and society; strengthen ACTRIS’ position and leading role in the global landscape of environmental research; to promote ACTRIS’ contribution towards the development of global research infrastructures; to foster capacity building in technology and innovation in ACTRIS; and to support researchers to address societal challenges of global relevance.
ACTRIS aims to become a Global Research Infrastructure and be central in an international landscape. To fulfill its ambition, ACTRIS services are purposefully designed to attract international users, and ACTRIS data and data products are not limited to the European dimension but must be of value and utility to a broad scientific community and to policymakers outside of European political boundaries. ACTRIS is synergistically developing complementarily with other research infrastructures to provide services outside of its atmospheric scientific perimeter.
ACTRIS has currently consolidated the European contribution to several pan-European and international atmospheric RIs networks with the aim to become a global RI. In particular:
• ACTRIS partners host international WMO-GAW calibration centres for volatile organic compounds and for aerosol, operate the EMEP data centre and the AERONET-Europe calibration centre for the AERONET network, and are key contributors to operations of the international Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Changes (NDACC);
• ACTRIS Data Centre contains the global data centre for WMO-WIS (World Information System) for in-situ aerosol and trace gases;
• ACTRIS operates some of the measurements for the Global Climate Observing Network (GCOS).
ACTRIS is developing coordinated actions with national and international initiatives supporting the deployment of global and sustainable approaches in atmospheric research, particularly developing synergies with GEOSS, Copernicus and other relevant European initiatives. Better integration of ACTRIS in the GEO framework will benefit from the establishment of a GEO initiative focused on short-lived climate species.
The initiative will be part of the ACTRIS strategy towards becoming a globally recognized research infrastructure. ACTRIS data products are crucial to constrain and evaluate models and predictions for radiative forcing of aerosol on climate for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment reports. The overarching goal for the initiative would be to support all interested Parties in the policy process of the UNFCCC by providing Internationally representative measurements of short-lived species data necessary to improve the level of understanding of short-lived constituents on atmospheric processes and their impact on climate
To strengthen the GEO application process, ACTRIS will first strengthen its connection with the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) through the key partners worldwide. In a second step, ACTRIS will liaise with stakeholders in different regions to propose a joint GEO initiative on short-lived climate species, of which ACTRIS will be the European node.
This study aims to present the latest results obtained within the EU H2020 PrimeWater project, which involves an international partnership from Europe, USA and Australia, and provides relevant impact on water resources sector, also in the frame of GEO AquaWatch. The overall goal of PrimeWater is the generation of information on the effects of upstream changes on future water quality and quantity. The project builds on advanced Earth Observation (EO) data products, integration with additional data sources and diagnostic modelling tools and it provides public and private sector decisions for water resources management with better and actionable information. In particular, the study aims to report on the research findings developed in the experiments defined in the EO Virtual Lab (EOVL), developed within the project as an open e-research space. The experiments maximize the potential of the EO technologies for the water sector also considering the advantages of physics-based algorithms that integrate multi- and hyper-spectral imagery from satellite, airborne and ground-based sensors. Research activities include many tools to be adopted for tuning EO raw images into user ready products, such as different code for the atmospheric correction, tool for the calculation of Signal to Noise ratio of the images, for glint removal and different algorithms to retrieve water quality parameters. Thee presented results include the demonstration of water quality mapping from Sentinel-2 and imaging spectroscopy (e.g., PRISMA, DESIS, airborne and in situ data) for four freshwater reservoirs worldwide distributed across Europe, USA and Australia (Mulargia Dam, Sardinia, IT; Lake Harsha, Ohio, US; Lake Hume, New South Wales/Victoria, AU; Melbourne Western Treatment Plant, Victoria, AU). The case studies demonstrate the transferability of PrimeWater applications in diverse water catchment systems and sectors. In each case study, different perspectives of the water circle management (i.e., water resources management, environmental protection and potable water supply production) are addressed. Along with the EOVL, a demonstration of the operational platform is provided to inform stakeholders on how PrimeWater might support various water sectors (e.g., operational forecasting services for water quality in rivers and lakes; harmful algae bloom aware).
This presentation will be focused on the Earth observation and remote sensing-based activities of the Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) in building a multidomain observational system for sustained measurements in and around Svalbard and associated waters, addressing Earth System Science (ESS) questions. SIOS research infrastructures are distributed all over Svalbard for the collection of long-term in-situ measurements. These in-situ measurements are useful for ground-based studies and for calibration and validation (Cal/Val) of current and future satellite missions. Better integration of in-situ and satellite-based measurements benefits the entire ESS community when addressing broader scientific questions. SIOS’s remote sensing activities are developed in the SIOS knowledge centre (SIOS-KC) under the guidance of the remote sensing working group (RSWG). In this presentation, we will highlight our current activities and future plans for 2022-2026 and years beyond. These activities include (1) SIOS webinar series and online conference on EO and RS studies in Svalbard, (2) current status of SIOS’s special issue to facilitate scientific publications, (3) SIOS’s InfraNor project activities to develop calibration/validation (Cal/Val) infrastructure in Svalbard (4) SIOS’s airborne remote sensing campaigns in 2020-2021, (5) SIOS’s remote sensing training courses, (6) SIOS remote sensing services and tools for field scientists and (6) SIOS’s activities as the northernmost Copernicus relay. We will also highlight our upcoming activities such as (1) the unified platform for satellite data availability for Svalbard, (2) Establishing EO and RS researcher forum on the SIOS website, (3) Developing a citizen science project for supporting Cal/Val activities in Svalbard, and (4) satellite image of the week activity. The sustained and coordinated effort being made by SIOS to develop a long-term monitoring system are boosted by the inception of such EO and RS activities. These coordinated efforts are expected to contribute to addressing broad scientific questions in Earth system science and to assist in integrated monitoring, modelling and decision support in Svalbard in the coming decades.
Climate change, being one of the major environmental issues of our time, changes observed in climate are already having wide-ranging impacts on ecosystems, economic sectors, human health and well-being in Europe and across the globe, requires immediate action.
Earth Observation technology provides precious information for climate change research, monitoring, and development of mitigation and adaption actions. The Group on Earth Observations (GEO), a partnership of more than 100 national governments and in excess of 100 participating organizations, envisions a future where decisions and actions for the benefit of humankind are informed by coordinated, comprehensive and sustained Earth observations. A central part of GEO’s Mission is to build the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), a set of coordinated, independent Earth observation, information and processing systems that interact and provide access to diverse information for a broad range of users in both public and private sectors.
The GEOSS Platform, the infrastructure currently implementing GEOSS, enables its users to discover, access and use worldwide EO data and information. The European Space Agency (ESA), together with the National Research Council of Italy (Institute of Atmospheric Pollution Research; CNR-IIA) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE), ensure the short and medium-term developments, enhancements, and operations of the European components of the GEOSS Platform, respectively the GEOSS Portal, the GEO Discovery and Access Broker, and the GEOSS Yellow Pages. Together, they propose to evolve the Platform to better respond to Climate Change issues.
Starting 1st January 2022, relevant enhancements of GEOSS will be implemented in the context of the GEOSS Platform Plus (GPP) project, an ESA-led, EC H2020 co-funded initiative of a 3-year duration. These enhancements may be seen from two complementary perspectives:
• User-centric: This regards functional evolutions required by users to access tailor-made information and actionable knowledge. In the context of the GPP activity a particular focus will be on services to non-specialists in the domain of adaptation to extreme climatic events and to changes in climatic conditions.
• Infrastructure: This should lead to full exploitation of the GEOSS infrastructure and its components, in particular evolutions agreed by the GEOSS Infrastructure Development Task Team (GIDTT), and be driven by trends in IT, leading to a more user-friendly, up-to-date, and therefore, familiar environment.
Relevant drivers for the Platform evolution, that is done in close coordination with the GEO partners, and impact on the choice of applications and developments include (i) lessons-learned from the evaluation of the implementation of the EU Strategy on Adaptation to climate change (COM(2018)738)), (ii) priorities identified under the European Green Deal and (iii) requirements expressed by the Mission on Adaptation to Climate Change including Societal Transformation. Considering these, climate change related issues are being addressed focusing on user needs and on the provision of data products, services and information used to derive knowledge and to derive results for decision-making. This is being done by establishing synergies with relevant initiatives and with data, services’ and information providers.
Use Cases
Different use-cases are being addressed, two of them being discussed in this abstract. A first one regards ‘Climate Change impact on Pandemic Risk’ and is based on the work of CNR-IIA. It is expected that climate change may affect the onset of epidemic outbreaks in different geographical regions due to multiple reasons such as the direct environmental changes due to modification of climate patterns and the modification of ecological niches of the many species potentially acting as intermediate hosts for animal-to-human transmission. The objective of this use case is to produce epidemic or pandemic risk maps for selected viruses with recognized high risk, based on environmental changes and ecological niche changes depending on temporal projections of climate change scenarios.
A second series of use cases is based on the work of the University of Geneva on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, in particular on SDG 15.3.1, "Proportion of land that is degraded over total land area" and on SDG 11.7, “Green Spaces Accessibility from City and Country to EU and Global Scale” which closely relates to climate change, urban sustainability, and health. Indeed, cities are recognised as key enablers for the world’s sustainable future. Urban sprawl and inefficient use of land are important issues significantly impacting the provision and use of open green spaces. SDG indicator 11.7.1 aims at globally monitoring the amount of land that is dedicated by cities for public space. Moreover, to efficiently assess public space conditions, timely and spatially disaggregated information is essential but not yet widely adopted by urban practitioners. Therefore, the objective will be to use a combination of satellite Earth Observations and other geospatial data to model physical accessibility to urban green spaces in various cities using GEOSS platform capabilities. Similarly, land degradation is recognized a critical issue globally requiring immediate actions for protecting biodiversity and associated services provided by ecosystems that are supporting human quality of life. EO data can play an important role both for generating the indicator 15.3.1 in countries where it is missing, as well complementing or enhancing national official data sources. In this use case, the objective will be to operationalize the innovative, scalable and flexible workflow already tested in the frame of the H2020 ERA-PLANET/GEOEssential project to monitor land degradation at various scales (e.g., national, regional, global) using various GEOSS platform components to leverage EO resources for informing SDG 15.3.1.
Because of the generic nature and the potential of the GEOSS Platform, a wide range of different use cases can be addressed. Other examples of these include:
• Resilient Cities and Human Settlements - Building urban resilience against environmental pressures;
• Copernicus Climate Change - Smart and customised functionality for the Copernicus Climate Change as well as for the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service;
• Water and Land-Use Management - Decision Support System to assess the impact of potential measures focusing on water management, land use and soil carbon changes within a river basin.
• Sustainable Agriculture - Monitoring system for crop carbon accountability and crop diversification assessment to support sustainable agriculture.
• Infrastructure and Transport Management - Port activity Climate Change impact assessment tool correlating the cruise and vessel traffic to the atmospheric quality.
• Sustainable Urban Development - Impact assessment tool for urban GHG mitigation scenarios: building energy efficiency, photovoltaic penetration, adoption of e-mobility in urban regions. • Disaster Resilience Framework – Development of a risk assessment framework for droughts, forest fires and pests.
• Improved Resilience and Sustainable Urban areas to cope with Climate Change and Extreme Events
- Development of a Support System for Improved Resilience and Sustainable Urban areas to cope with Climate Change and Extreme Events based on Advanced Modelling Tools.
• Ocean physical and chemical changes and their impact on global climate and marine carbon storage
- Discovery and access of Atlantic basin wide data (near real time) relevant to the carbon community, to improve model predictions and improve their discovery and understanding of ocean related climate change mechanisms.
• Pilots from the E-Shape initiative, such as Global Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Urban resilience to extreme weather - climate service, Forestry conditions - climate service, Hydropower in snow reservoir – climate service, Seasonal preparedness.
Evolution of the Architecture/Infrastructure
Discovery, access and use of EO resources are challenging activities due to the heterogeneity of the EO resources, e.g., in terms of type, scope, distribution level, availability and quantity. There are still different barriers indeed that prevent stakeholders to easily access the resources of interest to them. These barriers should be removed to allow stakeholders to focus on their specific fields of expertise and for this some architectural evolutions are needed.
Looking at the logical architecture of the GEOSS Platform, that is organised in three tiers, i.e.:
1. a resource tier, which in a sustainable and “distributed” way, relies on the producer own heterogeneous resources, capabilities and relations;
2. a middleware tier, acting as an EO concentrator, aggregating and blending resource-tier contributions, harmonising discovery, access and use capabilities, and possibly providing analytics and knowledge management services (e.g., self-inferring/comparing/suggesting experiments); and
3. an application tier, which benefits from the above-mentioned capabilities for the various information consumers of the data value chain;
different extensions are proposed. E.g., the middleware tier should foresee not only an aggregator and harmonizer of data, but also one for information, services and computing resources. An orchestration component could carry out the configuration, coordination, and management of online accessible systems and technologies required for knowledge generation. And the application tier should provide a user-friendly interface to middleware functionalities bringing it to the targeted users through a familiar environment.
Conclusions
The European GEOSS Platform providers intend to provide a contribution as part of the response to Climate Change challenges
• in close coordination with other GEOSS actors;
• benefiting from, evolving and customising GEOSS Platform generic capabilities;
• focusing on real user needs, based on selected applications;
• providing data products, services, information, the capability to derive knowledge and the possibility to derive results input to decision makers;
• and exploiting the potential of the GEOSS Infrastructure to a maximum extent.
A digital representation of the Earth is considered an useful and powerful tool for better management of our planet. Earth observations as defined by the Group on Earth observation is as follows: “Earth observations are data and information collected about our planet, whether atmospheric, oceanic or terrestrial. This includes space-based or remotely-sensed data, as well as ground-based or in situ data.” Earth observations alone can thus be described as Big Data which again can be characterized by the 5 Vs: Volume, Variety, Velocity, Varsity, Value. Turning Earth observations into information, applications, services and knowledge that is needed to manage our planet, requires uptake of these Earth observations in various context depending on the societal area, location etc. It goes without saying that faster uptake of Earth observations demands faster integration of not only Earth observations but also other types of data, information, models and services and applications. In other words interoperability on multiple levels. No one system, platform, data provider can serve the entire planet. Federated systems that can work together in a flexible fashion is the solution. Again underlining the need to have the systems speak to each other efficiently, seamlessly and timely.
In GEO Next Generation Earth Observation Services Community Activity (NEXTEOS) these questions are being addressed based on among others a gap analysis across the thematic areas and GEO focus areas; UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework.
NEXTEOS promote an interface between different GEO communities for identifying gaps and transversal bottlenecks to the uptake of Earth observations across thematic areas, and is also discussing a vision and solutions for the future.
NEXTEOS is asking how we can be going from data hubs to digital ecosystems of Earth observations that are accessible and also contain interoperable tools and services. Consequently, a focus on user-driven process where co-design of Earth Observation tools will increase trust of the potential end-users in tools and data alike. These digital ecosystems can orchestrate available resources into integrated distributed services and leverage on the rationalization of existing platforms. Sustainability of these ecosysemts will be secured through diverse funding sources that includeds the creation and exploitation of new markets via also addressing the commercial value of Earth observation.
In this presentation thoughts and findings from the NEXTEOS work on a contribution to an updated view of GEOSS as a Federation of regional Earth observation ecosystems will be given.