ANNEX VSupplementary provisions
ANNEX V THE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE COPERNICUS CLIMATE CHANGE SERVICE 1. SCOPE The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) shall combine observations and models of the climate system with the latest science to develop authoritative, quality-assured information about the past, current and future states of the climate in Europe and worldwide. The C3S shall achieve the following objectives: (a) to document the past and current state of climate (based on observations and re-analysis); (b) to generate 6-months seasonal forecasts (using a multi-model ensemble approach); (c) to deliver climate projections (based on various scenarios). The service shall provide access to several climate indicators and climate indices for both the identified climate drivers and the expected climate impacts. The service shall aim to provide information that will help societal and business sectors to improve decision-making and planning regarding climate mitigation and adaptation. The service shall take into account relevant actions in the European Union's Research and Innovation Framework Programme (Horizon 2020), of existing facilities at national level and –where possible- shall contribute to the priorities of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). 2. USER REQUIREMENTS AND MAIN DOMAINS OF APPLICATIONS The C3 Service shall primarily serve European policy makers, national/regional climate service providers and intermediaries serving national governments. C3S shall provide climate change information at global and European scales complemented by locally tailored information provided by national and regional climate service providers. The C3 Service shall be a European hub for promoting consistency and best practices, and providing common baseline information and training capability to facilitate understanding across and within the Member States. Last but not least, C3S shall facilitate the use by national climate services of its infrastructure, including climate datasets, guidance, expertise and tools. 3. SERVICE ARCHITECTURE The C3 service infrastructure shall be designed to serve all service elements by providing shared datasets, interoperable systems and tools, computing facilities, web and data services. The C3S infrastructure shall facilitate sharing of resources and best practices with other Copernicus services, shall be distributed over multiple data providers and shall reuse as much existing infrastructure and software as possible. The proposed architecture for the C3S shall be articulated around four complementary pillars: (a) Climate Data Store (CDS) shall contain essential climate information for fulfilling the downstream requirements. The CDS shall be designed and built to include series of geophysical climate variables, most being listed as Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) or Thematic Climate Data Records (TCDR), seasonal forecasts, climate projections as well climate indicators for various sectors. (b) Sectoral Information System (SIS) shall deliver information and bespoke analysis tailored to the needs of end users and customers of the service for various EU sectoral policies. The SIS shall be supplied primarily by data and geophysical products available from the CDS and complemented, where appropriate, by ancillary datasets needed to address, for instance, sector specific climate impacts at European scales. The SIS shall be designed to support the main European sectoral policies concerned with climate change. (c) Evaluation and Quality Control (EQC) function shall be a multi-task Evaluation and Quality Control (EQC) function that will assess the technical and scientific quality of the service including the value to users. The EQC function shall be the natural vehicle that will trigger actions to improve the Service and interface with external reviews possibly conducted by the Commission. (d) Outreach and Dissemination (O&D) platform shall be designed to ensure a timely and efficient dissemination of information to the European Institutions, public authorities and general public (as appropriate) using all modern communication tools. This component shall also interface with other institutions worldwide in charge of monitoring and reporting on climate change and related questions. 4. TECHNICAL SERVICE PORTFOLIO The Climate Change Service shall combine observations and various categories of models of the climate system with the latest science to develop authoritative, quality-assured information about the past, current and future states of the climate in Europe and worldwide. The Climate Data Store shall contain the geophysical information needed to analyse the climate change indicators in a consistent and harmonised way. The CDS shall provide consistent estimates of ECVs, climate indicators and other relevant information about the past, present and future evolution of the coupled climate system, on global, continental, and regional scales. The core of the CDS shall comprise four categories. (1) Climate observations This service element shall contribute to building and providing access to comprehensive, long-term datasets providing information on a range of ECVs (Surface Air Temperature, Surface Precipitation, Water Vapour, Surface Radiation Budget, Earth Radiation Budget, Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Ozone, Aerosol, Cloud Properties, Wind speed and direction, Ocean Colour, sea Ice, Sea level, Sea Surface Temperature, Global Ocean Heat Content, Snow Cover, Glaciers and Ice Caps, Albedo, Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation, Fire Disturbance, Ice Sheets). It shall address in particular the multiple ECV datasets that are directly derived from Earth Observation historical data records and not generated by reanalyses and model simulations. (2) Climate reanalyses This component shall provide resources for technical development, production, monitoring, evaluation and delivery of the following: (a) the following global climate reanalysis datasets and products: (1) an atmospheric reanalysis covering a minimum of 30 years designed for near real time (less than 5 days) monitoring of the climate system based on the comprehensive global observing system, including in-situ and satellite observations; (2) extended (> 100 year) reanalyses of the coupled climate system; (3) derived high-resolution global reanalyses of the ocean and land surface Meteorological information from atmospheric reanalyses shall be used to derive consistent estimates of terrestrial and ocean ECVs at high spatial resolution (initially 16 km); (b) regional climate reanalysis datasets and products. Reanalyses shall be produced by assimilating high-quality climate observations in a coupled atmosphere/land/ocean/sea-ice model compatible with the ECMWF Seasonal Prediction System. Regional reanalysis shall use of high-resolution observations and shall provide data products at higher resolution for the European region than global reanalyses. A refresh cycle of approximately five years shall be established to benefit from all inputs contributing to the generation of regional reanalyses. (3) Climate projections This component of the service element shall provide support for integration of European contributions to state-of-the-art climate projections at global and regional level. These data, which currently reside on the ESGF (Earth System Grid Federation), shall be accessible in an operational way. This service element shall also support the development of multi-model climate products and indicators, both generic and sector-specific. A similar support shall be provided to integrate the high resolution regional projection scenarios, with associated development of climate indicators. (4) Seasonal forecasts This component shall provide resources for producing high-quality well-calibrated multi-model ensemble products, and to ensure open access to seasonal forecast data. It shall achieve this by supporting regular re-forecasting activities at several European provider sites, at a resolution and frequency that would not be attainable without such support. It shall also provide, once a month, a set of multi-model products using these re-forecasts and the Centres' production forecasts. 5. DATA NEEDS The Service shall build upon and complement capabilities existing at national level and being developed through a number of climate-change research initiatives. The Service shall provide comprehensive climate information covering a wide range of components of the Earth-system (atmosphere, land, ocean, sea-ice and carbon) and timescales spanning decades to centuries. It shall maximise the use of past, current and future earth observations (from in-situ and satellite observing systems) in conjunction with modelling, supercomputing and networking capabilities. This conjunction shall produce a consistent, comprehensive and credible description of the past, current and future climate. 5.1. Satellites-Based Observations C3S shall use operational and past satellite-based instruments to provide products for climatology, reanalysis and validation purposes. The C3S shall use the following types of data: (a) radiometer and spectrometer data acquired in the domain covering the infrared to the microwave wavelengths to measure brightness temperature and then derive several geophysical parameters (wind vector, ozone, surface temperature); (b) GPS-radio occultation data to derive information on the atmosphere's temperature, pressure and water vapour content; (c) scatterometer data to measure near-surface wind speed and direction; (d) altimeter data to derive ocean wave height. The service shall be also supported by data and products from the Sentinel satellites. 5.2. In-situ Observations The C3S shall not operate in situ observing systems but shall collect observations from data providers. It shall utilize existing European and international infrastructures. C3S shall not support financially the acquisition of data itself, but only activities allowing their processing (quality control, format and dissemination aspects) to meet operational requirements. Several observation types (surface pressure, temperature, wind, humidity, wind profiles) shall be collected from land stations, drifting buoys, radiosondes, ships and aircrafts.