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The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) experiment

The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) experiment. John Harries, Professor of Earth Observation, Blackett Laboratory. Contents What’s it all about? What is GERB? European science contributng at the forefront of climate research. What’s it all about?

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The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) experiment

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  1. The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) experiment John Harries, Professor of Earth Observation, Blackett Laboratory The GERB experiment

  2. Contents • What’s it all about? • What is GERB? • European science contributng at the forefront of climate research The GERB experiment

  3. What’s it all about? • Climate change is a major scientific problem and threat to global stability; • We make predictions about how climate might change in future using coupled, ocean-atmosphere General Circulation Models (GCMs); • Ultimately the models must be tested and validated against observations of the real world. The GERB experiment

  4. GERB will make the first ever measurements of the Earth’s total energy balance from geostationary orbit. • High accuracy measurements of the solar radiation absorbed, and the infrared energy emitted by the Earth will be produced each 15 minutes. About 40 cm GERB The GERB experiment

  5. The GERB experiment

  6. The GERB experiment

  7. Should we believe “climate change”? Yes! IPCC Hadley Centre Harries et al., Nature, March 15 2001 The GERB experiment

  8. Should we believe that we understand “climate change” well enough to accurately predict our future? No! Feedback processes, especially clouds, water vapour, oceans, cause large uncertainty The GERB experiment

  9. 2. What is GERB? (Talk on GERB design in future) • GERB is a de-spun (MSG spins at 100 rpm: 18g!!) absolute radiometer seeking to achieve absolute accuracies (target 0.5-1%). High time resolution (15 mins) for first time. • Calibration in new facility at IC; GERB-1, -2 and –3 have been designed, built,tested and calibrated; • Imperial team: John PI, Steve Manager, Jacqui Project Scientist, Jenny and James Instrument Scientists, Jo George Student. RAL leads technical project. • GIST (GERB International Science Team) led by PI includes many world experts in ERB and EO studies. The GERB experiment

  10. The GERB experiment

  11. Array moves one pixel to west on every rotation of MSG, to build up image of 256x256 pixels 256 pixels The GERB experiment

  12. 3. European science at the forefront of climate research (Talks on GERB science in future) • Three examples of “Hot topics”: • Diurnal cycle of ERB and cloud-climate interaction; • Saharan dust; • Climate variability and trends. The GERB experiment

  13. Diurnal cycle of ERB and cloud-climate interaction over Africa Afternoon thunderclouds over the Serengeti The GERB experiment

  14. The GERB experiment

  15. Pictures! The GERB experiment

  16. 5. Pictures from the launch! The GERB experiment

  17. 5. Pictures from the launch! The GERB experiment

  18. 5. Pictures from the launch! The GERB experiment

  19. 5. Pictures from the launch! The GERB experiment

  20. The GERB experiment

  21. Concluding remarks • MSG is a major European initiative to be proud of, in monitoring the Earth’s weather and climate: it contributes to the world effort in this area; • Congratulations to all the GERB team at Imperial, RAL, Leicester, NPL, in Italy, Belgium, Germany and USA The GERB experiment

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