Developing an open data portal for the ESA climate change initiative

We introduce the rationale for, and architecture of, the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (CCI) Open Data Portal (http://cci.esa.int/data/). The Open Data Portal hosts a set of richly diverse datasets – 13 “Essential Climate Variables” – from the CCI programme in a consistent and harmonised form and to provides a single point of access for the (>100 TB) data for broad dissemination to an international user community. These data have been produced by a range of different institutions and vary across both scientific and spatio-temporal characteristics. This heterogeneity of the data together with the range of services to be supported presented significant technical challenges. An iterative development methodology was key to tackling these challenges: the system developed exploits a workflow which takes data that conforms to the CCI data specification, ingests it into a managed archive and uses both manual and automatically generated metadata to support data discovery, browse, and delivery services. It utilises both Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) data nodes and the Open Geospatial Consortium Catalogue Service for the Web (OGC-CSW) interface, serving data into both the ESGF and the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS). A key part of the system is a new vocabulary server, populated with CCI specific terms and relationships which integrates OGC-CSW and ESGF search services together, developed as part of a dialogue between domain scientists and linked data specialists. These services have enabled the development of a unified user interface for graphical search and visualisation – the CCI Open Data Portal Web Presence

User requirements for monitoring the evolution of stratospheric ozone at high vertical resolution (‘Operoz’: Operational ozone observations using limb geometry)

The purpose of the Operoz study has been threefold: (i) To establish the user requirements for an operational mission targeting ozone profiles at high vertical resolution, (ii) To identify the observational gaps with respect to these user requirements taking into account planned operational missions and observational ground networks, and (iii) To perform a reality check on the observational requirements based on proven concepts and present-day knowledge of potentially available measurement techniques and to identify options for a small to medium size satellite mission

Satellite-based time-series of sea-surface temperature since 1981 for climate applications

A climate data record of global sea surface temperature (SST) spanning 1981–2016 has been developed from 4 × 10^12 satellite measurements of thermal infra-red radiance. The spatial area represented by pixel SST estimates is between 1 km^2 and 45 km^2. The mean density of good-quality observations is 13 km^−2 yr^−1. SST uncertainty is evaluated per datum, the median uncertainty for pixel SSTs being 0.18 K. Multi-annual observational stability relative to drifting buoy measurements is within 0.003 K yr^−1 of zero with high confidence, despite maximal independence from in situ SSTs over the latter two decades of the record. Data are provided at native resolution, gridded at 0.05° latitude-longitude resolution (individual sensors), and aggregated and gap-filled on a daily 0.05° grid. Skin SSTs, depth-adjusted SSTs de-aliased with respect to the diurnal cycle, and SST anomalies are provided. Target applications of the dataset include: climate and ocean model evaluation; quantification of marine change and variability (including marine heatwaves); climate and ocean-atmosphere processes; and specific applications in ocean ecology, oceanography and geophysics

Characterisation of a Wheat Breeders’ Array suitable for high throughput SNP genotyping of global accessions of hexaploid bread wheat (<i>Triticum aestivium</i>)

Targeted selection and inbreeding have resulted in a lack of genetic diversity in elite hexaploid bread wheat accessions. Reduced diversity can be a limiting factor in the breeding of high yielding varieties and crucially can mean reduced resilience in the face of changing climate and resource pressures. Recent technological advances have enabled the development of molecular markers for use in the assessment and utilization of genetic diversity in hexaploid wheat. Starting with a large collection of 819 571 previously characterized wheat markers, here we describe the identification of 35 143 single nucleotide polymorphism-based markers, which are highly suited to the genotyping of elite hexaploid wheat accessions. To assess their suitability, the markers have been validated using a commercial high-density Affymetrix Axiom® genotyping array (the Wheat Breeders' Array), in a high-throughput 384 microplate configuration, to characterize a diverse global collection of wheat accessions including landraces and elite lines derived from commercial breeding communities. We demonstrate that the Wheat Breeders' Array is also suitable for generating high-density genetic maps of previously uncharacterized populations and for characterizing novel genetic diversity produced by mutagenesis. To facilitate the use of the array by the wheat community, the markers, the associated sequence and the genotype information have been made available through the interactive web site 'CerealsDB'

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Measurement of organic compounds in the upper troposphere using infrared remote sensing

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Infra-red remote sensing of organic compounds in the upper troposphere

The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) instrument measures the intensity of atmospheric radiation emitted in the infra-red spectral region at high spectral resolution in five bands ranging from 685 cm-1 to 2410 cm-1. The instrument has an excellent radiometric calibration, allowing the determination of weak features of organic compounds which are present and rather important in the upper troposphere. We have recorded spectral data for peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and acetone in the laboratory with a typical accuracy of better than 10%. These data have allowed us to analyse spectral data from the MIPAS instrument and to detect the spectral signatures of these gases for the first time. For PAN, the detection has been possible in two bands with consistent concentrations giving excellent confidence in the observations. In addition, the signatures of formic acid and ethane have been observed in the MIPAS spectra, although that for ethane is rather better known and not a surprise. The quality of formic acid and ethane retrievals from the MIPAS data will be limited by current uncertainties in the quality of the spectral databases. For PAN, acetone and formic acid, it is shown that the concentrations of these gases can be retrieved both in the Western Mediterranean, a region close to the balloon validation site at Aire-sur-l’adour, and in the polluted region of the East China Sea in April 2003. Typical detection limits for PAN are close to background limits in the Northern hemisphere upper troposphere (60 pptv) whilst those for acetone are somewhat larger and are of the order of 150-250 pptv. Tentatively we assign a detection limit to formic acid of 120 pptv, an estimate limited by uncertainties in spectroscopic data.

Retrieval of Global Tropospheric Methane Distributions from IASI

In poster describes a scheme that has been developed at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to retrieve methane distributions from the IASI instrument on METOP. IASI is an infrared nadir viewing Fourier transform spectrometer, primarily sensitive to methane in the middle to upper troposphere. Methane is an important greenhouse gas, and knowledge of its distribution, sources and sinks, and trend within the atmosphere are important for our understanding of the current atmosphere and future climate. The ability to measure information on methane from space allows global methane distributions to be derived alongside seasonal and even longer term variations in its concentration. Here, results from our version 1 methane data are described, and their quality is illustrated by comparison to models and other satellite data. In addition, the impact of clouds on the results are investigated. This is found to be a critical source of error leading to anomalously high retrieved methane value

Technical Note: Retrievability of MIPAS cloud parameter

The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) is a Fourier transform spectrometer for the detection of limb emission spectra in the middle and upper atmosphere. MIPAS cloud spectra contain a variety of crucial information about atmospheric processes such as cloud formation, chemical interaction of clouds and trace gases. The exploration of the scientific extremely valuable spectra – measured by MIPAS for the first time globally with unprecedented spectral resolution – has been just started. First publications on cloud observations of MIPAS already demonstrate the great scientific impact these data can achieve together with new developed scientific algorithms. However, so far no validated and consolidated MIPAS cloud product is available for the scientific community. Therefore the aim of the ESA study Cloud Information Retrieval from MIPAS Measurements is the development of a cloud processor with standardized and validated product parameters.In this context the purpose of the present Technical Note is to review the progress in the study of the feasibility to retrieve micro and macro physical information from the MIPAS Level 1 data

Global height-resolved methane retrievals from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) on MetOp

This paper describes the global height-resolved methane (CH4) retrieval scheme for the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) on MetOp, developed at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL). The scheme precisely fits measured spectra in the 7.9 micron region to allow information to be retrieved on two independent layers centred in the upper and lower troposphere. It also uses nitrous oxide (N2O) spectral features in the same spectral interval to directly retrieve effective cloud parameters to mitigate errors in retrieved methane due to residual cloud and other geophysical variables. The scheme has been applied to analyse IASI measurements between 2007 and 2015. Results are compared to model fields from the MACC greenhouse gas inversion and independent measurements from satellite (GOSAT), airborne (HIPPO) and ground (TCCON) sensors. The estimated error on methane mixing ratio in the lower- and upper-tropospheric layers ranges from 20 to 100 and from 30 to 40 ppbv, respectively, and error on the derived column-average ranges from 20 to 40 ppbv. Vertical sensitivity extends through the lower troposphere, though it decreases near to the surface. Systematic differences with the other datasets are typically  < 10 ppbv regionally and  < 5 ppbv globally. In the Southern Hemisphere, a bias of around 20 ppbv is found with respect to MACC, which is not explained by vertical sensitivity or found in comparison of IASI to TCCON. Comparisons to HIPPO and MACC support the assertion that two layers can be independently retrieved and provide confirmation that the estimated random errors on the column- and layer-averaged amounts are realistic. The data have been made publically available via the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) data archive (Siddans, 2016)