Earth-System, Climate Change and the European Copernicus Service
27 JUNE 2019
Aula Magna, 2 pm – 5:30 pm
2 pm Welcome
Sabina Nuti, Rector (TBC)
2:10 pm 3CSA, the initiative on Climate of the «Scuole Universitarie Federate»
Roberto Buizza, SSSA
2:40 pm The ECMWF (European Centre for medium-range weather forecasts) land- surface model
Souhail Boussetta, ECMWF
3:20 pm Copernicus Climate Change and Atmospheric Services (C3S/CAMS)
Carlo Buontempo, ECMWF/Copernicus
4 pm Climate Change Impact on Crops
Luca Sebastiani, SSSA
4:30 pm Discussion and Networking
Seminar funded by:
3CSA Initiative on Climate Change @Scuole Universitarie Federate
Institute of Life Sciences, PHD program in Agrobiosciences @Institute of Life Sciences
Contacts:
Barbara Torelli, Ph. +39 050 883706
b.torelli@santannapisa.it
Titles & Abstracts
- Title: 3CSA, the new initiative on climate of the ‘Scuole Universitarie Federate”
Prof. Roberto Buizza (Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy)
3CSA (the Centre for Climate Change studies and Sustainable Actions) is an inter-university center supported by the ‘Scuole Universitarie Federate’, the Federation of the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, the Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa (Italy) and the University School for Advanced Studies – IUSS of Pavia (Italy). 3CSA is the response of the ‘Scuole Universitarie Federate’ to the challenges posed by climate change. Built on the complementary activities of the three university schools of advanced studies, it aims to develop new, interdisciplinary approaches that can help to understand how the climate is changing, and to identify sustainable actions that can help us to mitigate its impact and to adapt. The 3CSA mission is to identify sustainable actions to manage the key challenges linked to climate change. In this talk, I will introduce 3CSA, and illustrate how we have started working to define the first key areas of interdisciplinary work.
- Title: Why future forecast models will include more of the Earth surface processes and human impact?
Dr. Souhail Boussetta (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Reading, UK)
Innovation is crucially linked to the capacity of anticipating events and needs that are about to come. Being able to anticipate adverse effects of weather disruptions from major storms or persistent droughts with their associated hazards, or favourable weather conditions that enhance productivity (e.g. good yields in agriculture sector, safe conditions for road-sea-air transportation, tourism activities) can gives competitive advantage to a number of innovative economic sectors and enhance the quality of life. This drives a growing demand for accurate global weather forecasts and weather patterns modifications that are associated with a rapidly changing climate. The path undertaken at ECMWF involves application of increasingly high resolutions Earth System Models and Earth Observations, focusing on how to (1) improve the fidelity of parametrised physical processes and data assimilation techniques, and (2) enhance the timeliness/usefulness of seamless forecasts and past climate reanalyses such as ERA5. The terrestrial biosphere in particular is a key connector of the global water energy and carbon cycle, and an asset for both climate-change mitigation and food-chain sustainability. In this talk I will present some of the recent and ongoing research actions involving Earth surface modelling with particular focus on the role of the biosphere: vegetation dynamics, land-use mapping, and use of global kilometre scale satellite data that are used to infer phenological states (e.g. Forests, grassland and cropland) and land-atmosphere fluxes (e.g. Evapotranpiration and Natural Ecosystem Exchange of Carbon Dioxide). I will cover some of the research initiated in GEOLAND I & II and IMAGINES project that were precursor of Copernicus Global Land Service (https://www.ecmwf.int/en/research/projects/geoland-iii, and https://www.ecmwf.int/en/research/projects/imagines).
- Title: Copernicus Services at ECMWF
Dr. Carlo Buontempo (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts/Copernicus, Reading, UK)
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service are two of six thematic information services provided by the Copernicus Earth Observation Programme of the European Union. Both are implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Commission. In both cases some of the most critical service elements are implemented by about 200 companies and organisations across Europe, which are selected based on competitive Invitations To Tender (ITTs). The activities of the Copernicus services complement the established range of meteorological and environmental services that each European country already has in place and the continuous involvement of national climate service providers as well as relevant academic communities is one of the key strengths of the programme.
- Title: Climate Change Impact on Crops
Prof. Luca Sebastiani, Prof. Enrico Pè, Prof. Pierdomenico Perata, Dr. Rudy Rossetto, Prof. Laura Ercoli (Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy)
When talking about climate change and agriculture, we basically question how to anticipate or minimise the adverse effects by taking appropriate actions of mitigation and adaptation. As climate will continue to be altered as a result of emissions already in the atmosphere, observation and study of the cycles of agricultural plants could suggest adaptation solution that may contribute in saving food production capabilities and lives. This is particularly true in the Mediterranean environment, where raising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns are threatening agricultural activities and then food production. Moreover, management practices aimed to increase the sequestration of atmospheric carbon into soil could contribute to the mitigation of global warming. In the Institute of Life Sciences studies are aimed to investigate the productive cycles of agricultural plants under different climate change scenarios, their adaptation mechanisms, and further on in devising and setting in adaptation practices from the biological, physical and socio-economic point of view. Investigations range at various spatial and time scales from lab to open-field to numerical simulation. The aim is to assess the strength of these solutions and their impact on the environmental matrixes by quantitative and quantitative point of view.