Scientific Exploitation of EarthCARE
Phase E2 science activities of ESA
ESA-JAXA Pre-Launch EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop

2023-11-15
Christian Retscher, ESA/ESRIN
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FutureEO - Since 2000: ESA’s core Earth Observation research and development programme

Earth Science, Preparation of EO future and World-class EO Research Missions

Foundations and Concepts

Research Missions

Mission Management

Earth Science for Society

The only ESA(EO) optional
programmebringing
together all
Member States

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Science for Society – Principles• All activities will be driven by major scientific challenges, societal
needs and global environmental and development agendas to deliver
maximum public good;• All activities shall respond to the needs and recommendations ofauthoritative scientific and operational user communities anddownstream industries, who shall be consulted systematically andparticipate in co-design, implementation and assessment;• All activities shall be designed to complement, seed, cross-fertilize andenrich relevant activities of ESA MS national programmes, Horizon
Europe, DestinE and Copernicus;• Activities will be enhanced and accelerated using latest cutting-edge
technologies (ICT) such as AI powered Open EO platforms, Data
Cubes, Cloud Computing, Big Data analysis, Open Science and Citizen
science.

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Pushing the frontiers of science
Strategic Activities

Engaging thecommunity
Joint ESA-EC Earth System
Science initiative strategic
partnership with DG-RTD
fostering an ambitious European
and international scientificcollaboration between FutureEO
and Horizon Europe

Training and
Education

New methods &observation products
ESA Science Clusters fostering
a community open science
approach to scientificexploitation bringing together
different teams and projects towork together towards common
ambitious goals addressing all
major scientific domains

Open Science
Tools/Virtual Labs

Advancing Earth
System Science
ESA Science Hub a new facility
in ESA fostering partnerships
with academia and collaborative
research with centres of
excellence in MSs focusing on
EO and Earth system science
priorities

Networking &partnerships

ScientificCampaigns
Developing the “content” of DTE(HPC demonstrators): building a(prototype) advanced digitalreconstruction of the Earthsystem based on the integrationof the latest ESA data sets,
numerical simulations andscience results

Transfer to future
missions4

A strong partnership in Earth Sciences

ESA
FutureEO

EC-R&I
Horizon Europe

ESA new Science and Innovation Earth Observation Programme

New EU Research and Innovation Framework Programme

A common goal “…. to jointly advance Earth systemscience and its contribution to respond to the global
challenges that society is facing in the onset of thiscentury”

The European Commission’s Deputy Director General for Research and Innovation, Patrick
Child and ESA’s Director General, Josef Aschbacher at the signing ceremony, January 2020.
5Common Priorities

Knowledge gaps inEarth system:• Methane• Clouds/Aerosols

6EarthCARE – Science Objectives
The EarthCARE mission basic objective is to improve the understanding of the aerosol-cloudradiation interactions (ACI) and Earth radiative balance, so that they can be modelled with better
reliability in climate and in numerical weather prediction models.
Specifically, the scientific objectives are:•Observation of the vertical profiles of natural and anthropogenic aerosols on a global scale, theirradiative properties and interaction with clouds;•

Observation of the vertical distributions of atmospheric liquid water and ice on a global scale,
their transport by clouds and their radiative impact;•

Observation of cloud distribution (‘cloud overlap’), cloud precipitation interactions and thecharacteristics of vertical motions within clouds;•

Retrieval of profiles of atmospheric radiative heating and cooling through the combination of theretrieved aerosol and cloud properties8

Support for EarthCARE – Collection of Ideas, Plans
Studies upcoming in the short term•

Atmosphere Science Cluster – Research Opportunities 5•

Coordinated call with the EC DG-RTD, to be KO Nov 2023•

Related call HORIZON-CL5-2023-D1-04 winners
CleanCloud and CERTAINTY, talks on Mon Nov 13, 2023=> AIRSENSE
Aerosol and aerosol-cloud Interaction from Remote SENSing Enhancement
O.Dubovik, P. Litvinov, A. Lopatin, U. Wandinger, O. Hasenkamp, V. Amiridis,
H. Baars, B. van Diedenhoven, M. Momoi, S. Zhai, B. Torres, F. Waquet, O. Sourdeval,
E. Marinou, A.Tsekeri, H. Jia, J. Hofer, A. Tsikerdekis, G.-J. van Zadelhoff, D. P. Donovan,
J.-C. Péré, I. S. Stachlewska, L. Janicka
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Novel products and their validation• aerosol and cloud types + vertical variability, stratospheric aerosol, highresolution (time x space) from multi-instrumental synergy

ARI/ACI science studies using observations• Aerosol-cloud interaction, cloud formation, humidity growth effects

Science studies using models and data assimilation• atmospheric dynamics and water cycle

Support for EarthCARE – Collection of Ideas, Plans
Studies in planning, other funding opportunities•

Several dedicated science studies to be started in 2024, 2 MEUR•

Support for EarthCARE product handling functionality in the ESA
Atmosphere Virtual Lab (AVL): https://atmospherevirtuallab.org/•

Permanent Open Call, 200 kEUR, 1.5 y,https://eo4society.esa.int/2023/09/15/future-eo-1-segment-2-open-callfor-proposal-for-eo-innovation/
Science, Applications, Industrial Competitiveness, Digital Innovation,
Sentinel Users Preparation, Foresight•

Living Planet Fellowship (LPF), 200 kEUR, 2 y11

Support for EarthCARE – Collection of Ideas, Plans
Input is coming from•List of proposals for science activities in Phase E2, collectedfrom the JMAG and Level 2 teams;•

ATMOS-2021 conference recommendations:
https://atmos2021.esa.int/•••

ATMOS-2024, Bologna, Italy, Jul 1 – 5, 2024
Further suggestions when closer to launch and in
Commissioning;…
12Aeolus Science Studies
Feasibility Studies concluded: Ensuring a fast exploitation of Aeolus through a set of parallel shortfeasibility projects advancing beyond the primary products• LISA - Lidar measurements to Identify Streamers and analyze Atmospheric waves (Team: DLR)• NEWTON - ImproviNg dust monitoring and forecasting through Aeolus WInd daTa assimilatiON(Team: NOA, Cyl)
• SWAILS+ - Studies on Wind and Aerosol Information from Lidar Surface returns (Team: KNMI)• SeaFlect - Ocean Surface Wind from Aeolus Sea Surface (Team: Verisk Analytics GmbH; Hermess,
Informus)• COLOR - CDOM-proxy retrieval from aeOLus ObseRvations (Team: CNR-ISMAR; UNIBAS,AEQUORA; SERCO)• AOC - Ocean sub-surface products and applications (Team: Noveltis; CNRS – LOG)
Science Studies recently launched: Using established Aeolus products• Aeolus+ Aerosols L2A+ Product (Team: NOA, Cyl, ECMWF)• Aeolus+ Processes (Team: UHH, ECMWF)
https://eo4society.esa.int
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CPR: Ideas centered around main features/advantages
Light precipitation and Low-level oceanic clouds
The EarthCARE CPR will have a smaller footprint (improved LWP estimates), better sensitivity, and better handling of the surface clutter. There is the
expectation that will provide improved measurements in LWP, cloud structure, and rain rate in these climatically important cloud systems. Postlaunch, the CPR L2 algorithms will be evaluated and refined for extracting the aforementioned information from low-level clouds over the ocean.
Then, it will be important to create a 1- or 2-year climatology, compare this climatology with that available from CloudSat and use the data toevaluate climate models and conduct studies on the meteorological factors and aerosols that affect the properties of low-level oceanic clouds.

Global estimates of hydrometeors sedimentation rates
The EarthCARE CPR is the first Dopplerized radar in space for atmospheric applications. The CPR L2 algorithms use state-of-the-art corrections andstatistical techniques to provide the best estimate of the sedimentation velocity of hydrometeors around the globe. Climate models are very
sensitive to the specification of fall speeds. Ice fall speed was the second most important parameter for determining climate sensitivity. A decreasein the fall speed of ice crystals can affect upper tropospheric water vapor amounts while changes to the fall speed of raindrops can induce changes
in the evaporation rate and hence affect the temperature structure in the lower part of the atmosphere. Generating a first global climatology ofhydrometeor fall speeds using the CPR Doppler observations will be a first and will help us understand the variability of the hydrometeor fallvelocities and their dependency on environmental factors.

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CPR: Studies on clouds and precipitation
Study of precipitation initiation processes
Precipitation formation is a key process in Earth's hydrological cycle. It keeps ecosystems running and is hence a major
concern of current weather and climate research. Recent shifts in global precipitation patterns were pinned down with the help oflarge-scale measurement data and with numerical modelling. Still, the origins of these changes are obscure, because
precipitation formation is complex and involves a large diversity of ice and liquid processes. The melting-layer detection basedon vertical-velocity estimation will, for the first time, allow direct distinction between cold and warm precipitation processes andtheir global distribution. For that, global histograms of precipitation events and their properties (cloud top height, cloud top
temperature, melting layer presence) shall be compiled from the global EarthCARE dataset. Data from operational Cloudnet
stations shall be used to provide ground-truth datasets for intercomparison.

Characterisation of convection with synergistic GEO and LEO satellite observations
EarthCARE CPR's unique capability of Doppler observations will be used to characterise the upper parts of convective
towers. In synergy with GEO and other LEO satellites, an unprecedented climatology will be created. EarthCARE CPR products
will require a specialised de-aliasing (re-)processing (beyond the nominal CPR data products).

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ATLID: Studies on aerosol and aerosol-cloud interaction
Long-term datasets for aerosol and aerosol-cloud-interaction research
EarthCARE will continue the long-term observations of aerosol and clouds that have been started with CALIPSO in 2006. While CALIPSO uses backscatter measurements at 532 and 1064 nm, the newgeneration of high-spectral-resolution lidars developed by ESA operate at 355 nm. First aerosol measurements from space at this wavelength are already available from the wind-lidar mission Aeolus as spinoff products. With ATLID, a new observation quality will emerge due to the combined high-spectral-resolution and polarization capabilities and the much better vertical and horizontal resolution of themeasurements compared to Aeolus. Therefore, ATLID measurements will also allow the retrieval of CCN (cloud condensation nucleus) and INP (ice-nucleating particle) concentrations following an which has
been already applied to CALIPSO measurements. However, the previous work relies on measurements at 532 nm and the retrievals for 355 nm still need to be developed. The developments shall be made in
the general context of harmonizing long-term aerosol lidar observations from space at different wavelengths by applying EarthCARE’s Hybrid End-to-End Aerosol Classification model and aerosol-typedependent conversions based on multi wavelength measurements from ground A specific focus of the study shall be on the global dust belt, along which several ground-based observing stations equippedwith multi wavelength polarization lidars and photometers exist that can be used to provide the necessary input information to develop the retrievals as well as to validate the new spaceborne products. The
global dust belt constitutes the largest aerosol source on Earth, is highly sensitive to global change, and exhibits next to pure dust a variety of complex mixtures of dust with pollution, smoke, and marine
aerosol. Dust particles are known as efficient INP, while pollution, smoke, and marine particles mainly act as CCN.

Global influence of smoke in the stratosphereAs a consequence of climate change, the frequency of extreme wildfires is increasing, which leads to larger emissions of smoke into the UTLS. The influence of this new phenomenon on cirrus formation,
radiation budget, and even ozone depletion is not fully understood yet. Smoke injection into the UTLS impacts the entire hemisphere on timescales from several months up to years. The global observationsof EarthCARE will enable the research community to study the distribution and temporal evolution of stratospheric smoke plumes. ATLID L2a products are suited to detect the aerosol layers in thestratosphere, especially ATLID’s polarization and high-spectral-resolution capabilities are essential. However, a specific aerosol classification scheme for the stratosphere is not implemented yet. The distinct
optical properties of stratospheric smoke allow the separation of smoke from volcanic aerosol, which has been considered as the dominant aerosol type in the stratosphere for decades. Developing tools to
detect and characterize stratospheric smoke layers and creating a first climatology from 1-2 years of EarthCARE observations will serve as the starting point to study the global impact of wildfire smoke.

Change of particle scattering properties by water uptake at high relative humidity
Satellite-based studies of aerosol-cloud interactions often rely on the observation of aerosol properties in the vicinity of clouds. EarthCARE will allow global observations of aerosol scattering properties
with unprecedented accuracy with its high-spectral-resolution lidar ATLID. However, aerosol scattering properties are affected by water uptake and the respective growth of particles. For the same type ofaerosol, a change of scattering properties with height is typically observed in the mixed convective boundary layer. Therefore, the aerosol observations of ATLID should be investigated with respect tohumidity-growth effects in different areas of the world and for different aerosol types by comparing them with ground-based measurements during nearby overpasses. Multiwavelength polarization Raman
lidars that comprise also water-vapor channels are best suited for this purpose since they allow the measurement of particle scattering properties, the classification of the aerosol and the determination ofrelative-humidity profiles simultaneously. By combining ground-based and spaceborne observations, the particle water uptake within the mixed boundary layer shall be quantified for different aerosol
types in different areas and used to estimate the global effect.
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ATLID-CPR synergy: Studies on aerosol-cloud interaction
Impact of aerosol conditions and vertical air motion on supercooled liquid clouds
The joint aerosol and cloud observation capabilities of EarthCARE will, for the first time, allow a global view on therelative contribution of vertical air motion and aerosol effects on the phase partitioning in the mixed-phase cloud
regime between -40 and 0°C. There is, for instance, still a considerable bias between observations and simulations of theradiative budget over the southern-hemisphere midlatitudes, which is attributed to an underestimation of supercooled liquidwater in state-of-the-art atmospheric models over this region. Both, an insufficient representation of cloud-relevant aerosol
properties, such as ice-nucleating particles (INP) or cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), or an underestimation of in-cloud vertical
dynamics are potential explanations for the excess of supercooled liquid water over this region. However, ground-based
observations were so far mostly restricted to locations in the vicinity of the few landmasses of the southern hemispheremidlatitudes, which are subject to the presence of orographically driven atmospheric waves. The impact of these waves or otheryet undiscovered vertical air motions on clouds over the southern ocean, where the radiation bias is largest, is to date unclear
due to the lack of observations. Using ATLID and the Doppler-capable CPR aboard EarthCARE will allow the adaption of to thewhole globe in order to evaluate the relative contribution of vertical air motion and aerosol to the formation of supercooled liquidwater in the mixed-phase cloud regime.

17Satellite-ground synergy: Aerosol-cloud interaction
Studies on aerosol-cloud interactions from the synergy between space- and ground-based instruments
The interplay between aerosol and clouds is one of the biggest questions when predicting future climate. Regarding the radiative forcing due toaerosol-cloud interactions satellite observations have shown to be the most suitable platform to experimentally estimate the anthropogenic
contribution on it, and there is a long history of estimates mostly based on passive remote-sensing instruments. There are important issues whenevaluating the effect of aerosol on clouds from space, such as the absence of vertical information about aerosol particles and clouds which the
EarthCARE mission will widely be overcome by the unique synergy of lidar, radar, imagery, and radiometry instruments. The spatiotemporal
information of aerosol and cloud macro- and microphysics, together with the radiation fluxes, will represent the most complete dataset everacquired from observations. This data will offer a valuable opportunity to evaluate the Twomey effect and the adjustments of cloud properties andcloud lifetime after perturbation. Another important issue is the fact that in cloudy situations, almost no information beneath thick clouds can beobtained from spaceborne instruments. For this reason, neighboring cloud pixels to estimate the aerosol proxy have been mostly used, but its
degree of correlation with cloud properties is at least questionable. Furthermore, the use of near-cloud pixels might induce biases in the aerosol
properties because of possible misclassification between aerosol and clouds. The importance of the scale to address aerosol-cloud relations andthe difficulty of separating the influence of aerosol and cloud processes on the cloud droplet and ice number gives the information beneath thecloud an essential role. Because of this, and in the context of harmonization, ground-based lidars can help with the construction of 4D scenes inorder to extend the observational capabilities to cloudy periods in which information from the ground up to the cloud base will be missing. Groundbased lidars, measuring continuously and at locations close to the overpasses of EarthCARE, can be used in combination with parcel modeling toreconstruct the aerosol situation beneath clouds from elastic lidar products. Microphysical information in the cloud base region of liquid layers will
be still missing, as they can be only partially observed by space lidar. Ground-based lidar/radar or lidar with dual-FOV capabilities can add thelast missing part of information, but this will be limited to only a few stations. Studies on the processes occurring in clouds might be conducted by
combining the ground-based and space-based capabilities.
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Other ideas• Augment the volcanic ash detection and forecasting capability
Feeding EarthCARE vertical profiles with images from nadir-viewing optical sensors into an ash
forecasting system. The development shall take place in close cooperation with the VAACs as mainusers.
• High resolution cloud and aerosol modelling
Feasibility Study for the assimilation of EarthCARE cloud and aerosol data in regional models, i.e.,
mesoscale forecast models used by Met Services.
• Forward modelling for the utilization of the Doppler effect from convection
Feasibility Study for the assimilation EarthCARE Doppler Winds in convective situations in global
models (e.g. ECMWF) building on the assimilation of EarthCARE clouds and Aeolus winds.

• Activities to further exploit MSI, RBR?
• …

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Thank you
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Backup on Aeolus Innovation21

Advancing EO Methods and Techniques
Aeolus+ Innovation
LISA - Lidar measurements to Identify Streamers
and analyze Atmospheric waves
Consortium● DLR (Germany); Czech Institute of Atmospheric Physics(CAS, Czech Republic)
Objectives● Develop Aeolus products to study atmospheric streamer events
Current status:● FM: June 28, 2022;● Visiting scientist – Lisa Kuechelbacher, DLR;
● Outreach – extensive list of conferences;https://eo4society.esa.int/projects/lidar-measurements-to-identify-streamersand-analyze-atmospheric-waves-lisa/

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Advancing EO Methods and Techniques
Aeolus+ Innovation – LISA – Main results
Scientific Case Studies
Derivation of PW up to wavenumber 6 is possible
Aeolus-DAI shows structures more clearly than ERA-5-DAI
Aeolus data available for the selected time periods
Aeolus DAI shows wave breaking with respect to two (of three) streamer events
For each event two waves with different wavenumbers are affected
Wave-resonance might explain wave breaking
Streamer occur in different heights, dependent on season
Derivation of Gravity Wave Activity
Normalized lower band kinetic energy density 𝐸𝑘𝑖𝑛,𝑙𝑜𝑤

https://www.wdc.dlr.de/lisa/
24Advancing EO Methods and Techniques
Aeolus+ Innovation
NEWTON - ImproviNg dust monitoring and forEcasting
through Aeolus WInd daTa assimilatiON
Consortium● National Observatory Athens (NOA); The Cyprus Institute (CyI)
Objectives● Improvement of short-term dust forecasts and DOD
through assimilation of Aeolus winds
Current status:• FM: July 14, 2022;• Further developments based on NEWTON study• ACP paper submitted

https://eo4society.esa.int/projects/aeolus-innovation-expronewton/
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Advancing EO Methods and Techniques
Aeolus+ Innovation – NEWTON - Main results

https://newton.space.noa.gr/
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Advancing EO Methods and Techniques
Aeolus+ Innovation
SWAILS+ - Studies on Wind and Aerosol Informationfrom Lidar Surface returns
Consortium● KNMI
Objectives● Derive ocean surface wind product from Aeolus observations
Current status:• FM: July 4, 2022;• LARRISA software on GitHub;
https://gitlab.com/labzovskii/swls/activity

https://eo4society.esa.int/projects/aeolus-innovation-studies-on-wind-and-aerosol-information-from-lidarsurface-returns-swails/
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Advancing EO Methods and Techniques
Aeolus+ Innovation – SWAILS+LARISSA flow diagram

Validation results

LARISSA datasets can be accessed from the KDP:
https://dataplatform.knmi.nl/dataset/aeolus-larissa-2a-1-0
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Advancing EO Methods and Techniques
Aeolus+ Innovation
SeaFlect - Ocean Surface Wind from Aeolus Sea Surface
Consortium● Verisk Analytics GmbH (Europe and US); Hermess (The Netherlands);
Informus (Germany)
Objectives● Define conditions where ocean surface wind products can be retrieved from Aeolus observations, anddefine, calibrate and validate a novel wind speed retrieval method
Current status:• FM: July 1, 2022;• Definition of quality control and filtering of data in the analysis;• validation activity started - first draft of the VAL document.
https://eo4society.esa.int/projects/aeolus-innovation-expro-ocean-surface-wind-from-aeolus-seasurface-returns-sea-flect/30Advancing EO Methods and Techniques
Aeolus+ Innovation – SeaFlect – Main results
EOL Experiment• Near-nadir observation geometry;• Data collection for at least two weeks over the global
oceans;• Aggregation of 20 pulses into a measurement, to arrive at
an approximate sampling scale of 3 km.;
• Different observation geometries (e.g., 5°, 20°) for different
ROI (Hudson Bay, Bothnian Sea);
The analysis of the data collected during the EoL experiencewould benefit from the methods developed under the baseline
activities and could be performed in a relatively short period (<6 month).
Careful consideration on data filtering.
Expected increase in reflectance with increasing
wind speed for the high wind regime (wind speed
in excess of 10 m/s).
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Advancing EO Methods and Techniques
Aeolus+ Innovation
COLOR - CDOM-proxy retrieval from aeOLus
ObseRvations
Consortium● CNR-ISMAR; University of Basilicata (UNIBAS); AEQUORA; SERCO
Objectives● Study whether in-water products can be retrieved from Aeolus sub-surface returns for indirect
chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) determination
Current status:● -> MTR - Q1 2022;● A Monte Carlo based RTM to simulate AEOLUS signal propagation in ocean
was developed and validated;● Algorithm development based on Aeolus signal - in progress.

https://eo4society.esa.int/projects/aeolus-innovation-expro-cdom-proxy-retrieval-from-aeolus-observations-color/32

Advancing EO Methods and Techniques
Aeolus+ Innovation
AOC - Ocean sub-surface products and applications
Consortium● Noveltis (France); CNRS – LOG (France)
Objectives••

Lidar-derived optical parameters
Ocean optical parameters related to ocean optical properties•

Biogeochemical parameters related to marine biogeochemical cycles

Current status:●●●

Retrieval algorithm development (based on parametric equations) and AOC products generation; 8different cases identified;Sea campaign in Cabo Verde: CADDIWA campaign, 7 Aeolus overpasses (<100 km) between Sept 1530th 2021;
Definition of Aeolus observations / in situ measurements match-ups for validation.
https://eo4society.esa.int/projects/aeolus-innovation-ocean-sub-surface-products-and-applications/33