## 5 Towards Enhanced Use of High Resolution EO Data in Earth System Modelling
### Links with the World Weather / Climate Research WWRP/WCRP Programmes  
In the context of a more seamless prediction from day to decades, the World Weather Research Programme (WWRP) and the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) have both recognised the importance of EO for the evaluation of climate models and development of climate research. For instance, the Observations for Climate Model Intercomparisons (Obs4 MIP) project under the governance of WCRP ([[https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/projects/obs4](https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/projects/obs4) mips/]([https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/projects/obs4](https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/projects/obs4) mips/)) is aiming at developing a database of existing observational products that can be directly used for model validation. GEWEX, the core project of WCRP focusing on land-climate interactions ([[http://www.gewex.org](http://www.gewex.org)]([http://www.gewex.org](http://www.gewex.org))), has a particularly strong emphasis in this area, and oversees the GEWEX Data and Assessment Panel (GDAP), which provides regular assessments and evaluation of existing EO products. The use of EO products to improve the understanding and simulations of global water and energy processes is substantially highlighted in the GEWEX Science Questions [333].  
Figure 28: This Figure shows an example of a dropsonde vertical profile of temperatures (in black) on 23/10/2010 together with nearest ECMWF model profiles (in red and orange) and EUMETSAT IASI retrievals (in magenta and blue). Courtesy of Thomas August, EUMETSAT.  
The GEWEX Strategy 2019-2028 reviews the scope of research in the context of increasing greenhouse gases and changes in climate extremes. Examples are heat waves, heavy precipitation, droughts, or floods, which all are of particular concern [87].  
Several recent studies have shown that land-surface processes play an essential role for climate extremes, and thus EO of land surface variables are likely to help constrain the representation of these extremes in current climate models. This is particularly the case for heatwaves and changes in temperature variability, which have been shown to be strongly affected by soil moisture availability (e.g., [334; 335; 336; 337; 338; 339; 340]).  
In particular, recent results show that much of the changes in temperature extremes in mid-latitude regions can be understood as the combination of the global climate sensitivity--i.e., the global temperature response to greenhouse gas forcing--and regional effects due to soil moisture [341]. Climate simulations also suggest that typical changes in land albedo (on the order of 0.1) can substantially affect temperature extremes on local to regional scales [342; 343].  
Soil moisture-precipitation feedback have been shown to be relevant as well [76], although climate models possibly present biases in the representation of these relationships [344]. There are only a few studies of the possible impact of soil moisture on precipitation extremes, but there is evidence that land evapotranspiration was a strong contributor to the 2010 Pakistan floods [345] and climate model simulations also suggest that soil moisture-precipitation feedback impact projected changes in precipitation extremes [339; 346]. Besides the effects of land-climate interactions for temperature and precipitation extremes, soil moisture states also play an essential role in the development of droughts (e.g., [347]) and floods, and combined with high resolution imagers can reach km-scale resolution (e.g., SMOS/MODIS combination [348]). Soil moisture products at km-scale resolution will in turn benefit from dedicated field campaigns, such as for instance the AirMOSS ([[https://airmoss.ornl.gov](https://airmoss.ornl.gov)]([https://airmoss.ornl.gov](https://airmoss.ornl.gov)) [349]) as well as in situ ground based network for calibration/validation activities.