Climate Applications Scientist European Space Agency (ESA) in Harwell

Climate Application Scientist with a specialisation in land surface leading a dedicated portfolio of projects in the ESA Actionable Climate Information Section, Climate and Long-Term Action Division, Climate Action, Sustainability and Science Department, Directorate of Earth Observation Programmes.

ESA’s Actionable Climate Information Section is the focal point for the Agency’s climate-related activities and is based at the European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT), Harwell in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. The Section aims to increase the availability and use of global, satellite-based Earth observation data for decision-making.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is driving international efforts to combat climate change by limiting the global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, as set out in the Paris Agreement. In response to UNFCCC requirements for systematic monitoring of the climate system, ESA launched the Climate Change Initiative (CCI) research programme in 2008.

Through the CCI, ESA is developing a suite of global data records of key components of the climate system, known as essential climate variables (ECVs). The climate-quality datasets produced by the CCI are a major contribution to the evidence base used to understand climate change, which drives international action. Climate modellers use ECVs to study drivers, interactions and feedback due to climate change, as well as reservoirs, teleconnections, tipping points and fluxes of energy, water and carbon, and also to predict future change.

The CCI also addresses the R&D required to support the UNFCCC Paris Agreement reporting requirements for signatories. Another major focus of the CCI is to connect climate observation and modelling communities through initiatives such as the WCRP, CMIP and CORDEX.

In your role, you will work to expand the awareness, use and scientific impact of long-term satellite Earth observation (EO) data records for climate science and applications, with a main focus on land surface, but also for other Earth system domains. You will support and advise on the detailed scientific goals of the various international scientific and operational user communities concerned with international climate research, modelling, adaptation and mitigation activities.

Your tasks and responsibilities will include:

• Deriving technical specifications for EO-based information related to the land surface, terrestrial carbon and water cycles, including their interactions with the atmosphere, with specific regard to the requirements of climate users, such as long-term stability, accuracy, consistency, availability, error-characterisation and compatibility with climate observations from other space and non-space sources;
• Establishing dialogue with specialised climate user communities, analysing their needs for satellite-based observation of the climate system, assessing their feedback on available EO-based information;
• Initiating and monitoring R&D projects to enhance ESA’s capability to generate climate data records that respond to user needs for climate monitoring, reanalysis, modelling, attribution, prediction, trend assessment and data assimilation;
• Validating the results of such developments with the corresponding climate user;
• Promoting the use of EO data for supporting the UNFCCC Global Stocktake commitments decided at COP 21 in Paris in 2015;
• Cooperating with internal and external partner organisations.