ALBERT

Description: Based on the fifth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5)-generation previous Institut Pierre Simon Laplace (IPSL) Earth system model, we designed a new version, IPSL-CM5A2, aiming at running multi-millennial simulations typical of deep-time paleoclimate studies. Three priorities were followed during the setup of the model: (1) improving the overall model computing performance, (2) overcoming a persistent cold bias depicted in the previous model generation and (3) making the model able to handle the specific continental configurations of the geological past. These developments include the integration of hybrid parallelization Message Passing Interface – Open Multi-Processing (MPI-OpenMP) in the atmospheric model of the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMDZ), the use of a new library to perform parallel asynchronous input/output by using computing cores as “I/O servers” and the use of a parallel coupling library between the ocean and the atmospheric components. The model, which runs with an atmospheric resolution of 3.75∘×1.875∘ and 2 to 0.5∘ in the ocean, can now simulate ∼100 years per day, opening new possibilities towards the production of multi-millennial simulations with a full Earth system model. The tuning strategy employed to overcome a persistent cold bias is detailed. The confrontation of a historical simulation to climatological observations shows overall improved ocean meridional overturning circulation, marine productivity and latitudinal position of zonal wind patterns. We also present the numerous steps required to run IPSL-CM5A2 for deep-time paleoclimates through a preliminary case study for the Cretaceous. Namely, specific work on the ocean model grid was required to run the model for specific continental configurations in which continents are relocated according to past paleogeographic reconstructions. By briefly discussing the spin-up of such a simulation, we elaborate on the requirements and challenges awaiting paleoclimate modeling in the next years, namely finding the best trade-off between the level of description of the processes and the computing cost on supercomputers.

Description: The present availability of 18+ years of GNSS data belonging to the EUREF Permanent Network (EPN, http://www.epncb.oma.be/) is a valuable database for the development of a climate data record of GNSS tropospheric products over Europe. This data record can be used as a reference for a variety of scientific applications (e.g. validation of regional numerical weather prediction reanalyses and climate model simulations) and has a high potential for monitoring trends and the variability in atmospheric water vapour. In the framework of the EPN-Repro2, the second reprocessing campaign of the EPN, five Analysis Centres homogenously reprocessed the EPN network for the period 1996–2014. A huge effort has been made to provide solutions that are the basis for deriving new coordinates, velocities and tropospheric parameters for the entire EPN. The individual contributions are then combined to provide the official EPN reprocessed products. This paper is focused on the EPN-Repro2 tropospheric product. The combined product is described along with its evaluation against radiosonde data and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis (ERA-Interim) data.

Description: Temperature fields evolving during metal cutting processes have also been of major interest. Temperatures in the tool influence the wear behaviour and hence costs, temperatures in the work-piece are directly responsible for later product quality. Due to the high significance of temperatures, many modelling attempts for temperature fields have been conducted, however failed to deliver satisfying results. The present paper describes a novel analytical model using complex functions based on potential theory. Relevant heat sources in metal cutting as well as changing material constants are considered. The model was validated by an orthogonal cutting process and different real machining processes.

Description: Vertically integrated water vapour (IWV) is expected to increase globally in a warming climate. To determine whether IWV increases as expected on a regional scale, we present IWV trends in Switzerland from ground-based remote sensing techniques and reanalysis models, considering data for the time period 1995 to 2018. We estimate IWV trends from a ground-based microwave radiometer in Bern, from a Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer at Jungfraujoch, from reanalysis data (ERA5 and MERRA-2) and from Swiss ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations. Using a straightforward trend method, we account for jumps in the GNSS data, which are highly sensitive to instrumental changes. We found that IWV generally increased by 2 % per decade to 5 % per decade, with deviating trends at some GNSS stations. Trends were significantly positive at 17 % of all GNSS stations, which often lie at higher altitudes (between 850 and 1650 m above sea level). Our results further show that IWV in Bern scales to air temperature as expected (except in winter), but the IWV–temperature relation based on reanalysis data in the whole of Switzerland is not clear everywhere. In addition to our positive IWV trends, we found that the radiometer in Bern agrees within 5 % with GNSS and reanalyses. At the Jungfraujoch high-altitude station, we found a mean difference of 0.26 mm (15 %) between the FTIR and coincident GNSS data, improving to 4 % after an antenna update in 2016. In general, we showed that ground-based GNSS data are highly valuable for climate monitoring, given that the data have been homogeneously reprocessed and that instrumental changes are accounted for. We found a response of IWV to rising temperature in Switzerland, which is relevant for projected changes in local cloud and precipitation processes.

Description: Ocean colour applications from medium-resolution polar-orbiting satellite sensors have now matured and evolved into operational services. The examples include the Sentinel-3 OLCI missions of the European Earth Observation Copernicus programme and the VIIRS missions of the US Joint Polar Satellite System programme. Key drivers for Copernicus ocean colour services are the national obligations of the EU member states to report on the quality of marine, coastal and inland waters for the EU Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Further applications include CO2 sequestration, carbon cycle and climate, fisheries and aquaculture management, near-real-time alerting to harmful algae blooms, environmental monitoring and forecasting, and assessment of sediment transport in coastal waters. Ocean colour data from polar-orbiting satellite platforms, however, suffer from fractional coverage, primarily due to clouds, and inadequate resolution of quickly varying processes. Ocean colour remote sensing from geostationary platforms can provide significant improvements in coverage and sampling frequency and support new applications and services. EUMETSAT's SEVIRI instrument on the geostationary Meteosat Second Generation platforms (MSG) is not designed to meet ocean colour mission requirements, however, it has been demonstrated to provide valuable contribution, particularly in combination with dedicated ocean colour polar observations. This paper describes the ongoing effort to develop operational ocean colour water turbidity and related products and user services from SEVIRI. A survey of user requirements and a study of technical capabilities and limitations of the SEVIRI instruments are the basis for this development and are described in this paper. The products will support monitoring of sediment transport, water clarity, and tidal dynamics. Further products and services are anticipated from EUMETSAT's FCI instruments on Meteosat Third Generation satellites (MTG), including potential chlorophyll a products.

Description: In this study, retrievals of the medium resolution imaging spectrometer (MERIS) reflectances and water quality products using 4 different coastal processing algorithms freely available are assessed by comparison against sea-truthing data. The study is based on a pair-wise comparison using processor-dependent quality flags for the retrieval of valid common macro-pixels. This assessment is required in order to ensure the reliability of monitoring systems based on MERIS data, such as the Swedish coastal and lake monitoring system (http.vattenkvalitet.se). The results show that the pre-processing with the Improved Contrast between Ocean and Land (ICOL) processor, correcting for adjacency effects, improve the retrieval of spectral reflectance for all processors, Therefore, it is recommended that the ICOL processor should be applied when Baltic coastal waters are investigated. Chlorophyll was retrieved best using the FUB (Free University of Berlin) processing algorithm, although overestimations in the range 18–26.5%, dependent on the compared pairs, were obtained. At low chlorophyll concentrations (〈 2.5 mg m−3), random errors dominated in the retrievals with the MEGS (MERIS ground segment processor) processor. The lowest bias and random errors were obtained with MEGS for suspended particulate matter, for which overestimations in te range of 8–16% were found. Only the FUB retrieved CDOM (Coloured Dissolved Organic Matter) correlate with in situ values. However, a large systematic underestimation appears in the estimates that nevertheless may be corrected for by using a~local correction factor. The MEGS has the potential to be used as an operational processing algorithm for the Himmerfjärden bay and adjacent areas, but it requires further improvement of the atmospheric correction for the blue bands and better definition at relatively low chlorophyll concentrations in presence of high CDOM attenuation.

Description: In this study, retrievals of the medium resolution imaging spectrometer (MERIS) reflectances and water quality products using four different coastal processing algorithms freely available are assessed by comparison against sea-truthing data. The study is based on a pair-wise comparison using processor-dependent quality flags for the retrieval of valid common macro-pixels. This assessment is required in order to ensure the reliability of monitoring systems based on MERIS data, such as the Swedish coastal and lake monitoring system (http://vattenkvalitet.se). The results show that the pre-processing with the Improved Contrast between Ocean and Land (ICOL) processor, correcting for adjacency effects, improves the retrieval of spectral reflectance for all processors. Therefore, it is recommended that the ICOL processor should be applied when Baltic coastal waters are investigated. Chlorophyll was retrieved best using the FUB (Free University of Berlin) processing algorithm, although overestimations in the range 18–26.5%, dependent on the compared pairs, were obtained. At low chlorophyll concentrations (〈 2.5 mg m−3), data dispersion dominated in the retrievals with the MEGS (MERIS ground segment processor) processor. The lowest bias and data dispersion were obtained with MEGS for suspended particulate matter, for which overestimations in the range of 8–16% were found. Only the FUB retrieved CDOM (coloured dissolved organic matter) correlate with in situ values. However, a large systematic underestimation appears in the estimates that nevertheless may be corrected for by using a local correction factor. The MEGS has the potential to be used as an operational processing algorithm for the Himmerfjärden bay and adjacent areas, but it requires further improvement of the atmospheric correction for the blue bands and better definition at relatively low chlorophyll concentrations in the presence of high CDOM attenuation.

Description: Ocean colour applications from medium-resolution polar-orbiting satellite sensors have now matured and evolved into operational services. These applications are enabled by the Sentinel-3 OLCI space sensors of the European Earth Observation Copernicus programme and the VIIRS sensors of the US Joint Polar Satellite System programme. Key drivers for the Copernicus ocean colour services are the national obligations of the EU member states to report on the quality of marine, coastal and inland waters for the EU Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Further applications include CO2 sequestration, carbon cycle and climate, fisheries and aquaculture management, near-real-time alerting to harmful algae blooms, environmental monitoring and forecasting, and assessment of sediment transport in coastal waters. Ocean colour data from polar-orbiting satellite platforms, however, suffer from fractional coverage, primarily due to clouds, and inadequate resolution of quickly varying processes. Ocean colour remote sensing from geostationary platforms can provide significant improvements in coverage and sampling frequency and support new applications and services. EUMETSAT's SEVIRI instrument on the geostationary Meteosat Second Generation platforms (MSG) is not designed to meet ocean colour mission requirements, however, it has been demonstrated to provide valuable contribution, particularly in combination with dedicated ocean colour polar observations. This paper describes the ongoing effort to develop operational ocean colour water turbidity and related products and user services from SEVIRI. SEVIRI's multi-temporal capabilities can benefit users requiring improved local-area coverage and frequent diurnal observations. A survey of user requirements and a study of technical capabilities and limitations of the SEVIRI instruments are the basis for this development and are described in this paper. The products will support monitoring of sediment transport, water clarity, and tidal dynamics by providing hourly coverage and long-term time series of the diurnal observations. Further products and services are anticipated from EUMETSAT's FCI instruments on Meteosat Third Generation satellites (MTG), including potential chlorophyll a products.

Description: The use of in situ measurements is essential in the validation and evaluation of the algorithms that provide coastal water quality data products from ocean colour satellite remote sensing. Over the past decade, various types of ocean colour algorithms have been developed to deal with the optical complexity of coastal waters. Yet there is a lack of a comprehensive inter-comparison due to the availability of quality checked in situ databases. The CoastColour project Round Robin (CCRR) project funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) was designed to bring together a variety of reference datasets and to use these to test algorithms and assess their accuracy for retrieving water quality parameters. This information was then developed to help end-users of remote sensing products to select the most accurate algorithms for their coastal region. To facilitate this, an inter-comparison of the performance of algorithms for the retrieval of in-water properties over coastal waters was carried out. The comparison used three types of datasets on which ocean colour algorithms were tested. The description and comparison of the three datasets are the focus of this paper, and include the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) Level 2 match-ups, in situ reflectance measurements and data generated by a radiative transfer model (HydroLight). These datasets are available from doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.841950. The datasets mainly consisted of 6484 marine reflectance associated with various geometrical (sensor viewing and solar angles) and sky conditions and water constituents: Total Suspended Matter (TSM) and Chlorophyll a (CHL) concentrations, and the absorption of Coloured Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM). Inherent optical properties were also provided in the simulated datasets (5000 simulations) and from 3054 match-up locations. The distributions of reflectance at selected MERIS bands and band ratios, CHL and TSM as a function of reflectance, from the three datasets are compared. Match-up and in situ sites where deviations occur are identified. The distribution of the three reflectance datasets are also compared to the simulated and in situ reflectances used previously by the International Ocean Colour Coordinating Group (IOCCG, 2006) for algorithm testing, showing a clear extension of the CCRR data which covers more turbid waters.

Description: The use of in situ measurements is essential in the validation and evaluation of the algorithms that provide coastal water quality data products from ocean colour satellite remote sensing. Over the past decade, various types of ocean colour algorithms have been developed to deal with the optical complexity of coastal waters. Yet there is a lack of a comprehensive intercomparison due to the availability of quality checked in situ databases. The CoastColour Round Robin (CCRR) project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), was designed to bring together three reference data sets using these to test algorithms and to assess their accuracy for retrieving water quality parameters. This paper provides a detailed description of these reference data sets, which include the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) level 2 match-ups, in situ reflectance measurements, and synthetic data generated by a radiative transfer model (HydroLight). These data sets, representing mainly coastal waters, are available from doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.841950. The data sets mainly consist of 6484 marine reflectance (either multispectral or hyperspectral) associated with various geometrical (sensor viewing and solar angles) and sky conditions and water constituents: total suspended matter (TSM) and chlorophyll a (CHL) concentrations, and the absorption of coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM). Inherent optical properties are also provided in the simulated data sets (5000 simulations) and from 3054 match-up locations. The distributions of reflectance at selected MERIS bands and band ratios, CHL and TSM as a function of reflectance, from the three data sets are compared. Match-up and in situ sites where deviations occur are identified. The distributions of the three reflectance data sets are also compared to the simulated and in situ reflectances used previously by the International Ocean Colour Coordinating Group (IOCCG, 2006) for algorithm testing, showing a clear extension of the CCRR data which covers more turbid waters.