ASSET

In March 2002, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched ENVISAT, an advanced polar-orbiting Earth observation satellite which provides measurements of the atmosphere, ocean, land, and ice. In particular it carries some atmosphere sounding instruments that measure temperature, ozone, water vapour and other chemical species from the troposphere to the thermosphere.

ASSET was a project to exploit and develop earth observation data from ENVISAT using data assimilation. This activity is fundamental for the development and testing of the models and observations needed to:
1) address climate change and ozone depletion;
2) forecast the future evolution of the atmosphere.

Data assimilation provides an objective and quantitative way of confronting, testing and improving models and observations.

During the ASSET project ENVISAT data were assimilated into three leading Numerical Weather Prediction systems (each set up with different configurations) and into four leading photochemical modelling groups (each modelling group focusing on a key species, or a key region of the atmosphere). Comparison between all assimilated results gave confidence in common conclusions.

The deliverables from ASSET (algorithms, quality-controlled datasets, data dissemination infrastructure) contributed toward improving efforts to understand, simulate, predict and monitor the environment.

Link to ASSET's official web page: http://darc.nerc.ac.uk/asset/index.html.