Inversion problems and data assimilation

Institute for Applied Physics "Nello Carrara"
Italian National Research Council
Department of Earth Observation

Inversion Problems and Data Assimilation

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 is 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.

ASSET will assimilate Envisat data 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 will give confidence in common conclusions.

The deliverables from ASSET (algorithms, quality-controlled datasets, data dissemination infrastructure) will contribute 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