Objective
Global climate change is widely considered one of the main concerns of humankind. However, predictions are highly uncertain, with no substantial improvement since more than three decades. They are hampered by the huge uncertainty of climate forcing, which is dominated by the uncertainty in anthropogenic aerosol-cloud-climate effects (“aerosol indirect effects”). The goal of QUAERERE (Latin for researching) is a reliable, observations-based, global quantification of these effects, which would also imply a constraint on climate sensitivity and thus climate predictions. This goal is now reachable combining recent advances in different disciplines: (i) a decade-long satellite dataset involving retrievals of the relevant quantities is now available, complemented by a complete aerosol dataset from a new reanalysis; (ii) on the basis of high-resolved numerical weather prediction models, which include parameterisations of aerosol cycles and cloud-precipitation microphysics, cloud-system resolving simulations at a regional scale are now possible; reliable simulations beyond idealised cases are thus possible. These tools are complemented by comprehensive global climate models and reference observations from ground-based sites.
The problem in aerosol-cloud-climate effects is in its complexity: Various processes counteract each other, and large spatiotemporal variability of clouds buffers the forcing effects. QUAERERE proposes a two-fold “divide-and-conquer” approach to this complex problem: (i) aerosol-cloud-climate effects will be investigated by regime; this allows to circumvent the problem of aerosol-cloud-climate effects being buffered when averaging over different regimes; and (ii) by investigating individual terms contributing to the aerosol-cloud-climate effects separately; this allows to analyse individual statistical relationship in satellite observations and model results consistently, and to perform model sensitivity studies for cause-effect attribution.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering satellite technology
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
ERC-2012-StG_20111012
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Host institution
04109 Leipzig
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.