Project description
Overcoming mesoscale cloud-climate uncertainty
Climate projections are essential for guiding climate change response but feature a lot of uncertainty, which largely stems from mesoscale cloud processes: cloud fields organise into striking patterns, covering hundreds of kilometres over the subtropical and tropical oceans. While they are conspicuous in satellite imagery, we lack the concepts and tools to adequately model their evolution. To address this challenge, the ERC-funded MesoClou project will develop a framework to understand and predict mesoscale cloudiness directly from satellite imagery. By shifting the focus to emergent cloud behaviour at the mesoscale, the project will enhance climate models, improve Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments, and lead the data-driven revolution of atmospheric and climate modelling.
Objective
Climate projections are essential for guiding societys response to climate change but feature significant uncertainty. According to the latest assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), clouds remain the largest source of this uncertainty. The main culprit are mesoscale cloud fields, which organize into striking patterns, and cover hundreds of kilometers over the subtropical and tropical oceans. While conspicuous in satellite imagery, we lack the concepts and tools to adequately model their evolution.
To overcome this mesoscale cloud-climate uncertainty, the project will develop a framework to conceptually understand and quantitatively predict mesoscale cloudiness from time series of satellite imagery. This requires a fundamental change of perspective: Instead of investigating cloud processes from the bottom up, the new approach will directly focus on the emergent behavior at the mesoscale. The new framework will capture mesoscale cloudiness as a data-driven complex system. This characterization will enable an assessment of the role of clouds in climate projections that is novel in two aspects: First, it will include observational information that has not been used before to reduce cloud-climate uncertainty. Second, the reliability of state-of-the-art lines of evidence will be objectively judged based on how well they capture different scales of cloud processes. The new methodology will be equipped to tap into the next generation of data and unlock additional lines of evidence.
As a comprehensive tool for mastering mesoscale cloudiness, the new framework will have broad and lasting impact: It will steer future cloud research, it will notably reduce uncertainty in the next IPCC assessment, and it will be an essential guide for the upcoming data-driven revolution of atmospheric and climate modeling.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology mechanical engineering vehicle engineering aerospace engineering satellite technology
- social sciences political sciences political transitions revolutions
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences atmospheric sciences climatology climatic changes
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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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.
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.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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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.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2628 CN DELFT
Netherlands
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.