IP6: Climate Signals from GRACE/GRACE-FO and Next Generation Gravity Missions (CLISGY)
PIs: Annette Eicker (HCU), Roland Pail (TUM)
Short description
In the first phase of IP6, a major task was the projection of the findings regarding optimized GRACE/GRACE-FO processing on concepts of next-generation gravity field missions (NGGMs). In the second phase of IP6, these simulations will be extended with the focus on long-term processes and specifically climate signals, complemented by a detail study on gravity-based validation of climate models. This will include the use of GRACE/GRACE-FO gravity field solutions for the evaluation of CMIP6 coupled climate model runs with respect to various evaluation measures (seasonal signal, trends, extreme events, etc.), and the identification of expected future climate signals from the consensus of the model ensemble. Further, long-term end-to-end satellite mission simulation experiments under the assumption of advanced NGGM concepts will be used to investigate the detectability of the expected signals such as trends, changes in trends, or amplitude and phase changes of periodic signals will be performed, in order to assess the feasibility to validate or even improve climate models.
Research Objectives
- Use improved GRACE/-FO data for climate model evaluation
- Assess ability of NGGMs to identify climate-related signals
- Make recommendations to climate community
Innovations
- Emerging application field: climate model evaluation
- First-time full-fledged numerical multi-decadal NGGM simulations
