ESA is calling for researchers to submit abstracts for sessions at the next General Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU 2023).

Among others, the agency is leading sessions focused on soil moisture error characterisation and the Joint Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign (JATAC).

Abstracts should be submitted by 10 January 2023, with the conference taking place in Vienna, Austria from 23 to 28 April 2023.

Soil moisture error characterisation

As part of the hydrological sciences element of the conference, ESA is leading a session on the estimation of uncertainties in soil moisture datasets, with a special focus on error estimation methods, strategies, and reference data sets.

In recent years, the field of metrology has received growing interest from the Earth observation community and, as a result, scientists are furthering their efforts to ensure the quality of soil moisture products.

These efforts are fuelled by the unprecedented wealth of standardised group data repositories, which enable new ways of assessing data quality.

In addition, the increasing availability of high-resolution soil moisture datasets – such as downscaled SMOS and SMAP products and retrievals from high-resolution SAR missions – means that scientists must refine and adapt guidelines and protocols on the characterisation of soil moisture product error budgets.

Lastly, reliable knowledge about soil moisture product error budgets is vital to enable key applications, such as data assimilation.

Submissions related to the following areas are encouraged: soil moisture reference networks and the establishment of fiducial reference measurements; traceability and metrological principles; novel statistical methods and tools; characterising uncertainties across scales; soil moisture product assessments; uncertainty characterisation for data assimilation and the utility of uncertainty estimates for other applications.

Scientists whose research is related to soil moisture error characterisation can learn more about the session and submit their abstracts online.

The Joint Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign

ESA’s session on JATAC forms part of the atmosphere sciences element of EGU 2023.

Aeolus is expected to greatly improve numerical weather prediction in the tropics. The predictability of these weather systems is heavily influenced by the outflow of Saharan dust, due to its impacts on both cloud microphysics and tropical convection over the Atlantic Ocean.

Completed over Cabo Verde and the US Virgin Islands, JATAC uses a range of ground-based and airborne sensors to investigate the interactions of wind, dust and clouds. JATAC will advance understanding of the life cycle of convective systems, and the long-range transport of dust and its impact on air quality, as well as enabling the calibration and validation of Aeolus data, and supporting preparations for future missions.

Scientists whose research is related to JATAC can learn more about the session and submit their abstracts online.