The National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) has secured five years of investment in its environmental science research capabilities through the NERC’s National Capability Single Centre Science and National Public Good initiatives.
The award was announced by science minister Lord Patrick Vallance as part of £101m (US$131m) support for the work of UK environmental research centers including NCEO.
Earth observation capabilities
The £8.6m (US$11.2m) awarded to the National NCEO will deliver a program of work translating multiscale Earth observation data from novel, UK-supported satellites and models into global data sets, scientific knowledge and actionable information that benefits wider science, policy and business communities.
It draws on decades of UK expertise and international collaboration to address the most urgent challenges (e.g., societal climate impacts) by understanding changes in the carbon cycle, air pollution and methane, energy and water cycles and their influence on disruptive events (e.g., wildfires).
Professor John Remedios, executive director of NCEO, said, “This welcome investment gives a timely boost to the exploitation of new Earth-observing satellites, each of which is designed to meet important science and policy challenges connected to climate change. NCEO’s world-leading teams will work with the UK science and business community to derive unprecedented data with which to understand our planet, deliver on UK aspirations in space and provide value from UK-supported, Earth-focussed space missions.”
The National Centre for Earth Observation is NERC’s dedicated center to the study and exploitation of remotely sensed Earth observation data, principally from satellites. NCEO researchers work with colleagues across the international environmental science communities to develop and enhance EO data, translating the raw observations into scientific knowledge and actionable information that benefits wider UK science and policy.
Climate change research
The new funding will enable NCEO scientists to produce more accurate data sets which enable scientists to narrow down the predicted pathways for the next decades of climate change; to understand better the energy cycle and its imbalance which reflects climate change; to improve estimates of forest, ocean and atmosphere carbon amounts; study the way in which the atmosphere and its chemistry works on a global scale; improve weather and climate prediction; and underpin UK expertise at the heart of studies of wildfires.
Professor Paul Palmer, science director of NCEO, commented, “This investment will enable continued scientific breakthroughs about the Earth system led by NCEO researchers. It will also help us to support the needs of UK and international environmental science communities to develop and enhance the use of Earth Observation data across the public and private sectors.
In related news, the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) has invested £70m (US$88.8m) in a network of seven National Center for Earth Observation (NCEO) environmental analytical facilities and field equipment. Click here to read the full story.
