EUMETSAT Annual Report 2022

EUMETSAT ANNUAL REPORT 2022
Case study
Climate
change in the
European
context
The annual European State
of the Climate Report was
published on 22 April 2022.
EUMETSAT data, products, and
services made a significant
contribution to the report.
Compiled by the Copernicus Climate Change Service,
implemented by the European Centre for Medium-
Range Weather Forecasts on behalf of the European
Commission, the report detailed a year of contrasts.
Spring was cooler than average but the summer
was the hottest on record, with temperatures close
to 1°C above the 1991-2020 average.
The report also detailed extreme events such as
devastating floods in western Europe in July, which
killed more than 200 people and caused about €15
billion damage, and summer wildfires that burned
more than 800,000 hectares across southern Europe.
The report stated that extreme weather events
experienced in Europe in 2021 are made more likely by
climate change, and stressed the urgent need to act.
Sea ice extent
In the Arctic Ocean, the extent and thickness of
sea ice has fallen dramatically over the past four
decades. The melting ice is strongly connected to
heating in the region over the same time. Average
summer sea ice concentration decreased by 11.8%
each decade relative to the 1981-2010 average.
A smaller, yet equally pronounced, decline also
occurred during winter. Arctic ice thickness is also
reported to be plummeting by an average of around
13% per decade.
EUMETSAT’s Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite
Application Facility (OSI SAF) uses satellite imagery
to track changes and movement of global sea ice
on a daily basis.
The data analysed by the OSI SAF can be used to
provide some of the most direct visualisations of
climate change, with graphs mapping year-onyear
variations.
“Satellite observations are the foundation for most
of our knowledge about the evolution of the global
sea ice cover,” Dr Jörg Schulz, EUMETSAT’s leading
climate scientist, said. “OSI SAF products provide
essential evidence for understanding how climate
change is playing out in polar regions.
Sunshine duration
As solar radiation passes through the atmosphere,
it is scattered, reflected, and absorbed by air
molecules, small airborne particles, water droplets,
and ice crystals.
Longer-term variations in surface solar radiation
are likely a result of human activities, with aerosol
pollutants very probably major drivers. In Europe,
annual sunshine duration shows a clear upward
trend over the past four decades.
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