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| Titel |
Observing the Anthropocene from Space: Selected Megacities |
| VerfasserIn |
John P. Burrows, Andreas Hilboll, Andreas Richter |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2014
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 16 (2014) |
| Datensatznummer |
250098164
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2014-13813.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| From the beginning of the Neolithic revolution around 10000 BC and 1800 A.D., the earth’s
human population is estimated to have risen from several million nomadic hunter gathers to 1
Billion rural settlement and city dwellers. This population increase and its related raising of
the standard of living increase and life expectancy were fuelled by energy from the
exploitation of biofuel and some use of coal. This rapid development is dwarfed by the
impact of the industrial revolution over the past two centuries. There are no over 7 Billion
people on earth with over half living in cities and urban areas, e.g. there are ~ 3 billion more
citizens than when the author was born and 2 million more than when the project
SCIAMACHY (SCanning Imaging and Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric
ChartographY) was proposed!
This industrialisation and urbanisation has been fuelled by the use of cheap energy from
fossil fuel combustion. It has resulted in large scale changes in land use, air pollution, and the
destruction of stratospheric ozone, the anthropogenic modification of biogeochemical
cycling, the destruction of species, ecosystems and ecosystem services. In order to test our
knowledge and understanding of the Earth system, accurate long term global measurements
of atmospheric constituents and surface parameters are essential. The remote sounding of the
atmosphere from instrumentation on satellite platforms provides a unique opportunity to
retrieve regional and global observations of key trace atmospheric constituents (gases,
aerosol and clouds) and surface parameters (ocean colour, ice extent, flora etc.). This
talk describes results from the SCIAMACHY project and its spin offs, GOME
(originally SCIA-mini - Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment), GOME-2, and
their successors ESA Sentinel 4 (originally GeoSCIA), Sentinel 5, CarbonSat and
SCIA-ISS.
The interpretation of the data from these instruments has provided a paradigm shift in our
understanding of global atmospheric composition. In addition they deliver unique
evidence for the development and verification of international environmental policy. |
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