Euroclim: Monitoring the Cryosphere to Improve Climate Change Modelling

One of the potentially greatest threats to human beings is climate change. Climate scenario modelling indicates that our environmental conditions will change with increasing speed in the coming years with one of the most significant changes being a warming of the global climate. However, although there will be warming on the global scale there will be large regional variations in climate that will affect various parts of the world differently. In fact, Europe is maybe the most sensitive region of the world and it is not known whether we will experience regional cooling or warming in a future warmer world in general. The EuroClim system will be an advanced tool for climate monitoring and scenario modelling for the support of a sustainable development and protection of the environment in Europe. The European cryosphere (i.e., masses of sea-ice, snow, and glaciers) will be the main indicator system. Snow and ice variables are extracted from satellite data and processed by advanced algorithms. The cryospheric information is applied in a regional climate model and statistical tools extract the information needed by the users – like extreme weather and changes in the length of the growing season.