Status Report

ESA TV Stories related to IPCC Climate Change 2007 report release on 6 April

By SpaceRef Editor
March 24, 2007
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On 6 April 2007, the contribution of Working Group II to the “Climate Change 2007” assessment report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) will be presented to the press in Brussels.

This report will provide a comprehensive analysis of how climate change is affecting natural and human systems, what the impacts will be in the future and how far adaptation and mitigation can reduce these impacts. The report also contains chapters on regions.

On 2 April, the experts of working group II will convene in the Charlemagne Building of the European Commission for deliberations until 5 April on the final wording of their report.

For more information, please see http://www.ipcc.ch/press/prwg10apr07.htm

Earth observation from space provides important information to asses global change and to manage its impact. The ESA TV Service releases three new productions on aspects of climate change and space, as follows:

27 March 2007 The Earth’s Poles and Climate Change

The North and South Pole play a critical part in Earth’s climate. This story looks at work by scientists from the Alfred-Wegener-Institute in Germany who collect and analyse ground data on Arctic snow and ice cover, predicitng its evolution over the next 100 years, and at the same time preparing for Cryosat-2. Soundbites explain the link between Arctic ice cover and climate change.

30 March 30 2007 Earth Climate and Space Weather

While climate change is number one on the news agenda, its not new on Earth. This story looks at work by scientists at the Danish National Space Centre who investigate variations with time of the cosmic radiation arriving at Earth and its impact on our climate. High-energy particles from space contribute to cloud generation, which in turn cool the Earth’s surface. Part of past climate variations might be explained by this mechanism.

3 April 2007 Coimbra Solar Observatory

The Sun is essential for life on Earth but in many ways the star at the centre of our Solar System is also a mystery. For 80 years now, the Coimbra Observatory in Portugal has been building up a scientific treasure trove of pictures of the Sun, which today are helping scientists to better understand sudden changes of the Sun that can affect the climate on Earth.

The three scripts and URLs for preview clips in MediaPlayer are online on the ESA-TV Website.

Mpeg-2 files in broadcast quality are also online now for all releases, see http://television.esa.int/mpeg.cfm and then click on the FTP button of the release you wish to download.

Exact transmission times for these releases will be mailed 24 hours before the release.

For further information and a daily update of the transmission schedule, visit our website at http://television.esa.int. For all enquires, contact Claus Habfast, Tel +31 71 565 3838, Fax +31 71 565 6340, e-mail claus.habfast@esa.int.

With kind regards,

ESA TV Service

SpaceRef staff editor.