Copernicus - a Polish mathematician and astronomer from the 16th Century who first formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center - is also the name of a component of the European Union’s space programme, an Earth observation programme, which operates through six thematic services: Atmosphere, Marine, Land, Climate Change, Security and Emergency. It delivers freely accessible operational data, including from meteorological satellites, and services providing users with up-to-date information related to our planet's environment and weather forecasts.
And a lot is happening in Europe these days, as you may have seen:
- January 4, 2023, European ski resorts close due to lack of snow (CNN https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/no-snow-european-ski-resorts-climate/index.html)
- January 3, 2023, Climate change: Why is Europe experiencing a January heat wave? (Euronews https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/01/03/climate-change-why-is-europe-experiencing-a-january-heat-wave)
- September 13, 2022, The Alps’ magical ice caves risk vanishing in our warming world (National Geographic https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/the-alps-magical-ice-caves-risk-vanishing-in-our-warming-world-feature)
- September 5, 2022, Switzerland’s Glaciers Are Becoming a Front-Row Seat to Climate Destruction (Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-05/switzerland-s-glaciers-are-a-front-row-seat-to-climate-destruction)
Copernicus also issues monthly Climate Bulletins with highlights about surface air temperature, hydrological variables, surface-in-site monitoring and sea ice. And an annual "European State of the Climate", being last edition related to 2021.
Click on the image below to dive into this Copernicus wealth of information about the Earth's past, present and future climate data. It is freely available, upon register.
