Satnews Daily
September 15th, 2010

EUMETSAT... A Meeting Of Meteorological Minds (Event)


[SatNews] On September 20-24, 2010, meteorologists, scientists, and researchers will meet in Cordoba, Spain, for the 2010 EUMETSAT Meteorological Satellite Conference, hosted and co-organised by the Agencia Estatal de Meteorologia (AEMET), the Spanish State Meteorological Agency.

Sessions will cover a wide range of subjects, including climate monitoring, Nowcasting, ocean observations and atmospheric composition, the main conference theme this year. The constituents of the atmosphere at global and regional scales influence climate, air quality, stratospheric ozone, and precipitation, which in turn affect human health and the vitality of ecosystems. Research and observational activities based on satellite data, complementing ground-based measurements, are key to monitoring variability and trends and to assessing the state of processes affecting atmospheric composition. Understanding changes and their causes can be useful to decision-makers throughout the world.

The conference will be attended by some 400 participants from over 40 countries. The opening session on the first day of the conference will be addressed by Dr. Lars Prahm, Director-General of EUMETSAT, and Dr. Ricardo Garcia Herrera, President of AEMET. Among the notable guest speakers at the conference will be Professor Paul Crutzen, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1995 and best known for his research on ozone depletion. The climate session will highlight the global aspects of satellite systems to increase understanding of the climate system and address the scientific issues involved. Earth observation satellites, in particular those of operational meteorological satellite programmes, are well-suited for monitoring climate because they provide constant and continuous, consistent long-term global observations needed for monitoring climate variability and trends.