ARSCliSys projects
Radio occultation and climate
Satellite data and ground data are used together with climate model simulations to study climate variability, climate trends and weather and climate extremes. The focus is on global climate change and building bridges to regional and local climate and environmental change in the Alpine region.
Satellite measurements using Global Navigation Satellite System Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) play a key role in the areas of weather, climate and space weather. All satellites operated by the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) in low-earth orbits carry GNSS-RO instruments and will continue to do so in the future. In this way, multiple GNSS signals are used and global weather and climate observations using GNSS-RO are already planned into the 2040s. The overall objective of the Radio Occultation Meteorology Satellite Application Facility (ROM SAF) Fourth Continuous Development and Operations Phase (CDOP-4) of EUMETSAT, to which the Wegener Center of the University of Graz also contributes, is the effective use of these global measurements.
Funded by DMI, FFG & University of Graz.
Team (Wegener Center): Gottfried Kirchengast, Marc Schwärz, Erich Wappis, Florian Ladstädter, Josef Innerkofler
The first goal of the StratoClim project is to increase the data quality of satellite-based radio occultation (RO) data in the middle and upper stratosphere by effectively correcting residual influences such as those from the above lying ionosphere. Based on these processed high-quality climate data, tropospheric and stratospheric winds and their circulation patterns are derived. Thanks to their global coverage, their high vertical resolution and long-term stability, the RO climate data enable new insights into the interaction between global warming and changes in circulation in the atmosphere.
Team: Julia Danzer, Irena Nimac, Magdalena Pieler, Annika Reiter, Johannes Unegg
The aim of the project is to develop a federal cloud infrastructure integrated into the European Open Science Cloud for the interdisciplinary use of geoscientific data in research and teaching. The project will link existing storage and data processing capacities at the Earth Observation Data Center, Geosphere Austria, and the Vienna Scientific Cluster with computer systems of the participating universities and expand them according to a concept for the joint use of satellite data, ground observations and computer simulations. A single sign-on procedure and new open source software solutions will make it much easier to access and use the data. This will enable scientists and students to work with large amounts of data in an interdisciplinary manner. This is the basis for excellent research and education in such important cross-cutting topics as climate change and the energy transition.
Team (Wegener Center): Gottfried Kirchengast, Armin Leuprecht, Heimo Truhetz, Martin Jury
WegenerNet
With over 150 climate stations in the Feldbach region and 19 stations in the Gesäuse region, Styria is the focus area for a pioneering experiment in Austrian and international climate research: the WegenerNet.
Carbon Management/GCCI
Our work on carbon management with a focus on institutional and public carbon management (ICM and PCM) is an innovative way of research and knowledge transfer to promote compliance with the Paris climate goals.
Mastering the challenges of the climate goals of the Paris Agreement fairly and effectively at all public, institutional and personal levels: CarbManage supports actors at all levels (public, institutional, personal) in the preparation of reliable greenhouse gas budgets including the corresponding reduction target path.
Full team; core team: Gottfried Kirchengast, Julia Danzer, Stefanie Hölbling
The project implements the university's climate protection goals and the plan to reduce the university's greenhouse gas emissions by around two thirds by 2030 compared to a 2020 reference budget. The overarching ambitious implementation milestones are: Net-zero emissions by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2040.
Core team: Gottfried Kirchengast, Julia Danzer, Stefanie Hölbling; full team
This project supports a scientific case study of the APM-CAS on Carbon Management (CM) for a selected Chinese region (Wuhan city). This case study is intended as a starting point to support Chinese regions and cities in their contribution to achieving the Paris climate goals through CM. In this context, UNIGRAZ-WEGC provides the "Carbon Management Toolbox V9" as well as support by "Core Experts" of its CM team.
Team (Wegener Center): Gottfried Kirchengast, Julia Danzer, Stefanie Hölbling
GCCI.Earth provides reliable monitoring information from the recent past together with current projections and Paris-compliant future projections over the critical period of climate change from 1960 to 1990 and 2020 to 2050, focusing on greenhouse gas emissions, global warming and the impacts of climate change in the form of weather and climate extremes.
Full team; core team: Gottfried Kirchengast, Moritz Pichler
Thailand and Vietnam are not only among the top tourist destinations, according to the Global Carbon Atlas, they are also among the regions with the highest carbon emissions worldwide. The EU-funded ERASMUS+ project „Green-Edu-Seeds“ aims to grow green know-how in Southeast Asia (Thailand and Vietnam) with the goal of developing educational programmes to promote the transformation to a sustainable economy and society. The expertise for this is being provided, among others, by the Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change at the University of Graz
Project manager: Dagmar Henner