MeteoSwiss - CM SAF: More about

CM SAF: More about

CM SAF (Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring)

Satellite Application Facilities (SAFs) are dedicated centres of excellence for processing satellite data and form an integral part of the distributed EUMETSAT Application Ground Segment. The major goal of CM SAF is the processing of the long series of satellite measurements with the most up-to-date algorithms in order to generate and archive high-quality data sets of climate variables. Development activities concentrate on the improvement of existing satellite algorithms, the introduction of new products, but also the preparation of data sets through reprocessing of archived data with the new algorithms.

Figure 1: The CM SAF consortium

The CM SAF products focus mainly on (see also Figure 2)

Cloud parameters (cloud cover, cloud top temperature, phase, optical properties and cloud water path),
Radiation budget parameters (downwelling and upwelling, short- and long-wave, surface and top of atmosphere radiative fluxes) and
Water vapour in the atmosphere (in vertical layers and vertically integrated).

The CM SAF headquarters are at Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) in Offenbach. Contributions to CM SAF come from various European weather services, namely from DWD (Germany), RMI (Belgium), KNMI (Netherlands), SHMI (Sweden), FMI (Finland) and MeteoSwiss. The products of the CM SAF community are collected at DWD and are provided to the scientific community via a Web User Interface (WUI).

Figure 2: CM SAF activities and products within the global energy budget

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