Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
Principal Scientist at #ECMWF and Professor of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Reading - Radiative Transfer - #EarthCARE enthusiast https://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/who-we-are/staff-profiles/robin-hogan
Environmental science
52%
Geography
19%
Here is the wider context: satellite observations on the left and the two model versions on the right, visible imagery on top and thermal infrared on the bottom. The eye is stubbornly too wide in the model: what should we change in the model to improve this?
Never before have we been able to measure vertical velocities from space: on the top is EarthCARE showing falling rain and snow (blue) but in the eye-wall the cloud particles are lofted up (red). The next two panels show the 9- and 4.4-km models with the 4.4-km starting to capture the updrafts!
Reposted by Mario Mech
In this ECMWF blog post, Mark Fielding compares model simulations at 9- and 4.4-km resolution with #EarthCARE radar observations of Hurricane Humberto, which was sampled right through its eye on 28 September 2025: www.ecmwf.int/en/about/med...
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Dec 3
A unified synergistic retrieval of clouds, aerosols, and precipitation from EarthCARE: the ACM-CAP product
Abstract. ACM-CAP provides a synergistic best-estimate retrieval of all clouds, aerosols, and precipitation detected by the atmospheric lidar (ATLID), cloud-profiling radar (CPR), and multi-spectral i...
amt.copernicus.org
The paper describing the synergy retrievals is here: amt.copernicus.org/articles/16/...
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Dec 3
EarthCARE’s instruments work in synergy to improve climate models
YouTube video by ESA Extras
www.youtube.com
Check out in particular the video explaining how the synergy retrievals are evaluated by "radiative closure": www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d_k...
Reposted by Du Toit
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Dec 3
EarthCARE lifts the clouds on climate models
True to its promise, the European Space Agency’s EarthCARE satellite is now being used to calculate directly how clouds and aerosols influence Earth’s energy balance – the all-important balance that r...
www.esa.int
All EarthCARE data have now been released! www.esa.int/Applications...
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Dec 1
EarthCARE satellite “Hakuryu” – All Observation Data Now Publicly Available! – JAXA Satellite Navigator / Space Technology Directorate I
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have developed the Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Ex...
www.satnavi.jaxa.jp
More information here: www.satnavi.jaxa.jp/en/news/2025...
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Dec 1
First day of the EarthCARE Science & Validation workshop on the beautiful University of Tokyo campus! Takuji Kubota described today's release of all the Japanese products, including those using the synergy of 3 & 4 instruments.
Reposted by Du Toit
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Nov 28
Exploring EarthCARE Data and Analysis Tools - Earth Online
To fully exploit the wealth of EarthCARE data, ESA and its partners have developed a comprehensive suite of data access, visualisation, analysis, and simulation tools. These tools not only support sci...
earth.esa.int
Nice article about the various online and offline visualization and analysis tools that are available for exploring EarthCARE data - thanks to Eleni Marinou (@elmarinou.bsky.social) who coordinates the development of these tools! earth.esa.int/eogateway/ne...
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Nov 27
Exciting week next week with the release of the full tranche of #EarthCARE products, including those using 3 and 4 of the instruments in synergy! JAXA held a media briefing earlier today and I explained why this is important (48mins in). www.youtube.com/live/9375tqa...
Reposted by Du Toit
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Nov 17
Contrail climate effects under EarthCARE’s spotlight - Earth Online
Reducing the climate impact of air travel is a key goal, as the sector continues to expand globally. Aviation contributes 2.5% of global carbon dioxide emissions, but the industry is responsible for 5...
earth.esa.int
Aircraft contrails are contributing to global warming, but the balance between their solar and infrared effects is uncertain. EarthCARE's combination of instruments, particularly its high resolution 3-view broadband radiometer, is perfectly placed to measure them! earth.esa.int/eogateway/su...
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Nov 14
Training course: Parametrization of subgrid physical processes
This five-day course is a combination of lectures, hands-on practicals and group problem classes. During the course each parametrized process is introduced and discusses theory, modelling and verifica...
events.ecmwf.int
This ECMWF training course is a great opportunity to learn about how physical processes are represented in weather and climate models, free for anyone in an ECMWF member state. It runs 2-6 March 2026 and the deadline for applications is 30 November. events.ecmwf.int/event/496/
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Oct 23
Nice paper, thanks! ECMWF web article coming soon comparing our observations of Humberto with simulations by the IFS at high resolution.
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Oct 23
EarthCARE Science - Tools
Online visualization
www.earthcarescience.net
There are some tools listed at the page below. This image was produced by Shannon Mason using his free ectools package but I would like these to be produced routinely for all EarthCARE frames. www.earthcarescience.net/tools
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Oct 23
Would you believe it: just 10 days after #EarthCARE went through the eye of Hurricane Humberto, it did the same with Hurricane Priscilla in the East Pacific on 7 October! A very different beast this one: a huge eye around 100 km across, and very lopsided, with much more rain on the southern side.
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Oct 23
Second, the signal from the "Rayleigh" channel of EarthCARE's lidar is strongly related with ocean chlorophyll estimates from routine ocean colour measurements, with the advantage that EarthCARE's lidar can continue to make measurements in polar night!
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Oct 23
First, the depolarisation of the land surface measured by EarthCARE's lidar seems to be very well correlated to the widely used "NDVI" vegetation index - but why? We don't yet know but potentially this could be telling us something new about vegetation!
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Oct 23
New instruments always throw up surprises - Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff of KNMI had a look at the #EarthCARE lidar's surface returns and found some intriguing and unexpected things as explained in ESA's latest EarthCARE web story... earth.esa.int/eogateway/su...
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Sep 29
And here's EarthCARE's radar reflectivity with GOES-E for context (thanks to Mark Fielding)!
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Sep 29
EarthCARE Science - Gallery
In addition to the scientific insights we can gain from EarthCARE's precise measurements, the satellite is an inexhaustible source of beautiful imagery.
www.earthcarescience.net
Plots above thanks to @masonshannon.bsky.social, more on the EarthCARE Science web site www.earthcarescience.net/gallery
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Sep 29
The level of detail revealed by EarthCARE is amazing: as well as the usual change in vertical Doppler velocity as snow melts to rain, we can see the rising air in the eye wall! The imager also captures the 3D nature of the convective cells in the rain bands further out. More analysis to come...
Reposted by Du Toit, Jussi T. Eronen, Vincent Noël , and 1 more Du Toit, Jussi T. Eronen, Vincent Noël, Martin Turbet
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Sep 29
So this is pretty amazing - yesterday EarthCARE sampled Hurricane Humberto straight across the eye! The eye of a tropical cyclone is small so a direct hit is rare: this is the first time EarthCARE has hit one after over a year in orbit! (Showing here also VIIRS on NOAA-20 for context.)
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Sep 26
...and the volcanic plume from Klyuchevskaya Sopka in Russia, which erupted July-August 2025. More coming soon! Thanks as always to @masonshannon.bsky.social for many of the images and to NASA Worldview for the wider context. worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov?v=154.961959...
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Sep 26
EarthCARE is a inexhaustible source of beautiful imagery of some of the most spectacular phenomena nature has to offer, so I've started a Gallery page on the EarthCARE Science web site, showing for example convective motions in the trainbands of Typhoon Ragasa... www.earthcarescience.net/gallery
Reposted by Johannes Quaas
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Sep 26
ESA selects WIVERN as 11th Earth Explorer mission
After meticulous preparation and rigorous evaluation, ESA’s Member States have selected WIVERN to become the 11th Earth Explorer mission to be implemented through the agency’s prestigious FutureEO pro...
www.esa.int
It's official: WIVERN will be ESA's 11th Earth Explorer satellite, measuring winds deep inside hurricanes, fronts and other weather systems!
www.esa.int/Applications...
www.esa.int/Applications...
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Sep 17
This is the first time this process has been observed from space, thanks to EarthCARE's Doppler radar and high-spectral-resolution lidar! But how common is it globally and do these optically thick clouds have an impact on precipitation or even climate? Only EarthCARE can answer these questions!
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Sep 17
When we look at the cloud properties estimated by combining the radar, lidar and imager (using the "ACM-CAP" algorithm developed by @masonshannon.bsky.social and me) we see this layer contains high concentrations of very small ice crystals. The imager shows that they block upward thermal radiation.
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Sep 17
These are atmospheric gravity waves with a wavelength of 18 km, probably triggered by airflow over mountains; wavy structures are also seen in the zoomed-in radar and lidar backscatter. The updrafts bring air to liquid saturation and droplets form, but colder than -40°C they immediately freeze.
Robin Hogan
@robinjhogan.bsky.social
· Sep 17
Another great #EarthCARE Image of the Month, this time led by Shannon Mason (@masonshannon.bsky.social): the Doppler radar sees wave structures in an Antarctic cloud while the lidar and imager see an optically thick ice cloud layer at around -45°C. What's going on? earth.esa.int/eogateway/su...