Visualization tool, Online
The climate atlas is a tool to help visualize climate datasets for Europe. It is also a guide for working with satellite data in climatology. It can be found on the EUMETSAT website.
There are some high quality satellite-based climate datasets that provide high quality climate data with high spatial and temporal resolution and wide spatial coverage. However, the core challenge for experienced and early career scientists in climatology is the transition from working with in-situ observations to the gradual use of satellite-based climatological information, which requires a change in the methodology and way of thinking.
A Climate Atlas demonstration tool has been created to present the experience of using some of the climate datasets. It provides an example and guidelines for producing useful products for national use in a climate service. It offers practical advice and will serve those who are willing to take their first steps in exploring satellite data for climate research.
The step-by-step guidance through the process of creating the atlas for Europe and Latvia contains the description of several datasets suitable for climate analysis, and an overview of tools and instructions for manipulating with the data. It also gives the new user an insight into the core challenges and choices between different datasets, their advantages and disadvantages, quality assessment, and visualisation options.