Orange (or was it pink?) lightning over Cannes last night, video slowed down by a factor of 8.

Labour prime ministers always disappoint, but to different degrees. Starmer continued to sell warplane parts to a country committing genocide while aresting peaceful protesters as terrorists. He cut disability benefits and the winter fuel allowance, while aping Trump in slashing overseas aid. (1/3)

Are you early in your scientific career and working on EarthCARE? Then do sign up to our new EarthCARE Early Career Scientist Network! Initiated at the recent EarthCARE workshop in Oxford it will be a great way to meet and collaborate with other researchers: www.earthcarescience.net/early-career...

Operational assimilation of EarthCARE's radar goes live at ECMWF! Fantastic work by Mark Fielding, Marta Janiskova and colleagues over a long period! www.ecmwf.int/en/about/med...

World first as ECMWF brings cloud radar data into its global forecasting system

ECMWF becomes the first weather forecasting centre to assimilate cloud radar data, improving how clouds are represented in global forecasts.

ecmwf.int

10 years ago today I woke up to the news that my country had voted to leave the EU, leading to me having my citizenship taken from me 4 years later. Every promised benefit of Brexit turned out to be a complete lie, and now we have an economy 6-8% smaller than it would have been... (1/2)

Wonderful to be in Oxford for the #EarthCARE Science Workshop this week! Thanks to Prof Myles Allen and Kenta Maruyama for their inspiring opening addresses.

Astonishing plot from the University of Reading's Atmospheric Observatory: the black line shows that the daily maximum temperature has risen by an incredible 20℃ over the last week to today's May record in Reading of 32.8℃! research.reading.ac.uk/meteorology/...

The eye of Hurricane Humberto, observed last September by #EarthCARE, provides a great example of 3D radiative effects that are currently missing from climate models - see the latest EarthCARE Image of the Month: earth.esa.int/eogateway/su...

Climate models need clouds in 3D: EarthCARE’s view of a hurricane shows us why - Earth Online

Thanks to EarthCARE’s vivid observations of a hurricane eye wall, we can better see how clouds reflect and trap heat not just from their top and bottom, but from their sides as well.

earth.esa.int

Awesome direct hit of Super Typhoon Sinlaku by #EarthCARE on Monday! Thanks to @masonshannon.bsky.social for the images.

We're launching a series of online EarthCARE Science Seminars! The first is next Wednesday at 10.00 CEST/17.00 JST with talks from Shunsuke Aoki (JAXA) and Axel Seifert (German Weather Service) - please join us, and also consider joining the EarthCARE mailing list: www.earthcarescience.net/seminars

Marvellous performance of Malcolm Arnold's spine-tingling Fifth Symphony by the Junior Guildhall Symphony Orchestra last night - a masterpiece that's rarely performed in concert so I'm very happy to have seen it live.

Is NCAS "fact-checking" UKRI-NERC? 🤔

National Centre for Atmospheric Science@ncas-uk.bsky.social · 5mo ago

FAAM Airborne Laboratory Closure FAQs We've published a set of FAQs addressing the recent decision by UKRI‑NERC to withdraw funding for the FAAM Airborne Laboratory. Full FAQs are available alongside our statement, and we'll continue to share updates on NCAS channels. ncas.ac.uk/closure-of-t...

Huge Saharan dust plume over Europe yesterday and today! My colleague Peter Hill at ECMWF used EarthCARE lidar retrievals to evaluate CAMS forecasts of extinction coefficient, showing that the vertical structure and optical depth of the plume were well captured both yesterday at 01.44 UTC... (1/3)

Do submit an abstract to the EarthCARE Science Workshop in Oxford this June, deadline tomorrow! It will be an extremely stimulating meeting as we start to explore how EarthCARE can inform the science of clouds, aerosols, radiation, weather, climate and more: www.earthcare-science-validation-2026.org

NERC's sudden decision to cease funding for FAAM by the end of this month is bad news for the EarthCARE satellite - in this letter members of the EarthCARE Quality Working Group (of which I am a member) explain why: www.met.reading.ac.uk/~swrhgnrj/fa...

Delighted to be in beautiful Leipzig before the EarthCARE Quality Working Group at TROPOS! Just taking a moment for a brief genuflection before the meeting...

Excellent statement from RMetS questioning the decision to cease funding for the FAAM aircraft: www.rmets.org/news/stateme...

Great result for progressive politics in the UK. If the first law of politics is "learn to count" (LBJ), the 2nd has to be "don't abandon your base". Labour's response to the far-right threat has been to lurch to the right - who'd have guessed this wouldn't work? www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Green party wins Gorton and Denton byelection, pushing Labour to third place in blow to Keir Starmer

Hannah Spencer elected as party’s first MP in northern England, as Labour sees a 25.3% drop in vote compared to 2024

theguardian.com

Crazy to axe the world-class FAAM aircraft - a big blow to observational atmospheric research in the UK. I've used data from the Hercules and then its successor the FAAM since starting my PhD in 1995 - there's no substitute for getting right inside a cloud to find out what's really going on! (1/2)

Thorwald Stein@thmstein.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Shocking from UKRI: no more aircraft observations, investing in "land-based capabilities and remote sensing equipment." The atmosphere is not land-based(!) and remote sensing can only provide an approximation of what FAAM could do. And I say that as someone who should gain from such a pivot.

Amazing image of the properties of marine stratocumulus clouds begin modified by ships underneath them, as revealed by EarthCARE's Multi-Spectral Imager in the North Pacific. Full story at earth.esa.int/eogateway/su...

This new video from @climateadam.bsky.social is even more brilliant than usual - insightful and hilarious 🧐🤣❤️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=py0X...

Climate Scientist Reacts to AI Overlords

YouTube video by ClimateAdam

youtube.com

Job opportunity! 3.5-year postdoc at the Dept of Meteorology, University of Reading, to improve convective storms in high resolution models using #EarthCARE and other data, including close collaboration with both ECMWF and the Met Office - deadline 27 February: jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Save the date! The next #EarthCARE Science and Validation Workshop will be 8-12 June 2026 in the beautiful city of Oxford, deadline for abstracts is 27 February: www.earthcare-science-validation-2026.org

There have now been 100 aircraft under-flights of #EarthCARE, each providing invaluable information to calibrate and validate the data products. This example shows very good agreement between EarthCARE and aircraft vertical air motion in nimbostratus. Full article here: earth.esa.int/eogateway/su...

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...

All EarthCARE data have now been released! www.esa.int/Applications...

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...

esa.int

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.

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...

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

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...

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...

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