How can we harness the new observational capabilities of the ESA-JAXA "EarthCARE" satellite (whose launch from Vandenberg is imminent) to improve weather and climate predictions, and to tackle key questions in climate science? EarthCARE is built around the synergy of four instruments: the first Doppler cloud radar in space, a high spectral resolution lidar, a multi-spectral imager and a three-view broadband radiometer. As well as directly evaluating rain and snow fall speeds in models, I will demonstrate how the radar will retrieve much more accurate rain and snow rates, and even evaluate updrafts in storm-resolving models. The lidar will provide vertically resolved aerosol extinction profiles (I will provide a taster from the Aeolus lidar) as well as aerosol type. We will perform 3D radiation calculations as part of the operational processing of the data, testing "radiative closure" between the synergy retrievals and the broadband measurements. The radar and lidar observations will be available in near-real-time and assimilated into ECMWF weather forecasts.
But how can EarthCARE move beyond being simply "A-Train 2.0" to providing genuinely new insights into key climate questions? In the last decade we have (1) gained a finer understanding of the diversity of individual cloud feedback processes but still with large uncertainties, (2) seen the advent of global, kilometre-scale models (in urgent need of evaluation) and (3) begun to detect systematic changes in clouds in response to the warming climate. EarthCARE could not come at a more opportune time to tackle all of these challenges, including in combination with other satellites, but how will we do this? I will present my own ideas but I really want to use my visit to JPL to pick your brains and to stir your interest in using EarthCARE for your own work, taking the amazing science done with CloudSat and CALIPSO to the next level.

Robin Hogan is a Principal Scientist at ECMWF and Professor of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Reading. His research interests are primarily in atmospheric radiative transfer and developing numerical techniques for representing the interaction of radiation with clouds, gases, aerosols and complex surfaces. He is the European Co-Chair of the EarthCARE Mission Advisory Group, and is leading the development of the algorithm that will retrieve the properties of clouds, aerosols and precipitation from the synergy of active and passive EarthCARE measurements.