Aiding climate studies

Laboratory of Space, Geophysics, and Oceanographic Studies (LEGOS) as EWC use case

Researchers from the Laboratory of Space, Geophysics, and Oceanographic Studies (LEGOS), based at the Midi-Pyrénées Observatory in Toulouse, France, use the EWC to access climate-quality Meteosat data quickly and easily. Looking to better understand the climate in the tropics, LEGOS researchers use images from Meteosat satellites to study a weather phenomenon known as mesoscale convective systems, collections of storms that contribute to extreme precipitation in the tropics.

Directly access to data

Without a cloud computing platform, accessing Meteosat climate data records stored at EUMETSAT - which span more than 40 years - would have taken LEGOS researchers months to download. And processing and storing the data would have required far more computing facilities and capacity than they had available. Using the EWC, LEGOS researchers are able to access an enormous quantity of data directly, without the need to download, process, or store them themselves, enabling the scientists to carry out studies that include a research collaboration with EUMETSAT to gain deeper insight into climate processes.