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Robin Hogan

@robinjhogan.bsky.social
371 followers 227 following 128 posts

Principal Scientist at ECMWF and Visiting Professor at the University of Reading - Radiative Transfer - EarthCARE enthusiast. Posting in a personal capacity.

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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Mammatus a little earlier in the evening
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Orange (or was it pink?) lightning over Cannes last night, video slowed down by a factor of 8.
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
His immigration changes are cruel and performative, pandering to the Right while worsening the staffing crisis in the NHS. His commitment to Net Zero remained almost intact but he ditched his £28bn/yr green investment plan. I wish Andy Burnham well but forgive me for not being too optimistic. (3/3)
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Education is being starved of funding: schools are dropping subjects and universities are on the verge of bankruptcy. He raised tuition fees having promised to abolish them. Science is being defunded, including in UK strengths such as physics and meteorology. (2/3) sciencecouncil.org/science-coun...
sciencecouncil.org
Science Council and its members, representing thousands of scientists, alarmed at funding changes
The Science Council and its member bodies, which collectively bring together and support more than 330,000 scientists across the UK, are concerned by the Government and UKRI changes to funding for ele...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
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)
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
Vallance has overseen devastating cuts to many areas of UK science. Hope Burnham takes a different approach. ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...
ras.ac.uk
Stars of physics descend on Westminster to halt catastrophic funding cuts
Professor Brian Cox has urged the Government to "trust, inspire and continue to invest in the next generation of scientists" instead of moving forward with "devastat...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
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...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
...and you can even see the EarthCARE dragon entering the ECMWF supercomputer in ESA's story! www.esa.int/Applications...
esa.int
A first: EarthCARE cloud data sharpen weather forecasts
The European Space Agency’s EarthCARE satellite was developed to make a unique set of simultaneous measurements that shed new light on the role that clouds and aerosols play in regulating Earth’s clim...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
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...
ecmwf.int
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.
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
...leading to lower tax revenues and public services permanently starved of cash, to say nothing of losing the right to live and work in 27 other countries. Young people would vote 6-to-1 to rejoin the EU so it is inevitable we will be back eventually. Why wait? 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇪🇺 (2/2)
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
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)
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
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.
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Further commentary on today's Reading observations in the wider context of climate change from colleagues at the University of Reading can be found here: www.reading.ac.uk/news/2026/Ex...
reading.ac.uk
Hottest May day on record expert comment - University of Reading
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
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/...
Dry-bulb temperature, dew-point temperature and relative humidity from the University of Reading Atmospheric Observatory between 18th and 25th May 2026.
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
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...
earth.esa.int
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.
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Awesome direct hit of Super Typhoon Sinlaku by #EarthCARE on Monday! Thanks to @masonshannon.bsky.social for the images.
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
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
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
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.
Junior Guildhall Symphony Orchestra
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Is NCAS "fact-checking" UKRI-NERC? 🤔
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Our students on the ECMWF Physical Parametrization training course had a short break during the radiation computer practical yesterday to study the dusty sunset over Reading! (3/3)
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
...and yesterday at 14.28 UTC. EarthCARE cannot penetrate thick clouds of course (shown in grey, leading to some gaps in EarthCARE aerosol optical depth) but this is an excellent demonstration of the potential to use EarthCARE to evaluate and improve our aerosol forecasts. (2/3)
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
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)
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
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
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
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...
met.reading.ac.uk
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
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...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Excellent statement from RMetS questioning the decision to cease funding for the FAAM aircraft: www.rmets.org/news/stateme...
rmets.org
Statement from the Royal Meteorological Society on the Future of FAAM
The Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS), as the UK’s learned and professional society for weather and climate, recognises the strategic pressures facing public research investment. We note the Natura...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
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...
theguardian.com
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
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
I'm currently writing up a paper in which we used FAAM underflights of EarthCARE to evaluate and refine its retrievals of cloud properties and updrafts, crucial to building trust in EarthCARE's global measurements of clouds and their impact on climate. This is a bad day for UK science. (2/2)
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
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)
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
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...
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Reposted by Robin Hogan
Prof Richard Betts @richardabetts.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
This new video from @climateadam.bsky.social is even more brilliant than usual - insightful and hilarious 🧐🤣❤️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=py0X...
youtube.com
Climate Scientist Reacts to AI Overlords
YouTube video by ClimateAdam
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
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...
jobs.reading.ac.uk
Postdoctoral Research Scientist (UPFLO project):Whiteknights Reading UK
Full Time, Fixed Term (42 months) Contract
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 21/01/2026
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
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
You can catch up with all the EarthCARE web stories at www.earthcarescience.net/web-stories - there were 21 articles in 2025, and will be many more in 2026!
earthcarescience.net
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
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...
The left column shows various EarthCARE measurements of a deep nimbostratus cloud over Ontario. The right column shows comparisons between EarthCARE’s estimates and in situ aircraft measurements. The bottom two rows confirm that the terminal fall speed of snowflakes is fairly constant whereas the vertical motion of the air fluctuates rapidly and can be estimated well from EarthCARE, the first time this has been possible from space.
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
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?
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
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!
Doppler velocity (positive up) through Hurricane Humberto: top is EarthCARE, middle is the ECMWF 9-km model and bottom is the ECMWF 4.4-km model.
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
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...
Radar reflectivity through Hurricane Humberto: top is EarthCARE, middle is the ECMWF 9-km model and bottom is the ECMWF 4.4-km model.
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
The paper describing the synergy retrievals is here: amt.copernicus.org/articles/16/...
amt.copernicus.org
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...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Check out in particular the video explaining how the synergy retrievals are evaluated by "radiative closure": www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d_k...
youtube.com
EarthCARE’s instruments work in synergy to improve climate models
YouTube video by ESA Extras
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
All EarthCARE data have now been released! www.esa.int/Applications...
esa.int
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...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
More information here: www.satnavi.jaxa.jp/en/news/2025...
satnavi.jaxa.jp
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...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 01/12/2025
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.
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
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...
earth.esa.int
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...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 27/11/2025
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...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
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...
earth.esa.int
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...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
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/
events.ecmwf.int
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...
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Nice paper, thanks! ECMWF web article coming soon comparing our observations of Humberto with simulations by the IFS at high resolution.
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
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
earthcarescience.net
EarthCARE Science - Tools
Online visualization
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Robin Hogan @robinjhogan.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
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.
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