Detail Project and Funding

Abstract: The OT4CLIMA project aims at developing advanced Earth Observation (EO) technologies and methodologies for improving our knowledge of the effects of Climate Change (CC)and our capability to mitigate them at the regional and sub-regional scale. Both medium-to-long term impacts (e.g. vegetation stress, drought) and extreme events with rapid dynamics (e.g. intense meteorological phenomena, fires) will be investigated, trying a twofold (i.e. interesting both “products” and “processes”) technological innovation:
a) through the design and the implementation of advanced sensors to be mounted on multiplatform EO systems;
b) through the development of advanced methodologies for EO data analysis, interpretation, integration and fusion.
Activities will focus on two of the major natural processes strictly related to Climate Change, namely the Carbon and Water Cycles.
As an example, the project will make it possible the measurements, with an unprecedented accuracy of atmospheric (e.g. OCS, carbon-sulphide) and surface (e.g. soil moisture) parameters that are crucial in determining the vegetation contribution to the CO2 balance, suggesting at the same time solutions based on the analysis and integration of satellite, airborne and unmanned data, in order to significantly improve the capability of local communities to face the short- and long-term CC-related effects.
OT4CLIMA benefits from a strong scientific expertise (15 CNR institutes, ASI, INGV, CIRA, 3 Universities), considerable research infrastructures and a wide industrial partnerships (including both big national players and well-established SMEs in the Southern Italy regions) specifically focused on the technological innovation frontier.
Expected results concern with the development of applications, products and innovative services in the context of a rapidly expanding commercial sector, with an estimated employment impact of about 100 new employees in regions (such as Basilicata, Campania, Puglia and Sardegna), which already have, among their Regional Smart Specializations,the “Aerospace” topic or other thematicsclosely related to OT4CLIMA, such as the case of Calabria Region, with S3 on “Environment and Natural Hazards”.

The Scientific Results:
1) Surface-plasmon optical-heterodyne clock biosensor
2) Resonant enhancement of plasmonic nanostructured fiber optic sensors
3) Super-resonant Coherent Absorption Sensing