About

The Marine Atmosphere eXtreme Satellite Synergy (MAXSS)  project  is an ESA Expro+ project

The primary objective of the Marine Atmosphere eXtreme Satellite Synergy (MAXSS)  project is to provide guidance and innovative methodologies to maximize the synergetic use of available Earth Observation data (satellite, in situ) to improve understanding about the multi-scale dynamical characteristics of extreme air-sea interaction.

ESA project number:  MAXSS 4000132954/20/I-NB

Objectives of the project

The primary objective of the MAXSS project is

to provide guidance and innovative methodologies to maximise the synergetic use of available Earth Observation data (satellite, in situ) in order to improve understanding about the multi-scale dynamical characteristics of extreme air-sea interaction. 

MAXSS in a nutshell

MAXSS is an ESA scientific project running effectively from Jan 2020 to jan 2023. 

MAXSS will provide guidance and innovative methodologies to maximise the synergetic use of available Earth Observation data to improve the understanding of the multi-scale dynamical characteristics of extreme air-sea interaction.

In MAXSS  three developments are conducted:

  1. The development of a Multi-Mission Wind Product
  2. The development of an extreme Winds (severe storm, cyclone) atlas 
  3. The development  of added-value products to analyse storms 

The focus is on the 2010-2020 decade. The developed products will be validated and within MAXSS they will be used in 4  case studies: 

  1. Decadal extreme wind changes
  2. Turbulent air-sea fluxes under extreme wind conditions: LES analyses
  3. Turbulent air-sea fluxes under extreme wind conditions: Wake analyses
  4. Storm Impact on Biogeochemistry

The developed products will be presented and shared with the scientific, operational and application (industry) user communities.

ESA Project: MAXSS 4000132954/20/I-NB

Consortium

In response to the primary objective of the project, to maximize the synergetic use and advance the scientific understanding of various Earth Observation data in order  to improve the observation and characterisation of extreme wind events (ref SoW), a very wide consortium has been build integrating internationally acknowledged partners from the European Earth Observation and MetOcean science communities,  all providing complementary expertise.  The consortium,  consists of scientists and engineers of the following entities:

  1. Institut Français de Recherche pour l'exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER), prime
  2. Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI)
  3. Institute of Marine Sciences CSIC Spain (ICM)
  4. OceanDataLabs  (ODL)
  5. AER Europe - Verisk Analytics Gmbh (VA)
  6. Deimos Space UK  (DEIMOS)
  7. Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (BIO)
  8. Centre for Geography and Environmental Science, University of Exeter (UvE)
  9. Collecte Localisation Satellites (CLS)
  10. Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC)
  11. IEEC (Institut dEstudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC)