Current systematic carbon-cycle observations and the need for implementing a policy-relevant carbon observing system

• Published in: Biogeosciences
• Main Authors: Ciais, P., Dolman, A., Bombelli, A., Duren, R., Peregon, A., Rayner, P., Miller, C., Gobron, N., Kinderman, G., Marland, G., Gruber, N., Chevallier, F., Andres, R., Balsamo, G., Bopp, L., Bréon, F.-M., Broquet, G., Dargaville, R., Battin, T., Borges, A., Bovensmann, H., Buchwitz, M., Butler, J., Canadell, J., Cook, R., Defries, R., Engelen, R., Gurney, K., Heinze, C., Heimann, M., Held, A., Henry, M., Law, B., Luyssaert, S., Miller, J., Moriyama, T., Moulin, C., Myneni, R., Nussli, C., Obersteiner, M., Ojima, D., Pan, Y., Paris, J.-D., Piao, S., Poulter, B., Plummer, S., Quegan, S., Raymond, P., Reichstein, M., Rivier, L.
• Other Authors: Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), ICOS-ATC (ICOS-ATC), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Amsterdam (VU), Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), NASA-California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), School of Earth Sciences Melbourne, Faculty of Science Melbourne, University of Melbourne-University of Melbourne, JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES), European Commission - Joint Research Centre Ispra (JRC), International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis Laxenburg (IIASA), Appalachian State University, University of North Carolina System (UNC), Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics ETH Zürich (IBP), Department of Environmental Systems Science ETH Zürich (D-USYS), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich)- Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich), Modélisation INVerse pour les mesures atmosphériques et SATellitaires (SATINV), Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge (ORNL), UT-Battelle, LLC, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), University of Vienna Vienna, Université de Liège, Institute of Environmental Physics Bremen (IUP), University of Bremen, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (CSIRO-MAR), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Canberra (CSIRO), Boston University Boston (BU), Arizona State University Tempe (ASU), Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research (BCCR), Department of Biological Sciences Bergen (BIO / UiB), University of Bergen (UiB)-University of Bergen (UiB), Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry (MPI-BGC), Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, Italie (FAO), Oregon State University (OSU), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder -National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Tokyo (JAXA), Thales Alenia Space Toulouse (TAS), THALES France, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory Fort Collins (NREL), Colorado State University Fort Collins (CSU), Newtown, PA 19073, ICOS-RAMCES (ICOS-RAMCES), Peking University Beijing
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2014
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.ENVI]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Continental interfaces; environment; Arctic
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-02946439; https://hal.science/hal-02946439/document; https://hal.science/hal-02946439/file/bg-11-3547-2014.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/BG-11-3547-2014

International audience A globally integrated carbon observation and analysis system is needed to improve the fundamental understanding of the global carbon cycle, to improve our ability to project future changes, and to verify the effectiveness of policies aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. Building an integrated carbon observation system requires transformational advances from the existing sparse, exploratory framework towards a dense, robust , and sustained system in all components: anthropogenic emissions, the atmosphere, the ocean, and the terrestrial bio-sphere. The paper is addressed to scientists, policymakers, and funding agencies who need to have a global picture of the current state of the (diverse) carbon observations. We identify the current state of carbon observations, and the needs and notional requirements for a global integrated carbon observation system that can be built in the next decade. A key conclusion is the substantial expansion of the ground-based observation networks required to reach the high spatial resolution for CO 2 and CH 4 fluxes, and for carbon stocks for addressing policy-relevant objectives, and attributing flux changes to underlying processes in each region. In order to establish flux and stock diagnostics over areas such as the southern oceans, tropical forests, and the Arctic, in situ observations will have to be complemented with remote-sensing measurements. Remote sensing offers the advantage of dense spatial coverage and frequent revisit. A key challenge is to bring remote-sensing measurements to a level of long-term consistency and accuracy so that they can be efficiently combined in models to reduce uncertainties, in synergy with ground-based data. Bringing tight observational constraints on fossil fuel and land use change emissions will be the biggest challenge for deployment of a policy-relevant integrated carbon observation system. This will require in situ and remotely sensed data at much higher resolution and density ...