19 research outputs found
Current systematic carbon-cycle observations and the need for implementing a policy-relevant carbon observing system
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
biosphere. 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<sub>2</sub> and
CH<sub>4</sub> 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 than currently achieved for natural
fluxes, although over a small land area (cities, industrial sites, power
plants), as well as the inclusion of fossil fuel CO<sub>2</sub> proxy measurements
such as radiocarbon in CO<sub>2</sub> and carbon-fuel combustion tracers.
Additionally, a policy-relevant carbon monitoring system should also provide
mechanisms for reconciling regional top-down (atmosphere-based) and bottom-up
(surface-based) flux estimates across the range of spatial and temporal
scales relevant to mitigation policies. In addition, uncertainties for each
observation data-stream should be assessed. The success of the system will
rely on long-term commitments to monitoring, on improved international
collaboration to fill gaps in the current observations, on sustained efforts
to improve access to the different data streams and make databases
interoperable, and on the calibration of each component of the system to
agreed-upon international scales
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Current systematic carbon-cycle observations and the need for implementing a policy-relevant carbon observing system
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 biosphere.
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 COâ‚‚ and CHâ‚„ 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 than currently
achieved for natural fluxes, although over a small land
area (cities, industrial sites, power plants), as well as the inclusion
of fossil fuel COâ‚‚ proxy measurements such as radiocarbon
in COâ‚‚ and carbon-fuel combustion tracers. Additionally,
a policy-relevant carbon monitoring system should
also provide mechanisms for reconciling regional top-down
(atmosphere-based) and bottom-up (surface-based) flux estimates
across the range of spatial and temporal scales relevant
to mitigation policies. In addition, uncertainties for each
observation data-stream should be assessed. The success of
the system will rely on long-term commitments to monitoring,
on improved international collaboration to fill gaps in the
current observations, on sustained efforts to improve access
to the different data streams and make databases interoperable,
and on the calibration of each component of the system
to agreed-upon international scales
Current systematic carbon cycle observations and needs for implementing a policy-relevant carbon observing system
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 biosphere. The goal of this study is to identify the current state of carbon observations and needs for a global integrated carbon observation system that can be built in the next decade. A key conclusion is the substantial expansion (by several orders of magnitude) of the ground-based observation networks required to reach the high spatial resolution for CO2 and CH4 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 remote 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 than currently achieved for natural fluxes, although over a small land area (cities, industrial sites, power plants), as well as the inclusion of fossil fuel CO2 proxy measurements such as radiocarbon in CO2 and carbon-fuel combustion tracers. Additionally, a policy relevant carbon monitoring system should also provide mechanisms for reconciling regional top-down (atmosphere-based) and bottom-up (surface-based) flux estimates across the range of spatial and temporal scales relevant to mitigation policies. The success of the system will rely on long-term commitments to monitoring, on improved international collaboration to fill gaps in the current observations, on sustained efforts to improve access to the different data streams and make databases inter-operable, and on the calibration of each component of the system to agreed-upon international scales.JRC.H.7-Climate Risk Managemen