Welcome to the project "Remote Sensing Input for regional to global CO2 flux modelling" (RS-CCDAS). See Project Brochure.
The Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has shown that climate change will threaten the terrestrial biosphere's current function as a significant sink for man-made atmospheric carbon dioxide, leading to even more climate change (Prentice et al., 2001).
The key objective of this project is the use of Earth Observations in a state-of-the-art Carbon Cycle Data Assimilation System (CCDAS), in order to constrain the quantitative formulation of the processes regulating the terrestrial uptake of carbon.
The project estimates current and future fluxes of carbon dioxide from the terrestrial biosphere to the atmosphere via assimilation of MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) observations into the Biosphere Energy Transfer Hydrology model (BETHY, Knorr, 2000). This project uses the Carbon Cycle Data Assimilation System (CCDAS, Rayner et al (2005), Scholze et al (2007) ) and extends it to handle MERIS observations on global and site scales. One of these extensions is the update of the two flux scheme for the radiative transfer within the canopy to the formulation of Pinty et al (2006). which uses effective state variables. The preparation of the MERIS data uses the algorithm of Gobron et al. (2007).
The project team has developed an interactive mission assessment tool that will enable the Agency to instantaneously evaluate an assumed Earth observation product in terms of the estimated uncertainty reduction for selected target quantities. The tool is based on the Carbon Cycle Data Assimilation System (CCDAS) and implement quantitative network design techniques. Details on the methodological background are provided in an overview paper by Kaminski and Rayner, who also describe applications to the carbon cycle.
A first set of results was presented in Frascati at ESA's 2nd MERIS/(A)ATSR User Workshop. The team's contribution to the proceedings describes the assimilation of MERIS data at site scale and the evaluation of potential future sensors in terms of the uncertainty reduction on carbon fluxes that they can provide. A first paper on the assimilation at site-scale was published by JGR. First results of the joint global-scale assimilation of FAPAR and atmospheric CO2 and on mission design were presented at the 2010 European Space Agency Living Planet Symposium in Bergen. ( See Contribution to Proceedings) and at the ESA, iLEAPS, EGU joint Conference in Frascati. ( See Contribution to Proceedings). This biogeosciences paper gives a comprehensive summary on the project results.
RS-CCDAS is a joint effort of FastOpt, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, and the core team of the QUEST programme at the University of Bristol. Individual team members are listed here.
The project is funded by the European Space Research Institute of the European Space Agency.
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