Background
The global carbon cycle determines the amount of carbon dioxide and methane that accumulates in the atmosphere, increasing the Earth’s greenhouse effect. Understanding the global carbon cycle, and predicting its evolution under future climate scenarios is one of the biggest challenges facing science today. Almost half of the total anthropogenic CO2 emission accumulates in the atmosphere; the rest is absorbed by sinks in the ocean and terrestrial ecosystems. However, the global magnitude and the spatial and temporal distribution of these sinks are uncertain. This lack of knowledge is a leading contributor to the uncertainty in climate predictions due to the feedbacks between climate change and the carbon reservoirs. In particular, the spatial and temporal distribution of natural sinks over land and oceans remains elusive, which precludes better quantification of their underlying mechanisms and drivers.
Since the first Carbon from Space workshop in 2005 and the publication of the IGOS Integrated Global Carbon Observation (IGCO) Theme Report many new observations have been made e.g. GOSAT and model advances have been accomplished. These all contribute to the formation of an Integrated Global Carbon Observing system being coordinated through the Group on Earth Observation (GEO) with space observations provided by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) partner agencies. In response to this effort the European Space Agency is convening a workshop to identify the necessary steps to implement the Integrated Global Carbon Observing System. The workshop has as its objective the generation of a consolidated position paper on the IGCO for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. To achieve this, the workshop will have four dedicated sessions with keynote presentations, discussion and break-out groups ta
1)
Space-based greenhouse gas (GHG) observations: Current status, planned and requirements for the next-generation missions.
2)
Current understanding of global carbon: the overall carbon budget, stocks and fluxes of carbon (on land, in the ocean and atmosphere) and vulnerability
3)
Key surface observations required to understand surface-atmosphere exchanges: vegetation photosynthetic activity, ocean photosynthetic activity, wetlands, disturbance extent and timing, aerosols, radiation and clouds.
4)
Modelling the carbon cycle: linking in situ and space based observations, coupling of ocean-land-atmosphere fluxes of carbon, the appropriateness of models and model-observation interfaces.
Timing and Location
The workshop will be convened at Worcester College, Oxford from the 6th–8th September 2010. Worcester College is one of 39 constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1714, it occupies a 26 acre site on the western side of the city centre. The meeting will take place in the purpose built Linbury Building on the southern side of College site overlooking the gardens. The Carbon from Space workshop will be followed by the CEOS Atmospheric Chemistry Constellation (ACC) meeting in the Ruskin Lane Building on the northern side of the site on the 9th and 10th September. The Carbon from Space workshop will gather approximately 60 participants and the Registration Deadline is 16th July 2010. Further details will be available on the Workshop website.
Accommodation is available in the college itself (
http://www.worc.ox.ac.uk/Conference%20Information/c_accommodation.php) or participants can opt to stay in the numerous hotels in Oxford itself. Further details will be provided later.
Format
The workshop will take the form of the four dedicated sessions described above, comprising presentations from recognised experts in each field, discussion sessions and break-out groups. In addition an open poster session is envisaged
