A U.S. Scientific Community Vision for Sustained Earth Observations of Greenhouse Gases to Support Local to Global Action
Abstract Managing carbon stocks in the land, ocean, and atmosphere under changing climate requires a globally‐integrated view of carbon cycle processes at local and regional scales. The growing Earth Observation (EO) record is the backbone of this multi‐scale system, providing local information with discrete coverage from surface measurements and regional information at global scale from satellites. Carbon flux information, anchored by inverse estimates from spaceborne Greenhouse Gas (GHG) concentrations, provides an important top‐down view of carbon emissions and sinks, but currently lacks global continuity at assessment and management scales (<100 km). Partial‐column data can help separate signals in the boundary layer from the overlying atmosphere, providing an opportunity to enhance surface sensitivity and bring flux resolution down from that of column‐integrated data (100–500 km). Based on a workshop held in September 2024, the carbon cycle community envisions a carbon observation system leveraging GHG partial columns in the lower and upper troposphere to weave together information across scales from surface and satellite EO data, and integration of top‐down/bottom‐up analyses to link process understanding to global assessment.
Authors
- James R. Holmquist (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2546-6766)
- Joshua L. Laughner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8599-4555)
- Renato K. Braghiere (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7722-717X)
- Brendan Keith Aidan Byrne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0619-3045)
- Debra Wunch (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4924-0377)
- David Crisp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4573-9998)
- Michael Keller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0253-3359)
- Galen A. McKinley (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4072-9221)
- Bradley Gay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2617-2559)
- Zoe Pierrat (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6726-2406)
- Keith Paustian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5262-5596)
- Lisamarie Windham‐Myers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0281-9581)
- Francesca M. Hopkins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6110-7675)
- Nicole S. Lovenduski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5893-1009)
- Sasha C. Reed (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8597-8619)
- Sassan Saatchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8524-4917)
- Yinon M. Bar‐On (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8477-609X)
- K. W. Bowman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8659-1117)
- Forrest M. Hoffman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5802-4134)
- Hannah Nesser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6778-037X)
- Christian Frankenberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0546-5857)
- Gavin McNicol (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6655-8045)
- A. Anthony Bloom (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1486-1499)
- Natasha MacBean (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6797-4836)
- Dustin Carroll (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1686-5255)
- Lori Bruhwiler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3554-9250)
- Elsa M. Ordway (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7720-1754)
- Benjamin Poulter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9493-8600)
- Lesley E. Ott (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0035-9625)
- James B. Abshire
- Abhishek Chatterjee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3680-0160)
- A. M. Fox (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4027-4538)
- David Schimel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3473-8065)
- Andrew F. Feldman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1547-6995)
- Lucy R. Hutyra
- Shawn Paul Serbin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4136-8971)
- Charles D. Koven (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3367-0065)
- Dimitris Menemenlis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9940-8409)
- Laura Duncanson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4031-3493)
- Charles E. Miller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9380-4838)
- Anna M. Michalak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6152-7979)
- Tomohiro Oda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8328-3020)
- Junjie Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7184-6594)
- Hiroshi Suto
- Richard A. Birdsey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3595-1100)
Institutions
- University of California, Riverside (US)
- Boston University (US)
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Western University (CA)
- United States Geological Survey (US)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
- Woodwell Climate Research Center (US)
- US Forest Service (US)
- Universities Space Research Association (US)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (US)
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- George Mason University (US)
- University of Toronto (CA)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Carnegie Institution for Science (US)
- Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JP)
- NOAA Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (US)
- University of Illinois Chicago (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Quadrise Canada Corporation (Canada) (CA)
- Climate Centre (NL)
- International Institute of Tropical Forestry (PR)
- Spectra Research (United States) (US)
- Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (US)
- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (US)
- Weizmann Institute of Science (IL)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- Morgan State University (US)
- Colorado State University (US)
- Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- AGU Advances
- Published
- 2025-12-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2025av001914
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.11