Premium
A feasible Global Carbon Cycle Observing System: a plan to decipher today's carbon cycle based on observations
Author(s) -
TANS PIETER P.,
BAKWIN PETER S.,
GUENTHER DOUGLAS W.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
global change biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.146
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1365-2486
pISSN - 1354-1013
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2486.1996.tb00082.x
Subject(s) - carbon cycle , biosphere , environmental science , trace gas , sampling (signal processing) , atmosphere (unit) , greenhouse gas , automation , carbon fibers , flux (metallurgy) , atmospheric sciences , computer science , meteorology , ecosystem , oceanography , ecology , geology , chemistry , engineering , geography , mechanical engineering , filter (signal processing) , algorithm , composite number , computer vision , biology , organic chemistry
A design is presented to continuously monitor the transfers of carbon between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere and oceans on large spatial scales. A consideration of the expected signal‐to‐noise suggests that a very cost effective method is to perform repeated measurements of the mixing ratios of trace gases in the atmospheric column at an increased number of sites compared to the present geographical coverage. This can be accomplished with existing technology, provided that more automation is applied to the sampling process as well as to the analytical procedures. The resulting data will be crucial to test extrapolations based on direct flux measurements to regional and global scales.