A paper published recently in Earth System Science Data describes how scientists working in the OceanSODA project used measurements from ships and from satellites to show how ocean waters have become more acidic over the last three decades. Read the full story.
Gross primary production (GPP), the total carbon fixation by terrestrial ecosystems through vegetation photosynthesis, is being affected by drought and heat events. Previous studies have demonstrated how the duration and the intensity, as well as the timing of such events are controlling the GPP. A research conducted within the framework of the Earth System Data …
The IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in Changing Climate (2019) includes “permafrost carbon and greenhouse gas emissions” as one of the cases characterised by deep uncertainty. The report states that even if there is a very high confidence that “permafrost temperatures have increased to record high levels including the recent increase by …
In a recent paper published in Remote Sensing, scientists used data from the Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative to study the long-term patterns of primary production and its interannual variability. Combining long-term satellite data with in situ measurements, they assessed global annual primary productivity from 1998-2018. Being able to observe and quantify primary production over …
The carbon cycle is central to the Earth system, being inextricably coupled with climate, the water cycle, nutrient cycles and the production of biomass by photosynthesis on land and in the oceans. In the natural system the balance among carbon in the atmosphere, land and ocean is regulated through fluxes between these three main reservoirs. …
ESA and the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation (DG-RTD) have signed an agreement to join forces to provide a coordinated response to the grand science challenges of the next decade. With this agreement ESA and DG-RTD aim at establishing an effective alignment of selected scientific activities under Horizon Europe and FutureEO programmes …
Currently we speak of the ‘golden age’ of Earth Observation (EO). Not only can we access a variety of data from heritage and current EO missions serving scientific and operational needs, new systems for monitoring our blue planet are constantly being planned, built, and sent into the Earth orbit. Regarding atmospheric science, a major step …
The first of a series of global maps aimed at quantifying change in carbon stored as biomass across the world’s forests and shrublands has been released by ESA’s Climate Change Initiative at COP25 – the United Nation Climate Change Conference currently taking place in Madrid. Read the full story.
Empirical algorithms using satellite observed salinity from SMOS and Aquarius, as well as CCI SST, have been demonstrated to be suitable to calculate total alkalinity and total dissolved inorganic carbon, and reproduce the wider spatial patterns of these two variables. Improving our ability to monitor ocean carbonate chemistry has become a priority as the …
A recent study provides maps of man-made carbon dioxide anomalies around the globe. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas and its increase in the atmosphere is responsible for the global warming. CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels. Satellite-based observations provide information on the concentration of …
