SCOPE

The ocean plays a central role in modulating the Earth’s carbon cycle. Monitoring how the ocean carbon cycle is changing is fundamental to managing climate change. Satellite remote sensing is currently our best tool for viewing the ocean surface globally and systematically, at high spatial and temporal resolutions, and the past few decades have seen an exponential growth in studies utilising satellite data for ocean carbon research. Satellite-based observations have to be combined with in situ observations and models, to obtain a comprehensive view of ocean carbon pools and fluxes.

The Satellite-based observations of Carbon in the Ocean: Pools, fluxes and Exchanges (SCOPE) project aims to provide the best possible characterisation of the ocean carbon budget from satellite observations and further the understanding of its variability in space and time. It will produce satellite-based products and uncertainties of the pools (phytoplankton carbon, particulate organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon, particulate inorganic carbon and dissolved inorganic carbon) and fluxes (primary production, export production, air-sea exchange and land-sea exchange) of the ocean carbon cycle using the 25-year time series of Ocean-Colour Climate Change Initiative. These products, together with existing in situ measurements and models, will contribute to the goals of ESA’s Ocean Science Cluster:

• Contribute to the development of next-generation ocean satellite products and observation systems.
• Enhance the understanding of the ocean’s role in the Earth’s climate system.
• Foster the transition from science to actionable solutions for society.

We will accomplish these objectives by undertaking the following activities:

• Design and implement a novel research plan that will consolidate and advance the current understanding of the ocean carbon cycle.
• Deliver a consistent EO dataset of all ocean carbon pools and fluxes that is harmonised in space and time.
• Quantify uncertainties for each individual component of the ocean carbon cycle and in the carbon budget when multiple products are considered in relation to one another.
• Describe the global carbon budget from space, with its uncertainties, at climatological and annual time scales using an integrated approach in which in situ observations, data assimilation, modelling and machine learning will be used to constrain the budget as well as extrapolating surface observations from depth.
• Advance our understanding of drivers of change in the ocean carbon budget in space and time, based on a scientific analysis using the developed products and their  uncertainties.
• Assess how satellite-based ocean carbon products can inform modellers in close collaboration with the modelling community, to help reduce the discrepancies between models and observations.
• Develop a scientific roadmap which will pose the main scientific challenges and observations gaps that need to be addressed over the period of 2025-2030 to move towards an integrated monitoring approach of the ocean carbon cycle.