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ESA contributes to ocean carbon cycle research
May 06, 2008The Earth's oceans play a vital role in the carbon cycle, making it imperative that we understand marine biological activity enough to predict how our planet will react to the extra 25 000 million tonnes of carbon dioxide humans are pumping into the atmosphere annually.
The colour of oceanic seawater depends largely on the number of microscopic phytoplankton, marine plants that live in the well-lit surface layer. Just like land-based plants, phytoplankton accumulate carbon dioxide during photosynthesis and store it in their tissues, making them potentially important carbon sinks.
While phytoplankton themselves are individually microscopic, the chlorophyll they collectively contain colours the ocean's waters, which provides a means of detecting these tiny organisms from space with dedicated ocean colour sensors.
To support ocean carbon cycle research, ESA's GlobColour project has merged 55 terabytes of data from three state-of-the-art instruments aboard different satellites, including MERIS aboard ESA's Envisat, MODIS aboard NASA's Aqua and SeaWiFS aboard GeoEye's Orbview-2, to produce a 10-year dataset of global ocean colour stretching to 2007.
"I am quite impressed by the work ESA has done so far within GlobColour," said Dr Cyril Moulin of the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP). "This
10-year dataset is going to be very useful for carbon studies and global modelling."
The ocean colour datasets are freely available to the public via the GlobColour website. A new web interface, Hermes, is available which allows users to select a time period, spatial region and product type. Based on this input, the system extracts the appropriate ocean colour products for users to download.
By combining observations from multiple sensors, GlobColour brings several benefits over existing products, such as better sampling of the daily variability, smaller errors because of the larger amount of data and reduced instrumental biases.
To guarantee the data set is of good quality, the data have undergone an intensive validation process by comparing measurements from in-situ buoys. The conclusion was that the error statistics of the merged data are better than data from the three individual sensors.
In addition to aiding carbon cycle research, ocean colour data can provide oceanographers with the information they need to monitor the state of the oceans for other applications, such as for the fisheries and aquaculture industries.
GlobColour, part of ESA's Data User Element (DUE), will begin providing near-real time ocean colour observations to support this type of operational oceanography from mid-2008.
This service will continue well into the future, thanks to the European Commission (EC), who will continue production of the GlobColour time series from 2009 as part of the Marine Core Service of the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) initiative.
"We need to sustain an international effort to make sure we can link one satellite dataset to another to build the long-time series that we need to distinguish change from cycles, and GlobColour is definitely a significant step in that perspective," said Dr James Yoder, Chair of the International Ocean-Colour Coordinating Group (IOCCG).
Marine Core Service and GMES
The Marine Core Service will deliver systematic reference information on the state of the global ocean and European Union seas by providing observational and model data, real-time predictions and ocean scenario simulations.
GMES - a joint initiative of the EC and ESA - responds to Europe's needs for geo-spatial information services by bringing together the capacity of Europe to collect and manage data and information on the environment and civil security, for the benefit of European citizens.
European Space Agency
"I am quite impressed by the work ESA has done so far within GlobColour," said Dr Cyril Moulin of the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP). "This
10-year dataset is going to be very useful for carbon studies and global modelling."
The ocean colour datasets are freely available to the public via the GlobColour website. A new web interface, Hermes, is available which allows users to select a time period, spatial region and product type. Based on this input, the system extracts the appropriate ocean colour products for users to download.
By combining observations from multiple sensors, GlobColour brings several benefits over existing products, such as better sampling of the daily variability, smaller errors because of the larger amount of data and reduced instrumental biases.
To guarantee the data set is of good quality, the data have undergone an intensive validation process by comparing measurements from in-situ buoys. The conclusion was that the error statistics of the merged data are better than data from the three individual sensors.
In addition to aiding carbon cycle research, ocean colour data can provide oceanographers with the information they need to monitor the state of the oceans for other applications, such as for the fisheries and aquaculture industries.
GlobColour, part of ESA's Data User Element (DUE), will begin providing near-real time ocean colour observations to support this type of operational oceanography from mid-2008.
This service will continue well into the future, thanks to the European Commission (EC), who will continue production of the GlobColour time series from 2009 as part of the Marine Core Service of the GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) initiative.
"We need to sustain an international effort to make sure we can link one satellite dataset to another to build the long-time series that we need to distinguish change from cycles, and GlobColour is definitely a significant step in that perspective," said Dr James Yoder, Chair of the International Ocean-Colour Coordinating Group (IOCCG).
Marine Core Service and GMES
The Marine Core Service will deliver systematic reference information on the state of the global ocean and European Union seas by providing observational and model data, real-time predictions and ocean scenario simulations.
GMES - a joint initiative of the EC and ESA - responds to Europe's needs for geo-spatial information services by bringing together the capacity of Europe to collect and manage data and information on the environment and civil security, for the benefit of European citizens.
European Space Agency
Carbon Cycle Current Events and Carbon Cycle News RSSArctic land and seas account for up to 25 percent of world's carbon sink
In a new study in the journal Ecological Monographs, ecologists estimate that Arctic lands and oceans are responsible for up to 25 percent of the global net sink of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Key new ingredient in climate model refines global predictions
For the first time, climate scientists from across the country have successfully incorporated the nitrogen cycle into global simulations for climate change, questioning previous assumptions regarding carbon feedback and potentially helping to refine model forecasts about global warming.
Last time carbon dioxide levels were this high: 15 million years ago, scientists report
You would have to go back at least 15 million years to find carbon dioxide levels on Earth as high as they are today, a UCLA scientist and colleagues report Oct. 8 in the online edition of the journal Science.
Scientists say climate change mitigation strategies ignore carbon cycling processes of inland waters
In the paper, The Boundless Carbon Cycle, published in the September issue of Nature Geoscience, scientists from the University of Vienna, Uppsala University in Sweden, University of Antwerp, and the U.S. based Stroud™ Water Research Center argue that current international strategies to mitigate manmade carbon emissions and address climate change have overlooked a critical player - inland waters.
Earth's biogeochemical cycles, once in concert, falling out of sync
What do the Gulf of Mexico's "dead zone," global climate change, and acid rain have in common? They're all a result of human impacts to Earth's biology, chemistry and geology, and the natural cycles that involve all three.
Global warming: Our best guess is likely wrong
No one knows exactly how much Earth's climate will warm due to carbon emissions, but a new study this week suggests scientists' best predictions about global warming might be incorrect.
New isotope cluster could lead to better understanding of atmospheric carbon dioxide
A team of researchers has discovered an unexpected concentration of a certain isotopic molecule in parts of the stratosphere that could have implications for understanding the carbon cycle and its response to climate change.
Methane-eating microbes can use iron and manganese oxides to 'breathe'
Iron and manganese compounds, in addition to sulfate, may play an important role in converting methane to carbon dioxide and eventually carbonates in the Earth's oceans, according to a team of researchers looking at anaerobic sediments.
Study of agricultural watersheds and carbon losses
Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) losses from tile drains are an underquantified portion of the terrestrial carbon cycle.
University of Leicester geologists demonstrate extent of ancient ice age
Geologists at the University of Leicester have shown that an ancient Ice Age, once regarded as a brief 'blip', in fact lasted for 30 million years.
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