Professor Hurtt Briefs Media, Public on Advances in Carbon Monitoring and Modeling in relation to the Earth’s climate
Professor of Geographical Sciences and Research Director George Hurtt recently participated in a NASA media teleconference, discussing the latest advances from NASA on the monitoring and modeling of carbon in the context of the Earth’s climate.
“There is carbon all around us. The trees, grasses, crops, all the vegetation and soils on the Earth's surface store carbon. About three or four times as much in the atmosphere. As a whole, the land surface is absorbing one quarter of the carbon we emit from fossil fuels. Will it continue? We are developing technologies to monitor and model carbon with sufficient precision to reduce uncertainties and support decision making,” Hurtt said.
The video has been viewed more than 170,000 times on the NASA Facebook page.
The NASA teleconference featured five prominent scientists discussing the latest development at NASA for monitoring and modeling carbon in the oceans, land, and atmosphere. Significant advances in monitoring and modeling carbon are important for reducing uncertainties and supporting decision making.
Of particular note, the NASA briefing presented updates from the Carbon Monitoring System, a preview of a new instrument named GEDI planned to measure vegetation structure from the space station, and new field work in the highly climate sensitive arctic as part of the ABoVE field campaign—all with leadership from UMD. It also presented results from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission, NASA’s first satellite dedicated to measuring carbon dioxide.
UMD Experts Participate in UN Carbon Discussions
These briefings are in preparation to COP21, United Nations climate meeting in Paris this week focusing on setting limits on future levels of human-produced carbon emissions. With the goal of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, the negotiations in Paris could achieve the greatest stride in international cooperation on climate change problems since the Kyoto Protocol. Close to 200 parties will gather to reach a legally binding agreement that will go into force in 2020, with each country forming individual goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The convention, the 21st annual U.N. Conference of the Parties (COP), aims to create a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol when its second commitment period ends.
Six University of Maryland professors and six graduate students will observe the negotiations, making contacts and reporting back to assist the university’s own plans to reduce carbon pollution. Read more about their efforts.
UMD and NASA Partnerships Shed Light on Climate Issues
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University and NASA leadership celebrate the launch of the JGCCC.
The Department of Geographical Sciences, which recently was ranked 3rd in nation by the National Research Council, boasts a faculty of leaders in climate-relevant research:
· Professors Hurtt and Baiocchi combined were authors in all three Working Groups of the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report. In preparation for the next IPCC assessment, Professor Hurtt co-chairs the Land Use Model Inter-comparison activities for the World Climate Research Program-CMIP6. He also leads the Congressionally directed NASA Carbon Monitoring System.
· Professor Ralph Dubayah is developing a new instrument, GEDI, for NASA to measure biomass from the International Space Station, which will provide important input to future land carbon monitoring and modeling.
· Professor Matthew Hansen has developed a global forest monitoring system used in RED+ MRV activities and in countless other significant research projects worldwide.
· Professor and Chair Chris Justice has developed a global fire monitoring system used for national-to-global scale biomass burning emissions estimates. His team has also developed a global agricultural monitoring system to alert the global community of extreme climate events impacting crop production.
· Professor Klaus Hubacek and Research Assistant Professor Kuishuang Feng published a study in Nature Communications that links the global economic recession to reduced carbon emissions.
· A team led by Professor Joseph Sexton for the first time has compared eight global, satellite-based maps to determine the planet’s total forest area; the information gaps they uncovered were surprising.
· The department also is involved in developing various global satellite data sets which are contributing to the GCOS Essential Climate Variables.
“The Department of Geographical Sciences continues to partner with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to play a lead role in the use of satellite observations and models to better understand the human contribution to climate change through the Carbon Cycle, the impacts of extreme weather events and long-term global warming on ecosystems and society and explore various options for reducing carbon emissions and the associated implications for human livelihoods,” Professor Justice said.
Published on Fri, Dec 4, 2015 - 10:22AM