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How to count up carbon

Manam Volcano, Papua New Guinea

Airsar's view (see below) of the Manam Volcano, Papua New Guinea - the sort of imaging needed to determine landcover change over time. Pic: JPL

An international group of scientists, including representatives from Australia, will meet in Michigan, US, next week to figure out how to measure carbon across the globe to meet the goals of the Kyoto Agreement intended to reduce global warming.

One of the outcomes at Kyoto was the idea to create a world market for carbon credits. Parties that could certify they were reducing carbon emissions beyond defined levels would be able to sell or trade their credits to parties that were not able to achieve CO2 emission reduction limits. But measurement and verifying compliance are unresolved technical problems.

Figuring out where carbon comes from and where it goes is a huge technical task. Part of the problem is that the carbon question isn't limited to easily quantifiable things like smokestacks and cars. The Earth's living systems themselves breathe, consuming and releasing huge amounts of carbon in places like the arctic tundra and the Amazonian rainforest.

A combination of space-based measurements and ground-based verification of those data has been proposed to get a handle on where the carbon is coming from and where it's going. Many of the 'sinks' for locking up atmospheric carbon are still unidentified.

Australian scientists from the University of New South Wales will present papers on data from the Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar system, Airsar. This system, developed by NASA, is a means of surveying landmass to determine surface change over time. Eventually the information could be gathered, at a lower resolution, from satellites.

"What we need is an easy way of estimating the amount of carbon lost through landcover change" said Australian scientist, Tony Milne, who will attend the conference.

"This is a workshop for the technical experts who know how to monitor some of these things from aircraft or space," said remote sensing expert Craig Dobson, an associate research scientist in University of Michigan's College of Engineering who is co-hosting the event. "What needs to be measured, to what precision, and how might this be accomplished? There are many people who are thinking and doing things in this area, but there needs to be a higher level of dialogue."

The Kyoto agreement, which has yet to be ratified by the United States, built a framework for global carbon dioxide emission reductions, and set goals for 38 industrialized nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2012.

Tags: environment, engineering