Fresh news from ICOS
The European ICOS Research Infrastructure (ICOS RI) carries out the long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) observations required to understand the present state and predict the future behavior of the global carbon cycle and greenhouse gas sinks/sources (see ICOS Preparatory Phase http://www.icos-infrastructure.eu/). The ICOS RI seeks a distinguished Director General (DG) for a full-time position.
The ICOS-INWIRE project started on 01 January 2013 and will be finish in the end of 2015.
The fundamental objective of the project is to enhance capabilities of the ICOS infrastructure for GHG monitoring, in order to meet the needs of operational users in the GMES Atmosphere and Land Core Service Elements. It will achieve this by:
- Developing and testing autonomous stations equipped with greenhouse gas concentration (WP2) and fluxes (WP3) sensor systems able to operate autonomously in remote areas and in technically challenging environments.
Application for the Carbon Portal are open. Please find the Carbon Portal concept paper which should be used to accurately respond to the
questions within the application. The Carbon Portal will be integrated into the future legal structure of the ICOS infrastructure.
Abstract submission for the EGU General Assembly 2013 (EGU2013), 07 Apr 2013 - 12 Apr 2013, Vienna, Austria has just started, and we are pleased to announce a special session related to ICOS :
BG1.3 Long-term research infrastructures in biogeochemistry
Convener: Werner Leo Kutsch
Co-Conveners: Timo Vesala , Philippe Ciais
The 5th Atmosphere Workshop set its sights on presenting and discussing the results of the working groups formed during the last Workshop.
Moreover, this workshop will deal with the issues related to the Atmospheric station fees.
From October 8th 2PM to October 9th 5PM
On 25 March 2012, a gaz leakage occured at an oil extraction station (Elgin platform) in the North Sea. The platform has been evacuated due to the high risk of explosion. Large amounts of methane were and continue to be emitted. An initial estimation of 200,000 m3 per day was provided by Total E&P UK. As per an April 13 press release the leakage continued but operations to block the leakage were ongoing with good progress. Methane (CH4) is the second greenhouse gas in terms of radiative forcing with a global warming potential that is 25 times that of CO2 over 100 years.
As of 30 January 2012, 10 countries have declared at the ministerial level that they intend to back ICOS and to participate to the creation of a European legal entity.
Discussions among partner states and institutions take place in the ICOS stakeholders’ interim council (ISIC). The ISIC has been set up in the frame of the ICOS Preparatory phase project, and prefigures the General assembly of a future ICOS European legal entity. The ISIC was initially chaired by Petteri Taalas, from FMI, Finland.
The 4th ICOS AS Workshop will take place the February 16th - 17th 2012 in Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
