A new research infrastructure to decipher the greenhouse gas balance of Europe and adjacent regions
ICOS is a new European Research Infrastructure for quantifying and understanding the greenhouse balance of the European continent and of adjacent regions.
It was realized early that, high precision long-term carbon cycle observations form the essential basis of carbon cycle understanding and that these observations must be secured beyond the lifetime of a research project. ICOS aims to build a network of standardized, long-term, high precision integrated monitoring of:
atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations of CO2, CH4, CO and radiocarbon-CO2 to quantify the fossil fuel component
ecosystem fluxes of CO2, H2O, and heat together with ecosystem variables.
The ICOS infrastructure will integrate terrestrial and atmospheric observations at various sites into a single, coherent, highly precise dataset. These data will allow a unique regional top-down assessment of fluxes from atmospheric data, and a bottom-up assessment from ecosystem measurements and fossil fuel inventories. Target is a daily mapping of sources and sinks at scales down to about 10 km, as a basis for understanding the exchange processes between the atmosphere, the terrestrial surface and the ocean.
| Ecosystem observation sites | Atmospheric concentration sites |
|---|---|
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The ICOS Research Infrastructure was selected by the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) roadmap in October 2006 as one of the vital new European Research Infrastructures for the next 20 years. ICOS was initiated by successful developments of the research tools and capacity building at the European level necessary to quantify and understand the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases at regional and continental scales (see AEROCARB (terminated), CARBOEUROPE, NITROEUROPE, and CARBOOCEAN).
ICOS contributes to the implementation of the Integrated Global Carbon Observation System (IGCO). At the same time, ICOS fulfils the monitoring obligations of Europe under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The list of variables covered in ICOS are central to GEOSS (Global Earth Observation System of Systems) as recommended to ‘support the development of observational capabilities for Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) Further, ICOS contributes to the GEOSS aims by implementing in Europe the IGOS-P (Integrated Global Observing Strategy - Partnership) for Atmospheric Chemistry Observations (IGACO) and for Integrated Global Carbon Observations (IGCO).
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Figure 2 The ICOS elements
A Central Co-ordination Office which co-ordinates all activities, and which is responsible for data management, data diffusion and outreach. Associated with the co-ordination office will be the established a data centre, the Carbon Portal, providing free access to the ICOS data,
A Central Analytical Laboratory for calibration, quality control and atmospheric analyses for the entire network,
An Atmospheric Thematic Center responsible for continuous and discontinuous air sampling, instrument development/servicing and data processing,
An Ecosystem Thematic Center responsible for total ecosystem flux measurements and component fluxes and carbon pools, including data processing and instrument development,
A network of Main Observation Sites which are connected in a distributed network of about 30 atmospheric and 30 ecosystem sites located across Europe, with secured funding coverage for 20 years,
Associated networks of Regional Observation sites which will contribute to the ICOS objectives, and share data with the Infrastructure
The implementation of ICOS will take place in two steps:
During the Preparatory Phase starting in 2008 until 2011, the funding commitments will have been endorsed by the governments and mother institutions, the building of the central facilities will be initiated, and the project will be technically developed up to the level of a demonstration year of full operation, but with a reduced number of observational sites.
During the follow-up Operational Phase from 2012 until 2031, after the full scale deployment of the network, it will be run in an operational mode, and greenhouse gas concentrations and fluxes will be determined on a routine basis.
The ICOS work plan of the preparatory phase is organised around eight complementary work packages:
WP 1 corresponds to the consortium organization and management of the project,
WP 2 provides legal and governance models,
WP 3 coordinates the financial/fund raising work,
WP 4 considers the integration of essential external datasets into ICOS, and involves data providers, in particular for fossil fuel emission data and biomass and soil carbon inventories,
WP 5 corresponds the technical work to build the distributed network of field sites, including network design, equipment selection, testing and optimisation,
WP 6 will carry out the preparation for building the atmospheric and ecosystem thematic centers, as well as the central analytical laboratory,
WP 7 will apply the technical solutions retained in WP 5-6, to execute the Demonstration Experiment, a one-year test run where the infrastructure will be operated with a small number of sites,
WP 8 will organize the project-level outreach, the construction of the web based Carbon Portal, as well as training and capacity building necessary for the future operational phase.
The links between ICOS, other European projects, and international coordination bodies and programs include:
CARBOEUROPE (FP6, IP) will be a prime user of the ICOS data, and provides advanced research tools to use the infrastructure observations.
CARBOAFRICA (FP6, IP), (Western Africa) and CIRCE (FP6) (Mediterranean regions), and research in third countries such as China, India, and Russia will be able to use the ICOS methodology for establishing new high precision measurements.
IMECC (FP6, I3) will provide key network design tools to the ICOS Preparatory Phase, funding for ecosystem measurement sensors and standard preparation facilities as well as pilot Near-Real-Time concentration data products.
GEMS and GEOLAND (FP-6, IP) projects (part of the GMES program), with successors in FP-7, will use the high quality atmospheric and ecosystem validation data provided by ICOS.
GEOMON (FP-6, IP) will ensure the link to ICOS with forthcoming satellite observations of column integrated CO2 (NASA/OCO, JAXA/GOSAT missions) and CH4 (ESA/SCIAMACHY instrument on ENVISAT) and CO (NASA/MOPITT).
GEOSS will use the European implementation of the Integrated Global Carbon Observation strategy (IGCO) for atmospheric and biospheric observations, and of the Integrated Global Atmospheric Composition Observation strategy (IGACO) provided by ICOS.
IPCC panel members will have access to unique, high precision long term data to understand the carbon cycle and the current perturbation attributed to anthropogenic activities.
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The ICOS preparatory phase includes 16 research laboratories and SMEs from 12 European countries.
| Core Partners | Organization name | Country |
| 1 CEA - Coordinator | Commissariat à lEnergie Atomique | France |
| 2 MPG | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. | Germany |
| 3 UNITUS | University of Tuscia | Italy |
| 4 UHEI-IUP | University of Heidelberg | Germany |
| 5 VUA | Vrije University Amsterdam | The Netherlands |
| 6 UHEL | University of Helsinki | Finland |
| 7 UEDIN | University of Edinburgh | United Kingdom |
| 8 CNRS-INSU | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers | France |
| 9 ULUND | Lunds universitet | Sweden |
| 10 RISEO | Forskningscenter Risø, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet | Denmark |
| 11 SJ BERWIN | SJ Berwin LLP | Belgium |
| 12 UA | Universiteit Antwerpen | Belgium |
| 13 CEAM | Fundación Centro de Estudios Ambientales del Mediterraneo | Spain |
| 14 ISBE | Ústav systémové biologie a ekologie AV CR, v.v.i. | Czech Republic |
| 15 ETH Zurich | Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule | Switzerland |
| 16 INRA | Institut National de Recherche Agronomique | France |
The preparatory phase was initiated by 6 institutes which will form a network of contact points within each country (France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and United Kingdom). The preparatory proposal phase will be coordinated in France. Germany will develop the Central Analytic Laboratory (CAL), while Italy will organize the Ecosystem Thematic Center (ETC) and France will establish the Atmospheric Thematic Center (ATC). The United Kingdom and Finland will contribute to the development of sensors for flows on the ecosystems. The Netherlands will coordinate the studies of optimization of the network and definition of the schedule of conditions of the stations of reference.
These principal partners, along with the French Ministry of Research are joined by representatives from different institutes in six other countries (Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland and the Czech Republic). Additional countries have already expressed their interest (Norway, Israel) and processes will be in place to add new members who will have the support of their country during the preparatory phase.
A certain number of international organizations have also expressed their interest and have provided letters of support for the preparatory phase and include:
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) |
Switzerland |
National Institute For Environmental Studies (NIES) |
Japan |
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) |
USA |
Integrated Global Atmospheric Composition Strategy (IGACO) |
Switzerland |
Integrated Global Carbon Observing Strategy IGCO |
France, USA |
Global Carbon Project (GCP) IGBP-WCRP-IHDP |
Australia |
FLUXNET |
USA |
Meteo-France |
France |
Institut National de Recherche Agronomique (INRA) |
France |
Umweltbundesamt (UBA) |
Germany |
Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) |
Finland |
Direction Générale de la Recherche et de l’Innovation (DGRI) |
France |
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) |
France |
Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA) |
France |
Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kunst Baden-Württemberg |
Germany |
Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del mare |
Italy |
Ministero dell’Universita e della Ricerca |
Italy |
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NOW) |
Netherlands |
Finnish Ministry of Education |
Finland |
Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
UK |
Swedish Research Council |
Sweden |
Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (MEC) |
Spain |
Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) |
Flanders |
Czech Science Foundation |
Czech Republic |
Danish Agency for Science |
Denmark |
Ministerio de Medio Ambiente |
Spain |
Research Council of Norway |
Norway |
National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Environment (ENEA) |
Italy |
| Swiss Federal Office for the Environment | Switzerland |
The synergy between the atmospheric concentration measurements on the one hand and the knowledge of local ecosystem fluxes on the other hand, has shown effective in reducing the uncertainties on carbon assessments. However, in Europe, observatories are all managed differently for each country and data is not homogenously processed.
The value added impact of the infrastructure will allow an enhanced visibility and dissemination of European greenhouse gas data and products that are both long-term and carefully calibrated. ICOS seeks to meet the data needs of carbon cycle and climate researchers as well as those of politicians and the general public. ICOS will serve as the backbone to users engaged in developing data assimilation models of greenhouse gas sources and sinks, namely reverse modelling, which allows the deduction of surface carbon flux pattern.
A common data center, the Carbon Portal put into place by ICOS, will provide free access to ICOS data services, as well as to links with inventory data, and outreach material. This portal will allow the production web based tools for the survey of sources and sinks in near real time. ICOS will deliver the information in near real time with a quantification of the uncertainty associated with the results due to the use of several different models using different methodologies.
ICOS will enable Europe to be a key global player for in situ observations of greenhouse gases, data processing and user-friendly access to data products for validation of remote sensing products, scientific assessments, modeling and data assimilation.
