This newsletter was sent on May 10, 2017 to members of the CMS community and Stakeholders. Words from the Science Team LeadNASA-CMS ended an extremely productive 2016 with our 5th Annual Science Team Meeting, COP22, AGU, and development of new Hyperwall content. Our Science Team Meeting, held Nov 14-16 in Boulder, CO, began with a 1-day Applications Workshop featuring plenary presentations and participation by a diverse range of Stakeholders actively working with CMS data. More than 30 stakeholders participated! The next two days consisted of a 2-day Science Team Meeting featuring plenary and poster presentations by Science Team members from all active projects, and breakouts for Working Group reporting and planning. In parallel, some of the latest CMS products were also presented at COP22. In December, NASA-CMS for the third year in a row led the AGU session entitled, "Carbon Monitoring Research and Applications". The session attracted >30 abstracts and presentations (oral and poster) and was an exciting chance to present, discuss, and advance the latest CMS relevant research with the community at large. At AGU we also debuted the first 3 NASA Hyperwall modules featuring NASA-CMS research, and presented those live at the NASA booth. The Applications Workshop, COP22 event, and new Hyperwall presentations are described further below. In addition, you will also learn about our speaker series, select project updates, newest data products, featured papers, upcoming events, and the new the Focus Collection of Environmental Research Letters on Carbon Monitoring Research and Applications open thru September 30, 2017. NASA CMS Applications Workshop 2016: Linking CMS Products to Decision Makers and StakeholdersCMS Applications specializes in linking CMS science to appropriate stakeholder organizations. CMS Application efforts focus on leveraging existing policies and stakeholder needs that may benefit from applying CMS data products. For the third consecutive year, the CMS Applications Team hosted a Stakeholder Workshop on the first day of the annual CMS Science Team Meeting. The workshop was held November 14, 2016, in Boulder, CO, and was attended by national and international stakeholders, as well as all the CMS science community. The goals of the workshop were to (1) understand the stakeholder applications (2) communicate impacts of using CMS products, (3) collect lessons learned/success stories from the engagement between CMS PIs and stakeholders and (4) specifically understand the stakeholder needs for carbon monitoring and MRV. The workshop took a unique approach by breaking up talks into Application Readiness Level (ARLs) sessions. ARLs describe the maturity of CMS data product being used. For more information please see National Aeronautics and Space Administration Application Readiness Level Metric. The meeting was divided into 3 sections: a morning session, late morning session and afternoon session. The morning session with presentations from stakeholders focused on using CMS products at early stages of development, discovery, and feasibility, with ARLs 1-3. The later morning session presented speakers using products at ARLs 4-6 (development, testing, and validation staged of data products). The afternoon session showcased users of products with ARLs 7-9, where the integration of data in operational systems was presented. The workshop provided a panel discussion at the end of each session where the users answered more detailed questions about the specific uses of CMS data and how the data was impacting their organization's policies and decisions. The meeting closed with a final summary that included feedback for data improvement, future collaboration and CMS actions moving forward. The feedback from workshop attendees was overwhelmingly positive and will be used for informing future CMS efforts. Feedback from the meeting discussed the following:
Discussions at the workshop were informative and provided clear guidance on how to improve engagement and collaboration with stakeholders for different CMS ARLs and themes. The CMS Science Team (ST) was pleased to know that CMS prototypes are leading to operational use by stakeholders, and CMS PIs are more aware of ARLs and the importance of engaging stakeholders from the research and feasibility stages of the project. CMS Applications will use the success stories and lessons learned from this workshop and use it as a platform for application efforts moving forward. In the near term, CMS Applications will focus on helping PIs: 1) engage with stakeholders during early ARL stages, 2) work with PIs and the DAACs to archive and deliver more CMS data (varying ARLs) products and 3) identify user-friendly formats for products.
NASA Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) ApplicationsLunch Time Policy Speaker Series HighlightsGuest Speaker: Nancy Harris, Research Manager for Global Forest Watch, World Resources Institute (WRI) GFW Climate Online Demo at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center The CMS Policy Speaker Series brings together carbon data stakeholders to bridge CMS science with user needs, inform CMS PIs of specific end user opportunities and provide new avenues to improve and develop CMS science and data products. "...if we want to prioritize forests, then we should be providing information at more easily accessible route than it is, currently...to enable users to benefit from it." (Nancy Harris, WRI) On January 26, 2017 the CMS Applications Policy Speaker Series hosted Nancy Harris, Research Manager for Global Forest Watch, at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for a talk entitled "Global Forest Watch Climate: Pixel perfection for carbon detection." The Global Forest Watch Climate (GFW Climate) is an interactive online forest-monitoring tool that provides maps of carbon stored in forests as well as emissions from deforestation across the tropics. The tool responds to the necessity of better understanding the role of forest in carbon dioxide emissions and providing stakeholders with data in consistent and user-friendly formats. The talk included an online demo describing the tools available for users at the GFW Climate platform. Besides the forest maps, the platform includes interactive country data, customized reports, and data downloads. While the current focus is on monitoring deforestation in the tropics, GFW Climate plans to expand to other areas as new data becomes available. Current data needs are high-resolution data to detect tree recover/regrowth, difference between forests and plantations, and land cover change. You may access the slides and recording for this talk and past speakers by visiting the CMS Policy Speaker link below. NASA Releases Eye-Popping View of Carbon DioxideCarbon Dioxide from the GEOS-5 model - view video NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Carbon dioxide plays a significant role in trapping heat in Earth's atmosphere. The gas is released from human activities like burning fossil fuels, and the concentration of carbon dioxide moves and changes through the seasons. Using observations from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) satellite, scientists developed a model of the behavior of carbon in the atmosphere from Sept. 1, 2014, to Aug. 31, 2015. Scientists can use models like this one to better understand and predict where concentrations of carbon dioxide could be especially high or low, based on activity on the ground. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/K. Mersmann, M. Radcliff, producers. A new NASA supercomputer project builds on the agency's satellite measurements of carbon dioxide and combines them with a sophisticated Earth system model to provide one of the most realistic views yet of how this critical greenhouse gas moves through the atmosphere. Scientists have tracked the rising concentration of heat-trapping carbon dioxide for decades using ground-based sensors in a few places. A high-resolution visualization of the new combined data product – generated by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, using data from the agency's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite built and operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California – provides an entirely different perspective... Methane MattersCMS methane inventory paper named 2016's First Runner-Up for Best Paper in Environmental Policy in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Recap of COP-22From November 7-18, 2016, Marrakech, Morocco hosted the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Following the Paris Agreement, which was adopted by 196 countries in December 2015 during COP21, COP22 focused on details of implementation. In Marrakech, negotiators from all over the world agreed to finalize rules by 2018 and set in place a clear plan to reach that deadline. The U.S., Mexico, Canada, and Germany laid out ambitious plans to substantially reduce emissions by 2050 while a number of the world's developing countries vulnerable to climate change committed to generating 100% of their energy from renewable sources. Over 200 corporations, who agreed to work toward reduced emissions in coming years, joined nations in their commitments. COP-22: Carbon and Climate: What We Know and What We Need to Know- view video NASA contributes to COP meetings as part of the U.S. Center, a major public outreach initiative hosted by the Department of State to inform audiences around the world about U.S. actions on climate change. As a science agency, NASA delivers presentations on its hyperwall throughout the conference that focuses on space-based observations of our changing planet. CMS science team member Lesley Ott (Goddard Space Flight Center) joined the U. S. delegation for COP22, delivering a series of hyperwall presentations that showcased a diverse set of topics including atmospheric composition and air quality, human footprints, and the ability of satellites to observe climate from space. Dr. Ott also coordinated a side event that focused on how current and future satellite observations help scientists and decision-makers understand carbon and climate interactions, including materials drawn from multiple CMS projects. She was joined by Dr. Akio Takemoto, the Director of the Research and Information Office from Japan's Ministry of the Environment, who emphasized the importance of international scientific collaboration. Mangrove Carbon With a Grain of SaltSeveral of our scientists recently returned from the mangrove forests of Gabon as part of their Blue Carbon project. The project is to prototype remote sensing based Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) activities to help stakeholders make informed decisions between communities and coastal forests. While in Gabon, the team collected field data regarding the 3-dimensional structure of the mangrove forests which included traditional surveys, Terrestrial Laser Scanning, and Structure-from-Motion. This data will inevitably help them calibrate, validate, and improve their remote sensing models. Boston University Researchers Use Landsat to Discern Patterns of Deforestation Through the DecadesOlofsson has studied land-cover change for years, but recently turned his efforts close to home. In a May 2016 survey of deforestation in New England, published in Environmental Research Letters, Olofsson gathered data from thousands of images of the Earth taken by the United States' Landsat satellites. Begun in the 1970s, and inspired by photographs of Earth taken during early manned space missions, the Landsat program launched the first civilian satellite to take photos of Earth's surface in order to study it. The images provide data from decades of observation and have enough resolution for scientists to distinguish areas of forest from low- and high-density urban areas and farmland with relative ease. "We can track each pixel in time and see what's happening to the land," says Olofsson.... New NASA CMS Hyperwall PresentationsDaniel JacobFeatured PublicationsIN REVIEW: Potential Role of Gas Flaring Reductions in Meeting Paris Climate Agreement Targets Recent PublicationsEnhancing interoperability to facilitate implementation of REDD+: case study of Mexico. Carbon Management in Carbon Management Simulating estimation of California fossil fuel and biosphere carbon dioxide exchanges combining in situ tower and satellite column observations in Atmospheres Call for Papers: Special Issue in Environmental Research LettersGuest EditorsGeorge Hurtt, University of Maryland–gchurtt@umd.edu Greenhouse gas emission inventories, forest carbon sequestration programs (e.g., Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD and REDD+)), Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), cap-and-trade systems, self-reporting programs, and their associated monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) frameworks depend upon data that are accurate, systematic, practical, and transparent. For carbon, there are multiple monitoring, reporting, and verification frameworks in existence, reflecting a diversity of spatial scales, governing bodies, and relevant policies. Given the scientific challenges, policy importance, and breadth of activities occurring, this issue will focus on research and applications (decision support and policy) of carbon monitoring system science and its alignment with stakeholder needs. This scope of this issue includes carbon monitoring in all major Earth system components (e.g. land, atmosphere, freshwater, ocean) across all spatial scales (local, regional, global) and stakeholders. Example topics include, but are not limited to:
The majority of focus collection articles are invited, but unsolicited contributions are also encouraged. If you believe you have a suitable research letter article in preparation please send your pre-submission query either to the journal publishing team erl@iop.org or to the Guest Editors listed above. All articles should be submitted using our online submission form. Upcoming Events in 2017CMS Lunchtime Policy Speaker SeriesMay 25 – Andres Espejo will give a talk about the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and BioCarbon Fund, and the development of MRV systems in World Bank's priority countries | Andres Espejo, Carbon Finance Specialist & Forests and Landscapes Team Member, The World Bank | NASA GSFC, B33 G133 | 12-1PM For questions on the CMS Applications effort please contact CMS Applications PI, Vanessa Escobar. To keep up to date of CMS Applications Events please visit the CMS Calendar at http://carbon.nasa.gov/calendar.html, or subscribe to the NASA CMS Applications mailing list sending an email to Edil Sepulveda Carlo. |