Timber as carbon keepers | EUMETSAT

Plants develop greatest inside a selected vary of daylight, temperature, and water. Satellite devices for local weather monitoring can be utilized to supply a worldwide view of whether or not or not vegetation is throughout the vary conducive to progress. For instance, satellite tv for pc measurements of the month-to-month precipitation fee and accessible soil moisture point out if adequate water is accessible for crops to develop.

The workforce additionally demonstrated how satellite tv for pc information can be utilized to point precise vegetation progress. When crops bear photosynthesis, they soak up daylight, carbon dioxide, and water from the surroundings and convert them into oxygen and sugar. Most of the unused mild is launched as warmth with a small quantity of it reemitted as purple mild. Spaceborne spectrometers, such because the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment–2 (GOME-2) on board Metop satellites, can detect this reemission of sunshine, or fluorescence, from vegetation throughout the globe, offering a window into how a lot photosynthesis is going on, which, in flip, signifies how a lot carbon dioxide these crops are drawing out of the environment.

In addition to capturing carbon, vegetation additionally performs a job in returning carbon to the environment. This may be via organic processes, resembling respiration and decomposition, in addition to bodily processes, resembling deforestation and forest fires. Satellite observations of adjustments in forest cover leaf cowl present helpful insights into vegetation loss because of deforestation and fireplace impacts.

By honing in on a reforested space of China and a forest in Australia destroyed by a wildfire, the KNMI team demonstrated the effectiveness of using satellite fluorescence observations to measure land cover changes. They discovered that their fluorescence observations precisely mirrored the recognized adjustments – within the reforested space, the fluorescence observations indicated the anticipated improve, whereas after the opposite forest was destroyed by fireplace, the fluorescence decreased as anticipated.

“Satellites really help to provide a lot of information on how much biomass is stored in growing vegetation,” mentioned Roebeling. “How green is the vegetation? Is there enough water? Is there enough light? How many fires are there and how fast are they growing? We want to have a complete picture of the whole carbon cycle, but this requires combining observations from many satellite instruments because there is not one single measurement that tells it all.

“In addition, we have all these measures like reforestation to try to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, so satellite observations are helpful for tracking how effective those measures really are. Monitoring this is especially important as global greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase.”

Author:

Sarah Puschmann