ICCR: Forward and Inverse Modeling of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Isotopes

Colorado State University, Fort Collins CO

Investigators

Abstract

This project involves a three-year research program to study the exchanges of carbon dioxide between the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere, and the processes that govern them. Spatial and temporal variations of isotopic tracers in the atmosphere that contain information about the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide are being investigated. The effort involves the use of the Simple Biosphere model that describes these processes on land and has been successful at predicting variations in carbon dioxide on local, regional, and global scales when coupled to an atmospheric model. New inversion methods to estimate carbon fluxes are being developed and tested using synthetic data produced by the Community Climate System Mode at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The sensitivity to transport is being investigated using a suite of transport model response functions produced in a model intercomparison study.