EGU22-3849, updated on 17 Jun 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3849
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Seasonal and Interannual Variability of Australian Carbon Fluxes Seen by GOSAT

Eva-Marie Schömann1, Sanam N. Vardag1,2, Sourish Basu3,4, Martin Jung5, Stephen Sitch6, and André Butz1,2
Eva-Marie Schömann et al.
  • 1Institute of Environmental Physics, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
  • 2Heidelberg Center for the Environment (HCE), Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
  • 3NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
  • 4Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
  • 5Department of Biogeochemical Integration, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
  • 6College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4RJ, UK

The semi-arid Australian continent significantly influences the interannual variability of the global terrestrial carbon sink. Atmospheric inverse models can be used to estimate land carbon fluxes from CO2 measurements, and study the underlying processes leading to their variability. The spatial coverage of in-situ CO2 measurements over Australia is sparse, leading to large uncertainties in estimated carbon fluxes for the Australian continent. Satellite measurements of CO2 offer an independent and spatially extensive source of information about the Australian carbon cycle.

Here, we examine the decadal data set (2009-2018) of atmospheric CO2 mole fractions delivered by the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) above Australia. We estimate land CO2 fluxes from those measurements via the TM5-4DVAR inverse model and discuss their seasonal and interannual variability. Compared to flux estimates constrained by in-situ mole fraction measurements alone, GOSAT-based inversions suggest greater variability attributable to the seasonal dynamics of biogenic and fire fluxes. To investigate the mechanisms behind the variability, we compare to bottom-up carbon fluxes from the FLUXCOM and the TRENDY ensemble of global dynamic vegetation models.

How to cite: Schömann, E.-M., Vardag, S. N., Basu, S., Jung, M., Sitch, S., and Butz, A.: Seasonal and Interannual Variability of Australian Carbon Fluxes Seen by GOSAT, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-3849, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3849, 2022.

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