The Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) - Standardised observations for science and societies

To understand, predict and mitigate climate change, it is crucial to have long-term and standardised measurements of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere and their fluxes between atmosphere, land and oceans. The Integrated Carbon Observation System, is a distributed European Research Infrastructure which provides high-precision and highly standardised observations from more than 170 stations  from three domains: Atmosphere, Ecosystem and Ocean. ICOS covers currently 16 European countries.  All ICOS data is made available by the ICOS Carbon Portal, first in near-real time (within 24h when possible), and after further quality control as domain specific annual releases. The data flow follows the Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) principles.

ICOS data have shown the importance of sustainable long-term observations to understand inter-annual variations, trends and extreme events. They show climate and antropogenic feedback on the carbon cycle and ecosystem-specific responses to disturbances. ICOS data are very useful for good practise guidelines on maintaining or enhancing ecosystem carbon sinks and, thus, might also be an important tool for monitoring and verifying respective policies. Further societal impact is generated by using ICOS data for verification of fossil fuel emission reductions and guiding cities towards climate neutrality.