The Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) supporting climate science and climate action

The INTEGRATED CARBON OBSERVATION SYSTEM, ICOS, is a European-wide research infrastructure observing greenhouse gases and the carbon cycle. ICOS produces standardised data on greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, as well as on carbon fluxes between the atmosphere, the ecosystems and oceans. This information is essential for predicting and mitigating climate change. ICOS was on the first ESFRI Roadmap in 2006 and became an ERIC (the legal entity for European Research Infrastructures) in 2015. 

During these almost two decades of its existence, ICOS went through a number of crucial steps of its life cycle:

The design phase was mainly characterized by defining the parameters to observe and standardising the methods of observation, by developing a governance model, and by finding long-term resources for implementation and operation of the research infrastructure.

During the implementation phase a complex fabric of national funding needed to be coordinated in order to establish the observational networks which was combined with a process of ensuring the compliance of each station with the agreed standards. In addition, the data life cycle from a single instrument to a diverse user community had to be designed and established. In this context, exchange of experience within the ENVRI community, supported by a series of cluster projects was very helpful.

ICOS is now in its operational phase supporting many scientific users with open data. It has one of the highest ‘FAIR data index’ within the ENVRI community. The data are used in many scientific fields, they are essential for climate models and are used directly in communication and dissemination to policy makers e.g. at Conferences of Parties (COPs) within the UNFCCC.

ICOS is currently exploring how to widen the impact of its observations by developing services for scientific or societal users. Services for climate actions in cities or services for scientifically sound carbon dioxide removal certificates are two examples.

Throughout its lifetime, the further development of ICOS has been supported by a number of EU projects. The strategic management of the project portfolio and the orverarching experience how these projects have supported the development of ICOS will be explained in the presentation.