Robust, policy-relevant assessments of the terrestrial carbon cycle depend on reconciling top-down (atmospheric inversion) and bottom-up (process model, inventory) estimates - which continue to show persistent regional disagreement in the magnitude (and sometimes in the sign) of land carbon fluxes. Closing this gap requires better integration of Earth Observation (EO), in-situ measurements, and process-based models through data assimilation, alongside improved representation of the disturbances (fire, land management, drought) that drive much of today's uncertainty in regional carbon fluxes.
We welcome contributions on: EO-based characterisation of ecosystem and canopy structure, disturbance, and carbon dynamics; the use of EO and in-situ data to constrain, evaluate, or improve process-based land surface and dynamic vegetation models; data assimilation and model-data fusion techniques merging observations into carbon cycle and Earth system models; disturbance representation in models; and regional-to-global carbon budget assessments reconciling top-down and bottom-up approaches, including near-real-time systems and applications relevant to national greenhouse gas inventories.
This session is co-organised by members of the NextGenCarbon and CONCERTO Horizon Europe projects and the ESA THRAC3E project, aligned with the carbon flagship of the EC-ESA Earth System Science Initiative.