By Gary Thomas
A new network is being set up to study greenhouse gases over the Amazonian rainforest. The international network will evaluate the possibilities of remote sensing of these gases to improve the understanding of Amazonian tropical carbon fluxes and carbon cycle.
The collaboration includes researchers from the State of São Paulo, the University of Leicester and others from the UK – the School of Geography, University of Leeds and the School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh. The University of São Paulo, the National Institute for Space Research and IPEN are the institutions from Brazil that are taking part in the collaboration.
The new ‘UK/Brazil Research Network for an Amazonian Carbon Observatory’ has been funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation and the Natural Environment Research Council.
A member of the Earth Observation Science Group and an RCUK Research Fellow in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University of Leicester, Dr Hartmut Boesch, has received a grant for this research. The Brazilian research team led by the coordinator of the Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratory at Nuclear and Energy Research Institute /Environmental and Chemistry Centre, Prof. Luciana Vanni Gatti, has been awarded a grant by FAPESP.
The network is open to all researchers and will help address the issues regarding the Amazonian carbon cycle by bringing together researchers belonging to diverse communities. To better understand the carbon budge from Amazonia, aircraft profiles, TCCON and satellite measures are required.
Source: http://www.leos.le.ac.uk/