Aircraft observations show northern tropical Africa is not the large source of CO2 that satellite data ‘suggested’

This must put a dent in the credibility of at least some supposedly climate-related satellite data. On the positive side, a significant chunk of the alleged global carbon dioxide problem disappears, as the carbon cycle of a large region turns out to be self-balancing. The CO2 struck off, so to speak, is ‘equivalent to about 10% of annual emissions from the burning of fossil fuels’.
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The forests and grasslands of northern tropical Africa take in about as much carbon dioxide in the wet season as they release in the dry season, according to a new study based on observations from aircraft.

The findings contradict earlier research that relied on satellite data and found that these ecosystems may be adding significantly more carbon to the atmosphere than they absorb over the course of a year, says Phys.org.

The research, published in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles, highlights the difficulty of measuring carbon dioxide from space and the need for more frequent and robust observations from both the air and ground.

The research was led by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR).

“These findings help us better understand how carbon is moving through our complex Earth system, which is critical to accurately projecting the impacts of society’s continued emissions of greenhouse gases,” said NSF NCAR scientist Benjamin Gaubert, who led the study. “It’s also great news that northern tropical Africa is not the large source of carbon that satellite observations suggested.”

The NSF NCAR research team was interested in verifying whether the fluxes implied by satellite-based observations of carbon dioxide over northern tropical Africa in previous research were correct.

The earlier work using satellite data over land suggested that the ecosystems of the region were a significant net source of carbon dioxide, potentially releasing more than a billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere annually. That amount is equivalent to about 10% of annual emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

The possibility that these ecosystems were such a large carbon source was a surprise and challenged the scientific community’s existing understanding of Earth’s carbon cycle. The new study sought to determine whether the existing understanding of the carbon cycle was flawed or whether the estimates based on satellite observations were skewed.

Full article here.