We develop the capabilities for Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification of carbon stocks and fluxes.

Remote Sensing

Earth Observation (EO) refers to the use of satellite remote sensing technologies to monitor land, water and atmosphere dynamics. CMS projects incorporate a suite of NASA missions and instruments in their prototyping of carbon monitoring systems.

Remote sensing data from satellites, airborne instruments, and drones provide essential information such as: ocean salinity, forest disturbances, wetland inundation, crop health, atmospheric greenhouse gasses, and air quality.

Examples of satellite imagery used by CMS projects can be found here.

Scientific Knowledge

Initiated in 2010, CMS is an ambitious and relevant science initiative that generates scientific knowledge and prototyping capabilities across a diversity of systems, scales, and regions, including research focused on monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems. Scientists funded by CMS are exploiting the remote sensing resources, computational capabilities, scientific knowledge, and end-to-end system expertise that are major strengths of the NASA Earth Science program.

The result is one of the largest collections of applied carbon monitoring research to date, evidenced by numerous publications, citations, products, and product downloads.

Operational Products

Several NASA CMS projects have created models and data that inform operational decisions for carbon management, and many more are in development. Data products span a range of themes (land, atmosphere, ocean) and spatial scales (sites, regional, national, and global). For example, NASA CMS projects are used in state forest management, carbon budget development and accounting, and are foundational contributors to the US Greenhouse Gas Center, which is piloting 3 areas of study: global gridded anthropogenic gas emissions, natural sources and sinks, and high resolution methane emissions.

Modeling Expertise

Models allow CMS scientists to transform satellite data into information that informs decision making about policy and environmental management. Scientists use models to study things that are very small, like the movement of smoke molecules from a fire to a distant city, or to study things that are very large, like the impact of agriculture on the climate across a continent. Some scientists use models to predict things that haven’t happened yet, or to study events that happened long ago. CMS uses all these approaches to transform satellite observations of ocean phytoplankton photosynthesis, forest and crop canopies, nighttime lights from cities, and observations of forest fires into information that can inform decision making.

By leveraging remote sensing resources, scientific knowledge, and modeling expertise, CMS develops usable products for a range of stakeholders who are involved with carbon monitoring and climate mitigation.

Stakeholders

The CMS program has a unique orientation towards engaging with users of carbon data that support decision making across a range of scales and institutions.

CMS scientists actively engage with stakeholders at the federal, state, and local level, as well as with international partners.

The CMS program funds basic and applied research that is created while engaging with user communities in a way that better serves societal needs. By connecting carbon cycle science research to stakeholders and decision makers, NASA CMS contributes to understanding and meeting the needs of the climate data user community.

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