Integrated Carbon Observation System

“ICOS and the European Space Agency (ESA) are exploring opportunities to join forces to combine in situ and satellite measurements for calibration/validation (cal/val) activities, to ensure the accuracy, reliability and consistency of satellite data. ESA currently funds cal/val campaigns, but ICOS data gives ESA the benefit of using near-real-time, long-time series and quality-controlled intercomparable measurements at several locations in Europe and beyond. ICOS is also ready to improve the routine measurements in order to match satellite requirements – a gap analysis is currently underway in the framework of the New Users for a Better ICOS (NUBICOS) project.”

“Ocean CO₂ uptake varies significantly in time and space and needs a network of high-quality continuous measurements to monitor and predict these variations. The ICOS ocean stations, along with other merchant and research vessels, moorings, sail boats and uncrewed surface vehicles, are the background of the Surface Ocean CO₂ Observing Network (SOCONET). It is the corner stone of a value chain that delivers data, e.g. to the community-driven data quality control and synthesis element known as the Surface Ocean CO₂ Atlas (SOCAT), which is, in turn, used for global decision-making. The alarming decline in ocean CO2 observations in recent years underlines the role of ICOS in supporting the surface ocean carbon value chain.”

“With the Knowledge and Climate Services from an African Observation and Data Research Infrastructure (KADI) project, ICOS intensifies its cooperation with Africa. The GEO Post-2025 Strategy’s emphasis on co-design, digital infrastructure, open and FAIR data echoes the core values of KADI. ICOS is committed to ensuring that African-led knowledge systems are central to the next generation of EO services. At the Climate Chance Europe-Africa Summit in Marseille (April 2025), KADI presented its deeply collaborative activities, aiming to shift the center of gravity of climate research toward African ownership, leadership, and innovation.”

“The EU has established a certification framework for permanent carbon removals and carbon farming (CRCF regulation). In the Integrated Research Infrastructure Services for Climate Change Risks (IRISCC) project, ICOS has, together with various stakeholders, categorized risks related to carbon farming and possible certification schemes. These risks can add up and severely reduce the potential of measures initially taken to enhance carbon sequestration. The work highlights the need for digital tools providing monitoring capabilities and common, openly available data sets able to assess the schemes. ICOS is ready to contribute to such a data pool, e.g. with in situ flux data benchmarking models and supporting their improvement.”

With the KADI project, ICOS continues its cooperation with Africa, supports the activities of AfriGEO and strengthens the link to the in situ community. Through the co-design of climate services tailored to support African policy-makers, KADI will help define and implement the most relevant GHG measurements on the continent.

When I was asked, in 2022, to join the interim scientific committee of the China-based international science program Global Ecosystem Restoration and Carbon Neutrality (Global-ERCaN), it appeared to me like a major opportunity to engage with the Chinese colleagues on the fundamental link between ecosystem restoration and the world’s quest for carbon neutrality which is at the core of the activities of ICOS. After attending, in October 2023, the 1st Global-ERCaN Open Science Conference in Beijing and seeing the interest for my lecture entitled Towards common solutions in a multilateral world – The role of open scientific data in ecosystem research, I am convinced that ICOS has started a fruitful cooperation that will support the core objective of GEO: to advance the use of open earth observation data globally.

The strength of ICOS is to provide data from a network of high precision, highly-standardized measurement stations that monitor greenhouse gas concentrations and fluxes in the atmospheric, ecosystem and oceanic domains. With Greece and Ireland having joined ICOS in 2023, the ICOS network now counts more than 180 stations in 16 European countries. Not only the geographical coverage expands, but the scientific relevance of ICOS data increases, which improves the impact they have to support science-based decision-making.