Greenhouse Gas Measurements from Space – Difficult Challenges, Emerging Success, and Plans for the Future

Thursday 4 October 2018, 08:30 – 09:30
Location: Bremen Conference Center – DLR Hall

Atmospheric carbon is steadily increasing. The Keeling Curve, depicting the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere over Hawaii, started in 1958 and initially measured 315 ppm. In April 2014, the concentration topped 401 ppm. Contributions to this increase are coming from anthropomorphic and natural sources. As the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) grow, Earth is warming and changing the future environment with major challenges to the life on the planet. The COP 21 Declaration is an international recognition of this increase and consequences on life across the planet. Creating a well calibrated, accurate, and globally accepted time series of GHG levels and sustaining those over decades represents a major commitment of space agencies. Leaders from involved agencies will articulate the difficult challenges of making the needed measurements, convey emerging successes from efforts already underway, and describe plans for the future of these critical observations.