A Rapid Prototyping Capability Experiment to Assess Terrestrial Carbon Pools in Southern United States

Surya S Durbha, Mississippi State University, suryad@gri.msstate.edu (Presenting)
Nicolas H Younan, Mississippi State University, younan@ece.msstate.edu
Roger L King, Mississippi State University, rking@engr.msstate.edu
Fengxiang Han, Mississippi State University, han@icet.msstate.edu
Zhiling Long, Mississippi State University, long@icet.msstate.edu
Jian Chen, Mississippi State University, jc830@msstate.edu

The analysis of regional carbon sources and sinks are essential to assess the economic feasibility of various carbon sequestration technologies for mitigating atmospheric CO2 accumulation and for preventing global warming. Such an inventory is a prerequisite for regional trading of CO2 emissions. This work is focused towards the evaluation of CO2 column measurements from simulated Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) data and relating these datasets to terrestrial biospheric exchange of carbon from terrestrial surfaces in south east and south central United States. The OCO mission will make the first global, space-based measurements of atmospheric CO2 with the precision, resolution, and coverage needed to characterize CO2 sources and sinks on regional scales. This investigation leverages multiple NASA sensors, a terrestrial ecosystem model (NASA-CASA), and a transport model to undertake a Rapid Prototyping Capability (RPC) experiment to address the need to quantify the carbon exchange over different ecosystems. The NASA-CASA model is used to estimate the spatial variability in monthly net primary production (NPP), biomass accumulation, and litter fall inputs to soil carbon pools. The NASS-CASA model is coupled with a global transport model to identify the changes in the terrestrial biosphere that are consistent with the observed increases in the amplitude of the seasonal cycle of atmospheric CO2. Further, this research intends to test how well data from OCO observations and CO2 measurement networks, models constrain CO2 fluxes at model-grid resolution.