Publication Date

7-1-2026

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Earth Science Reviews

Volume

278

DOI

10.1016/j.earscirev.2026.105493

Abstract

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions continue to grow, while natural carbon reservoirs are becoming increasingly vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures, climate extremes, and disturbance. These changes are impacting humans, ecosystems, and natural resources worldwide. Tracking and mitigating GHG emissions require a pivot to operational monitoring of regional carbon flux and stock changes. The current GHG observing system is addressing needs at two distinct scales: 1) Local scale (< 1 km), related to anthropogenic point source emissions, and 2) global scales (> 1000 km), related to land and ocean carbon sinks. More focus on intermediate (10–1000 km) scales is needed to more effectively monitor progress in reducing carbon emissions, enhancing removals, and maintaining sinks.Representatives from carbon cycle biomass and flux communities across United States government agencies and academic institutions met in September 2024 to discuss the rationale and scientific context for more effectively implementing an operational system for GHG monitoring in support of urban and national carbon management needs. To guide development of this system, we propose a multi-tiered global spaceborne observing framework for carbon flux and stock, prioritizing: 1) frequent GHG partial columns for carbon emissions and removals; 2) continuous time series and data fusion of biomass from Lidar and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for carbon stocks, and 3) expanded coverage of tropical, high latitude, and oceanic regions to monitor carbon cycle tipping points and feedbacks. This system should be complemented by expanded surface and airborne networks for oceanic and terrestrial/aquatic ecosystems for calibration, ground truthing, and study of under-sampled regions. Plain language summary The rate of growth in global CO2 emissions has been in decline over the last decade following efforts to enact climate policy, shift to clean energy, and mitigate leaks from oil and gas facilities. This is good progress, but with emissions of both CO2 and methane (CH4) on the rise, time is running out to meet temperature targets. Spaceborne greenhouse gas (GHG) observations can help monitor emissions/removals and track progress at the urban- to country- level, but currently lack the frequency, coverage, and precision to do so. Representatives from the carbon cycle community convened in September 2024 to discuss viable options for addressing these limitations. We recommend a unified GHG observing system leveraging frequent (daily) sampling and vertical profiles of atmospheric GHGs to more accurately track carbon gains and losses, and harmonized maps of biomass to track growth, recovery, and disturbance. Expanded coverage of climate sensitive tropical, polar, and ocean regions is needed to monitor unexpected changes in the natural carbon cycle. Complementary data from airplanes and surface networks is needed to fill observational and science gaps. This system should prioritize timely delivery of carbon flux and stock information to support carbon management efforts.

Keywords

Carbon cycle, Carbon management, Decadal survey, Earth observations, GHG mitigation, Remote sensing, Spaceborne monitoring

Comments

The authors regret to make changes to the list of co-authors and disclaimer text within the Acknowledgements. Our co-authors from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Sasha Reed and Lisamarie Windham-Myers, do not have permission from their agency to be co-authors on this manuscript since the paper did not go through the mandatory agency review process. They must be removed. Signatures approving the removal of Sasha and Lisamarie are provided in the attached authorship change request forms. Hence the new author list is updated as above. Likewise, our co-author from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Lori Bruhwiler, requires a disclaimer within the acknowledgements for her participation as co-author. The requested change is given below (disclaimer in bold):

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge Anna Karion for participating in the workshop and the many constructive conversations. This was funded as an unsolicited proposal (Proposal #226264: In support of “Carbon Stocks Workshop: Sep 23–25, 2024”) by the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center, Earth Science Division, NASA. DC acknowledges support from the NASA Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) program. RKB was supported in part by the Resnick Sustainability Institute at Caltech. AF acknowledges funding from the NASA ECOSTRESS Science Team. NL is grateful for funding from NSF (OCE-1752724). GM acknowledges funding from NASA CMS (NNH20ZDA001N). HN and BAG acknowledge support from appointments to the NASA Postdoctoral Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities under contract with NASA. Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 4 were created using BioRender, https://BioRender.com. The findings and conclusions in this publication are those of the author(s) and should not be construed to represent official USDA, USGS, NOAA, or U.S. Government determination or policy. The research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). © 2026. All rights reserved.’ The authors confirm that the scientific content is unchanged, and would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Moss Landing Marine Laboratories

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