Satellites will address critical science priorities for quantifying ocean carbon (Open Access Paper) by J. Shutler et al. >>

In a nutshell:

• The oceans cover >70% of the Earth’s surface and are critical for food supply and maintaining global climate
• Increasing carbon dioxide (CO₂) absorption alters ocean chemistry and ecology, affecting marine ecosystems over both the short and long term
• Accurate estimates of CO₂ absorption by the world’s oceans provide a powerful constraint on carbon (C) budgets, and are needed to inform policies to motivate societal shifts toward reducing C emissions
• We review recent and foreseeable advances for studying oceanic CO₂absorption, explain why satellite‐based Earth observation is key to addressing existing knowledge gaps, and discuss how global monitoring is now both possible and necessary to support policy and conservation

Satellites now play a key role in monitoring carbon levels in the oceans, but we are only just beginning to understand their full potential. Our ability to predict future climate relies upon being able to monitor where our carbon emissions go. So we need to know how much stays in the atmosphere, or becomes stored in the oceans or on land. The oceans in particular have helped to slow climate change as they absorb and then store the carbon for thousands of years.

The IPCC Special Report on the Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, published last month, identified this critical role that the ocean play in regulating our climate along with the need to increase our monitoring and understanding of ocean health. But the vast nature of the oceans, covering over 70% of the Earth’s surface, illustrates why satellites are an important component of any monitoring.

The new study, which was also a part of the ISSI Working Group led by Jamie Shutler, says that increased exploitation of existing satellites will enable us to fill “critical knowledge gaps” for monitoring our climate.

The work reports that satellites originally launched to study the wind, also have the capability to observe how rain, wind, waves, foam and temperature all combine to control the movement of heat and carbon dioxide between the ocean and the atmosphere.