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Research

Our work concerns the interactions between the vegetated land surface and the atmosphere, and more generally the global carbon cycle. My group studies these interactions by working closely with scientists in the field to develop and quantify mechanistic process models of land-atmosphere exchange.

 We then test these process models by extrapolating to larger scales using spatial data to predict regional variables, and evaluate the scaling or mechanisms by comparing to large-scale data collected in regional field campaigns. So far we’ve done this in the Great Lakes region, The Amazon Basin, the Southern Great Plains of the USA, and in the US Midwest (Iowa).

Finally, we use mechanistic process models to interpret observations at planetary scale using global data assimilation (model-data fusion).

 

Major Research Themes

 

Current Projects

Proposed and Pending New Projects

  1. Modeling the Carbon Cycle in Heterogeneous Landscapes (NASA)

Completed Projects

  1. NSF

Sources and Sinks of Anthropogenic CO2: Integrated Assessment using Biogeochemical Modeling and Inversion of Atmospheric Tracer Transport, NSF, July 1, 1998 – September 30, 2000.

Atmospheric CO2 Inversion Intercomparison Project (TransCom 3), NSF/NOAA, April 23, 1999 – June 30, 2002.

Linking Biogeochemistry and Atmospheric Transport in the NCAR GCM, NSF, May 1, 1999 – April 30, 2000.

Biological Controls of Terrestrial Carbon Fluxes, NSF, September 1, 1999 – August 31, 2003.

Forward and Inverse Modeling of Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Isotopes, NSF, September 1, 2002 – August 30, 2005.

NOAA

Atmospheric CO2 Inversion Intercomparison Project (TransCom 3), NSF/NOAA, April 23, 1999 – June 30, 2002.

Monitoring and Modeling Isotopic Exchange between the Atmosphere and the Terrestrial Biosphere, NOAA, March 1, 2000 – February 29, 2003.

Impact of Interactive Vegetation on Predictions of North American Monsoons, NOAA, July 1, 2001 – June 30, 2005.

Data Fusion to Determine North American Sources and Sinks of Carbon Dioxide at High Spatial and Temporal Resolution, NOAA, April 15, 2004 – April 14, 2007.

The Role of Africa in Terrestrial Carbon Exchange and Atmospheric CO2: Reducing Regional and Global Carbon Cycle Uncertainty, NOAA, May 1, 2004 – April 30, 2007.

Regional Transport Analysis for Carbon Cycle Inversions, NOAA, July 1, 2005 – June 30, 2008.

  1. Data Fusion for North American CO2 Sources and Sinks (NOAA)

NASA

NASA EOS-IDS Atmosphere-Biosphere Interactions, NASA, July 1, 1998 – April 30, 2000.

The Spatial Integration of Regional Carbon Balance in Amazonia, NASA, July 1, 1998 – December 31, 2002.

The Effects of Remotely-Sensed Data on Modeled Land Surface Atmosphere Interactions: Consequences for Global Carbon Balance Research, NASA, September 1, 1999 – August 31, 2001.

Global and Regional Carbon Flux Estimation using Atmospheric CO2 Measurements from Spaceborne and Airborne Platforms, NASA, January 1, 2002 – December 31, 2004.

The Spatial Integration of Regional Carbon Balance in Amazonia (Phase 2), NASA, January 1, 2003 – December 31, 2005.

Development of Methods for Data Assimilation with Advanced Models and Advanced Data Sources, NASA, April 15, 2004 – April 14, 2007.

Understanding the Impacts of Large-scale Climate Variability on the Global Carbon Cycle, NASA, April 15, 2004 – April 14, 2007. (PROPOSAL)  (REPORT)

Using Satellite Observations of CO to Improve Estimates of CO2 Sources and Sinks, NASA, September 1, 2004 – August 31, 2007.

Mesoscale Carbon Data Assimilation for NACP, NASA, February 1, 2005 – January 31, 2008.

High Resolution Fossil Fuel Emissions Estimates in Support of OCO-based assimilation estimates, NASA, January 1, 2005 – December 3, 2007.

A Global, 1-km Vegetation Modeling System for NEWS, NASA, February 1, 2006 – January 31, 2009.

Constraining the CO2 Missing Sink, NASA, March 1, 2005 – February 29, 2008.

U.S. Department of Energy

Regional and Global Estimation of Terrestrial CO2 Exchange, Department of Energy (NIGEC),
July 1, 1998 – June 30, 2000.

Regional Estimation of Terrestrial CO2 Exchange from NIGEC Flux Data, Satellite Imagery, and Atmospheric Composition, DoE/NIGEC, July 1, 2000 – June 30, 2002.

Regional Ecosystem-Atmosphere CO2 Exchange via Atmospheric Budgets, DoE, September 15, 2002 – September 14, 2005.

Land-Atmosphere Exchanges of Carbon, Water, and Energy Across the Midcontinental Region of North America:  Processes, Scaling, and Evaluation, DoE NICCR, September 15, 2006 – September 14, 2009.

Multi-year Regional Syntheses of Atmospheric Flux and Mixing Ratio Measurements in Support of the North American Carbon Program, DoE, September 1, 2006 – August 31, 2009.

 

Subcontracts

The Earth System Science Workbench: A Scalable Infrastructure of ESIPs, Subcontract through the University of California, Santa Barbara (NASA), March 1, 1998 – January 31, 2001.

Regional Forest-ABL Coupling: Influence on CO2 and Climate, Subcontract through the University of Minnesota and Penn State University (DoE), October 1, 1998 –August 31, 2000.

CO2 Budget and Rectification Airborne Study – North America (COBRA-NA), Subcontract through Harvard University, May 15, 1999 –April 30, 2002.

Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions, Subcontract through University of California, Berkeley, March 1, 2000 –February 28, 2003.

Incorporating New EOS Data Products into Models to Improve Estimates of Biogeochemical Processes, Subcontract through the University of California, Davis, May 1, 2000 – April 30, 2003,

Mapping Global Aerodynamic Roughness Length of Land Surface, California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Lab, June 1, 2002 – May 31, 2003.

Other Awards

Monfort Professorship Award, Gift from the Monfort Foundation through Colorado State University, July 1, 2002 – June 30, 2004.