Journal Article
Constraining China's land carbon sink from emerging satellite CO 2 observations: Progress and challenges
Yilong Wang; Xiangjun Tian; Frédéric Chevallier; Matthew S. Johnson; Sajeev Philip; David F. Baker; Andrew E. Schuh; Feng Deng; Xingying Zhang; Lu Zhang; Dan Zhu; Xuhui Wang
Global Change Biology · Vol. 28, Issue 23 · pp. 6838-6846 · 2022
Abstract
Land carbon sink is a vital component for the achievement of China's ambitious carbon neutrality goal, but its magnitude is poorly known. Atmospheric observations and inverse models are valuable tools to constrain the China's land carbon sink. Space‐based CO 2 measurements from satellites form an emerging data stream for application of such atmospheric inversions. Here, we reviewed the satellite missions that is dedicated to the monitoring of CO 2 , and the recent progresses on the inversion of China's land carbon sink using satellite CO 2 measurements. We summarized the limitations and challenges in current space platforms, retrieval algorithms, and the inverse modeling. It is shown that there are large uncertainties of contemporary satellite‐based estimates of China's land carbon sink. We discussed future opportunities of continuous improvements in three aspects to better constrain China's land carbon sink with space‐based CO 2 measurements.