External Communications Working Group Kevin Bowman, Peter Griffith, Kevin Gurney, Elizabeth Nelson, Ariane Verdy Interns: Maya Hutchins, Adam Norris 2013: Molly Brown, Sabrina Delgado Arias, Riley Duren, Vanessa Escobar

Activity: ~bi-weekly telecon-meetings have been held; discussions on website users, multimedia content, public outreach, … To create content for the website, two summer interns were hired; they interviewed CMS science team members about their vision of CMS and about their specific projects CMS science team members have been asked to contribute content in the form of project-related images. Charge: Develop pathways to share information with CMS users. Our first task is to help redesign the CMS website (

WHO? Carbon researchers who have a tie to remote sensing Gov’t scientists, university scientists, investigators from research organizations, all who are focused on understanding carbon US scientists interested in quantifying carbon stocks and fluxes Initial group of people at NASA; then people outside and inside centers to expand upon initial pilot studies Broad set of investigators that span multiple institutions/disciplines Audience is inter-agency and mainly science and policy groups Stakeholders by for

WHAT? A NASA program focused estimating carbon stocks and their changes in US land area Estimating stocks and changes in stocks in other places around the world Integrate models/observations to improve our collective understanding of the atmospheric growth rate of CO2 and how that’s going to change over time A prototyping activity designed to explore and establish the feasibility of various approaches to carbon monitoring A pilot system for NASA to help quantify where the carbon is to the best of NASA’s ability The integration of NASA’s measurements and scientific understanding across the entire carbon cycle to relate changes in that carbon cycle to changes in atmospheric CO2 which is driving climate change Quantifying the condition/state/movement of carbon through the global system Community of researchers who are looking into all sorts of approaches that may someday form the basis of a centralized, unified national monitoring system A program that is trying to build on existing activities within NASA, infrastructure, resources, to produce accurate and precise estimates of carbon fluxes and exchanges and carbon reservoirs in land and ocean systems, relying heavily on satellite and other Earth observations Still defining that in our meetings

HOW? Funding different projects with different approaches to the question of carbon Much more large scale collaboration than what is usually done Carbon monitoring requires a long-term commitment An integrative system, using satellite observations, land-based observations, models within a mitigated system Looking for things that are more collaborative to formulate a larger infrastructure to tie together the information Taking satellite observations, sophisticated models of how the carbon cycle works, integrates those together, and develops a consistent picture of what’s changing in the atmosphere, relating to what’s changing on land 3 calls for proposals, got a bunch of research projects that are not necessarily linked to each other in any way, some linked to actual monitoring system more than others That question IS CMS: How do we do it. If we knew the answer to this, CMS would already be completed

WHY? Our earth is being changed by human activity by the fact that we are burning so many fossil fuels Dangerous climate change CMS represents a critical link between emissions to surface to concentrations in the sky Being able to change management practices (what types of crops, how we manage our forests) CMS really sits at that interface between top-down and bottom-up approaches Ultimate goal of CMS is to really inform policy and decision-making We’re not just a whole bunch of investigators working independently of one another, rather we are working together to create a system that can inform decision-making Country needs to figure out what kinds of observations and data products it needs to monitor carbon in the environment Avoid duplicating the work that is the strength of other agencies For public, policy makers: If we do our job right, they’ll be able to improve their understanding of how they can manage carbon We are working directly with pretty much the highest authority that governments report their biomass information to Helping the public to better understand it, they may realize the importance of taking action now Integrative approach is really essential for us as we move into more management of carbon It’s very difficult to manage land, carbon, or emissions, unless you know what is going on, and that is what we’re trying to figure out We are not interested in writing policy; we just want people to have better information so our representatives can make the right policy; that is what we exist for

Mission statement? Useful for external communications We started the discussion Revised to include Applications / Stakeholders G. Hurtt: stick with congressional direction and NASA solicitation Will need input from the CMS community The NASA Carbon Monitoring System is … (WHAT/HOW/WHY)