The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) tracks 2—3 peta-gram increase in carbon 
release to the atmosphere during the 2014—2016 El Nino

Patra, Prabir K.; Crisp, David; Kaiser, Johannes W.; Wunch, Debra; Saeki, Tazu; Ichii, Kazuhito; Sekiya, Takashi; Wennberg, Paul O.; Feist, Dietrich G.; Pollard, David F.; Griffith, David W. T.; Velazco, Voltaire A.; Maziere, Martine De; Sha, Mahesh K.; Roehl, Coleen; Chatterjee, Abhishek; Ishijima, Kentaro

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-13459-0

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The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) tracks 2—3 peta-gram increase in carbon release to the atmosphere during the 2014—2016 El Nino

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Feist, Dietrich G.
Atmospheric Remote Sensing Group, Dr. D. Feist, Department Biogeochemical Systems, Prof. M. Heimann, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Max Planck Society;

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13459-0
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Citation

Patra, P. K., Crisp, D., Kaiser, J. W., Wunch, D., Saeki, T., Ichii, K., et al. (2017). The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) tracks 2—3 peta-gram increase in carbon release to the atmosphere during the 2014—2016 El Nino. Scientific Reports, 7: 13567. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-13459-0.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/11858/00-001M-0000-002D-F793-8

Abstract

The powerful El Niño event of 2015-2016 – the third most intense since the 1950s – has exerted a large impact on the Earth’s natural climate system. The column-averaged CO2 dry-air mole fraction (XCO2) observations from satellites and ground-based networks are analyzed together with in situ observations for the period of September 2014 to October 2016. From the differences between satellite (OCO-2) observations and simulations using an atmospheric chemistry-transport model, we estimate that, relative to the mean annual fluxes for 2014, the most recent El Niño has contributed to an excess CO2 emission from the Earth’s surface (land+ocean) to the atmosphere in the range of 2.4±0.2 PgC (1 Pg = 1015 g) over the period of July 2015 to June 2016. The excess CO2 flux is resulted primarily from reduction in vegetation uptake due to drought, and to a lesser degree from increased biomass burning. It is about the half of the CO2 flux anomaly (range: 4.4-6.7 PgC) estimated for the 1997/1998 El Niño. The annual total sink is estimated to be 3.9±0.2 PgC for the assumed fossil fuel emission of 10.1 PgC. The major uncertainty in attribution arise from error in anthropogenic emission trends, satellite data and atmospheric transport.