ICOS would not be ICOS without the work and collaboration that takes place across member institutions and countries. Making sure that our community can be sustained for the long term is therefore an important task for the research infrastructure (RI).
In a quiet corner of western Hungary, the Hegyhátsál Atmosphere Station sits alone among open fields and scattered woodlands, its tower rising high above the trees. Few people visit this secluded site each year, but for nearly three decades, it has been quietly collecting data on greenhouse gases, offering a unique view into Europe’s changing climate.
At the end of October, 42 climate scientists sent an open letter to the Nordic Council of Ministers, urging them to draw attention to the major ocean circulation change in the Atlantic. “A string of scientific studies in the past few years suggests that this risk has so far been greatly underestimated”, they write. ICOS Ocean stations in the North Atlantic monitor the situation closely and can provide near-real-time data on any possible changes in the AMOC strength.
After undergoing a rigorous quality assurance process, eight new measurement stations have achieved the status of ICOS-labelled stations. This station labelling was confirmed by the ICOS General Assembly on November 6th, 2024. The list of stations includes seven Ecosystem stations and one Ocean station.
Over the ten years of their existence, ICOS Science Conferences have been a venue for interaction and exchange between scientists, often leading to new groundbreaking research. The conference presents an opportunity for everyone to hear the latest greenhouse gas science.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) marks the publication of its 20th Greenhouse Gas Bulletin with a sobering milestone - global atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have increased 11.4% over the last 20 years. The inaugural 2004 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin reported a CO2 level of 377.1 parts per million (ppm). This figure is now 420.0 ppm.
ICOS Atmosphere has just released its first FastTrack 2024.3 release for CO2, CH4, N2O and CO. This is an important step in operationally producing high-quality greenhouse gas data at a higher frequency than the current annual final quality controlled releases (level 2) around mid-summer.
