In order to understand the greenhouse gases, their sources, transport, sinks, and finally their balance, it is essential to have standardised in situ observations with broad geographical coverage. ICOS provides this observational network throughout Europe, facilitating science and enabling better knowledge for decisions on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
> Climate change
Climate change is one the most crucial challenges mankind is facing. The warming is caused by the constantly rising amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere: the emission sources are mostly human-induced, but also caused by nature’s own processes.
The greenhouse effect itself is a natural process. However, human activities increase atmospheric concentrations of both natural and synthetic greenhouse gases which enhances the greenhouse effect and leads to climate change.
Human activities have been the major contributor to the increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Actions need to be taken on every level to reduce the emissions.
> ICOS contribution to science
ICOS data on is used by scientists who seek to understand the Earth System and by various governmental bodies and international organisations that need science-based and relevant information on greenhouse gases in their decision making, and in efforts to mitigate the consequences of climate change.
We provide an added value of data from three domains that can be combined, making cross-comparisons and original research ideas possible.
ICOS data on is used by scientists to understand the Earth System and by various governmental bodies and international organisations in decision making and in climate change mitigation.
Read stories of PhD students and established scientists explaining how they have used the ICOS data on greenhouse gases.
The annually published Global Carbon Budget is a report produced by a community of researchers to announce a global carbon budget quantifying carbon dioxide emissions for the prior year.
> ICOS impact to society
ICOS responds to the international goal of Paris Agreement with establishing global standards for observations as well as open, accessible, and interoperable data in order to ensure optimal services for societies in their efforts to mitigate climate change.
As the key European contributor to the greenhouse gas observations, ICOS has important social and economical impact in Europe and beyond.
ICOS drives technical innovation as well as innovative data approach.
A list of scientific publications making use of ICOS services.
> Education related to ICOS
ICOS and its partner universities and institutes provide education on greenhouse gas science on atmosphere, ecosystems and oceans in several ways. Learn more about the educational opportunities, such as ICOS Jupyter Notebooks for education, Carbon Portal webinar series, recorded workshops and webinars, and the ICOS Summer School.