ICOS and ICOS-ERIC – Integrated Carbon Observation System

The Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS), originally initiated by ESFRI, is a distributed European infrastructure that measures and quantifies greenhouse gas uptake and emissions between land/water and atmosphere. ICOS has been operated as an ERIC since 2015, and has been an ESFRI landmark since 2016.

Sweden hosts the European portal function, ICOS Carbon Portal, which stores and delivers openly accessible and quality-controlled observation data for the entire ICOS. Within the framework for ICOS, the Swedish Research Council also funds a number of national operations for carbon dioxide flow measurements over land and sea, collected within ICOS Sweden.

These operations consist of three tall masts for atmospheric measurements – a sea-based measuring station where gas exchange with the sea is studied, a ship-based station that collects data from surface water and atmosphere from a recurrent fixed route in the Baltic , and six ecosystem stations distributed across forest land, wetland and agricultural land. At the land-based ICOS stations, there are also supplementary exchange measurements to provide information on the interaction between the atmosphere, land and vegetation, and in some cases run-off water.

The purpose of ICOS is both to understand local variations in the carbon dioxide exchange, and also to enable quantification of greenhouse gas exchanges across the whole of Europe. To answer questions on subjects such as sources and mechanisms for greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and any effects of measures aimed at reducing these, cross-border collaboration and comparable high-quality data are necessary.

The infrastructure ICOS and its data are thus important to many researchers, both in Sweden and internationally. ICOS Carbon Portal and the coordination function of Swedish ICOS are both located at Lund University.