The Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) mission objective is to make global atmospheric column carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements without a seasonal, latitudinal, or diurnal bias. The three science objectives are to (1) quantify global spatial distributions of atmospheric CO2 on scales of weather models in the 2010-2020 era; (2) quantify the current global spatial distribution of terrestrial and oceanic sources and sinks of CO2 on 1-degree grids at weekly resolution; and (3) provide a scientific basis for future projections of CO2 sources and sinks through data-driven enhancements of Earth system process modeling.
The 2017 ASCENDS campaign joined the Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) Airborne Science flights in Arctic-boreal region of North America.
