ASSESSMENT OF INDIAN CARBON CYCLE COMPONENTS USING EARTH OBSERVATION SYSTEMS AND GROUND INVENTORY

Abstract. Improved national carbon assessments are important for UNFCC communications, policy studies and improving the global assessment. Use of EO for land cover dynamics, forest type, cover and phytomass carbon density, productivity and related soil carbon density and regional extrapolation of point flux measurements. A National Carbon Project (NCP) under the Indian Space Research Organisation - Geosphere Biosphere Programme (ISRO – GBP) aims at improving the understanding and quantification of net carbon balance. The NCP has been implemented with three major components – (A) vegetation carbon pools, (B) Soil carbon pools and (C) Soil and Vegetation – Atmosphere Fluxes. A total of 6500 field plot data from forests and trees outside forests have been collected. 1500 field plots have been inventoried for the soil carbon based on the remotely sensed data stratification. A nationwide network of carbon flux towers in different ecosystems for the measurement and modeling of the net carbon flux using eddy covariance techniques is being established and upscaling using satellite remote sensing data and modelling is under process. The amplitude of the diurnal variation in NEE increased with growth of wheat and reached its peak around the pre-anthesis stage. Besides, under NCP, satellite diurnal CO² have also analyzed the data obtained from AIRS and SCIAMACHY over India and surrounding oceans and was correlated with surface fluxes. The CASA model simulations over India using NOAA AVHRR NDVI.