European ambassadors visited the field of climate science at the Hyytiälä ICOS station

14 ambassadors of European countries got a first-hand view of top climate science and scientific collaboration while visiting a forestry research station at Hyytiälä in Finland. The ambassadors met with researchers and discussed the importance of long-term climate observations for high-end science. The group was invited by Her Excellency Agnès Cukierman, Ambassador of France to Finland.

Read the full story here. 

ICOS Science Conference fees published

The registration for the ICOS Science conference opens in mid-May 2022. The conference is fully hybrid and takes place 13-15th September 2022 in Utrecht, Netherlands, and online.  Registration fees are 370 € for in-person participation and 190€ for carbon-friendly remote participation.

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The Global Carbon Budget 2021 is out

The Global Carbon Budget 2021 was published at the end of April. The annually published report is produced by a community of researchers, including scientists from ICOS, to announce a global carbon budget quantifying carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions for the prior year. The data from this year’s report has been also added to the ICOS Carbon Portal.

Explore the data at the Carbon Portal here. 

New dataset provides complex data on ecosystems and climate change

A new dataset produced by the Warm Winter 2020 Team and ICOS Ecosystem Thematic Centre has been added to the ICOS Carbon Portal. Over 100 ICOS scientists from 73 stations around Europe worked together to create the 'Warm Winter 2020' dataset which continues the previous flux datasets and provides new opportunities for climate research. Almost thirty new stations provided data all across Europe and beyond. The dataset represents a wide range of ecosystem types, such as a tropical forest in French Guyana, an arid forest in Israel and a wetland area in Greenland. 

Read the full article here.

Large study using ICOS data looks into how vegetation growth is impacted by extreme droughts

The summer of 2018 saw the most severe summertime drought recorded in Europe during the past two decades. The extreme drought was monitored by the ICOS network, for example, with ecosystem observations. This data was used in a recently published research paper that explores how drought impacts vegetation growth. And what do future scientists need to make better predictions of the land carbon cycle? 

Read the full article here.

Switzerland to change from ICOS Observer to Member

Switzerland seeks parliamentary permission to change its status from ICOS Observer to Member. The country has been part of ICOS since the very beginning, but Switzerland’s legislation has made it challenging to become a full member until now. 

However, now the Swiss Government, called Federal Council, has asked the Parliament to agree on full membership in ICOS, along with five other European research infrastructures. In the case of ICOS, this means e.g. voting rights in the General Assembly, the highest decision-making body of ICOS.

Switzerland has currently two ICOS stations, Davos and Jungfraujoch, both of them Class 1 (the highest class).

Read the full story here.