The ICOS Handbook 2022 has been published

The ICOS Handbook helps to understand how we operate; how is ICOS organised, what and how do we measure and what is the role of the Thematic Centres and National Networks. The Handbook also describes the technical specifications of stations and the process of becoming a Member.

This Handbook gives a comprehensive overview of ICOS both for the people already within our community as well as for the countries considering membership. The revised edition includes new ICOS member countries, Spain and Hungary, as well as prospective ICOS countries, Poland and Romania.

New communications experts at ICOS Head Office

ICOS Head Office gained two new employees in the communications team in March. Laurent Chmiel and Maria Luhtaniemi have diverse backgrounds in visual storytelling, content creation and project management. They will be replacing Magdalena Brus and Mari Keski-Nisula, who have decided to seek new challenges after years at ICOS.

Read more here. 

New WMO scale applied to all Atmosphere stations

All 39 ICOS Atmosphere stations in 14 European countries have been able to adopt the updated World Meteorological Organization (WMO) scale promptly, thanks to the services provided by the ICOS Central Analytical Laboratories (CAL) and the ICOS Atmosphere Thematic Centre (ATC).

Adopting the same scale ensures that the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are measured the same way, regardless of the location and are comparable with measurements from around the world. The new scale provides more accurate results for countries to adjust their emissions reduction and limitation commitments.

The CAL and ATC services enable scientists to set up improvements locally to the measurements carried out at the stations. As a result, ICOS member countries save significant resources that would otherwise be used for adjusting to the new standards and in re-calculating previously reported data for each station individually. Instead, they can focus their resources on other burning issues in climate change research.

Read the full article here. 

ICOS Science Conference 2022 abstract submission deadline is approaching

The 5th ICOS Science Conference will be organised in Utrecht (TivoliVredenburg) and online around the world from Tuesday 13th to Thursday 15th of September, 2022. The abstract submission deadline is in two weeks on Monday 11th April, 2022 at 11.00am CET.

This year the the overarching theme of the conference is "Tracking progress to carbon neutrality” and we have sessions in eight themes from carbon cycling in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, to policy and society.