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Dear OCB Colleagues:
The North American Carbon Program (NACP) research community, as you may know, is currently engaged in a number of interim synthesis activities, intended to bring together progress to date regarding our ability to diagnose and understand the North American carbon balance. Foci for these interim syntheses include land-atmosphere fluxes of carbon dioxide and non-CO2 carbon. These are "interim" syntheses because they are not intended to encompass the prediction and decision support objectives of the NACP science implementation strategy.
Carbon fluxes in the coastal ocean are an important component of the overall NACP plan. Unfortunately, we do not as yet have any ongoing interim synthesis projects focused on the coastal oceans. This message is intended in particular to encourage the OCB community to consider initiating one or more synthesis activities that would highlight current progress concerning our understanding of the carbon cycle of the coastal regions of North America.
Any OCB investigator interested in suggesting (and especially leading) a coastal interim synthesis activity is invited to step forward. In addition to the OCB project office, we offer the assistance of Bob Cook, Director of the Modeling and Synthesis Thematic Data Center (MAST-DC), Peter Griffith, NACP Coordinator, and Ken Davis and Tony King, co-chairs of the current NACP Science Steering Group, to help integrate any activities into the current NACP interim synthesis efforts. Please respond to Peter Griffith and Heather Benway if you would like assistance in organizing a potential coastal marine synthesis activity.
[Note: the OCB community responded enthusiastically and coastal synthesis activities may be joined at <http://www.nacarbon.org/cgi-nacp/working_groups/wg.pl?synthesis=1#coastal> ]
The Carbon Cycle and NACP Science Steering Groups strongly encourage a coastal contribution to the current interim synthesis efforts. The results of these efforts will be one important focus of discussion at the NACP all-investigators' meeting in February of 2009, and should serve as an important waypoint marking the progress of the NACP and OCB research effort.
Best wishes,
Ken Davis and Tony King
NACP SSG co-chairs
Bob Cook
Director, MAST-DC
Peter Griffith
NACP Coordinator
Heather Benway and Scott Doney
OCB Project Office
Existing Interim Syntheses:
Foci for these interim syntheses include the comparison of spatially gridded carbon dioxide flux estimates for the period from 2000-2005, comparisons of models and observations of carbon dioxide fluxes at a number of flux tower sites, evaluation of both spatial and point flux estimates within the domain of the midcontinental regional intensive campaign, and an effort to synthesize current understanding of non-CO2 carbon fluxes. More information about the terrestrial synthesis activities can be found within the MAST-DC web site at
http://nacp.ornl.gov/mast-dc/int_synthesis.shtml.
Discussion groups and email lists for all synthesis activities are being hosted at the NACP project web site,
http://www.nacarbon.org/cgi-bin/working_groups/wg.pl?synthesis=1
Both MAST-DC directed by Dr. Bob Cook and the NACP Office directed by Dr. Peter Griffith are providing critical support to these interim synthesis activities.
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