Science and impact

From Greenhouse gas observations to making a difference

To improve our understanding of the carbon cycle, it is crucial to collect standardised, HIGH-ACCURACY, high-precision and long-term data. To this aim ICOS, the Integrated Carbon Observation System, set up a STANDARDISED European monitoring network.

ICOS Belgium hosts 11 measuring sites, operated by 7 research institutes and universities. Each ICOS station monitors greenhouse gas concentrations and fluxes in a broad range of ecosystems: from (tropical) forests and croplands to the North Sea.

Primarily ICOS produces high quality, standardised and transparent data, open and available to everyone. This provides the means for high quality research on carbon cycling and climate change.

But ICOS data has more potential. During this conference we will be peeping over the fence, investigating interactions with other research fields, exploring collaborations with industry and discussing the hurdles on how data can contribute to knowledge-based policy making.