$1M NASA Grant to Improve Carbon Monitoring in East Africa
22-Jul-2021 2:50 PM EDT,
by Cornell University
Newswise — ITHACA, N.Y. – Cornell University researchers will develop the first high-resolution carbon monitoring system for East Africa that combines “bottom up” ecological modeling with “top down” satellite data, thanks to a three-year, $1 million NASA grant.
The East Africa study area – including Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – has experienced deforestation and also contains many large-scale land restoration and land-based climate mitigation programs, but lacks systems for quantifying regional carbon stocks and fluxes.
Organic carbon stored in the soil equals roughly three times the amount found in living plants and twice that found in the atmosphere, where carbon dioxide (CO2) acts as a heat-trapping greenhouse gas. However, measuring and monitoring the capacity of soil carbon sequestration remains a challenge.