The WSibIso program: water and carbon isotopes observations and modeling for understanding high latitude climate processes
Abstract
The WSibIso program aims to investigate the water and carbon cycles in Western Siberia (55-70N, 55-90E) and their projected changes under a warming climate. Global warming is a major environmental issue and is expected to be greatest at high latitudes. In this context, Western Siberia is particularly vulnerable to temperature changes because of the presence of large pristine wetlands with discontinuous permafrost, which play an important role in the regional carbon balance. The WSibIso program was established in order to better understand and quantify the water and carbon cycles in this region. The specificity of the program resides in the use of water and carbon isotopes following an approach which combines observations (surface local measurements and satellite data) and coupled modeling, encompasses atmosphere, land surface and permafrost, and is thus able to represent the various isotopic processes of interest. The first aim of the program is to document the atmospheric distribution of water isotopes and of carbon greenhouse gases in Western Siberia using in situ measurements (laser spectroscopy) and remote sensing techniques (ground based FTIR high resolution spectra and satellite measurements). Surface measurements (soil and vegetation) supplement this data-set. The second focus concerns modeling the water and carbon cycles based on the use of two general circulation models (LMDZiso and ECHAM5-wiso) both representing water isotopes in the biosphere as well as in the atmosphere. The ongoing developments along these 2 axes are presented. This research is supported by the grant of Ministry of Education and Science of Russian Federation under the contract No. 11.G34.31.0064.
- Publication:
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EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- April 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013EGUGA..15.9671J