Weather Company to Partner with European Climate Researchers

Weather and climate data company Earth Networks in Germantown, Maryland announced today a collaboration with Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS), a consortium of European climate research institutes. Earth Networks says it plans to work with ICOS’s  network of climate scientists to increase the size of Europe’s greenhouse gas monitoring network and collaborate on data management standards.

The company says ICOS will help determine the placement of the Earth Networks’ atmospheric greenhouse gas monitoring sensors in Europe, in order to complement ICOS’s existing European greenhouse gas monitoring network. The two organizations will also establish standards for data formats, data exchange, data quality control and assurance, and instrumentation calibration, and create baseline measurements of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in Europe.

Data from the two networks will be provided as inputs into models to quantify carbon dioxide and methane emissions and sinks at regional, country, and eventually urban scales in Europe. ICOS anticipates it will establish some 50 sites from partner institutions across Europe, and Earth Networks plans to place 25 continuously reporting atmospheric monitoring stations throughout Europe on tall towers.

The combined data are expected to make possible the production of carbon budget and footprint reports for the research community, government policy makers, and private industry. The reports aim to provide independent measurement, reporting, and verification of greenhouse gas levels and emissions for international and regional climate policy and carbon trading initiatives.

Earth Networks is the developer of the WeatherBug Web site, desktop application, and mobile apps that provide consumers with real-time, local weather information and dangerous severe weather alerts.

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Photo: Les Chatfield/Flickr

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