NACP breakout group: Atmospheric Measurements and Analyses: Summary for the plenary Room: Cheyenne I Time: Monday, 3-5pm

3 main areas of discussion Optimization and design of the atmospheric measurement network Data centers, data sharing, model documentation and sharing Community development, communications, fostering cooperation

Optimization of NACP atmospheric observational network Optimal network depends somewhat on research question - focus first on characterizing N American carbon flux. Optimal network design research and discussions, including but not limited to MCI, need to be pursued. Funding needed. Some increased emphasis on non-CO2 tracers - details to be discussed. Increase ability to characterize fossil fuel emissions top-down. Recommend a white paper on this topic. Must have build-out of tall tower network, and continuity of existing observations. More continuous ABL CO2 sampling recommended, maybe more free tropospheric CO2 sampling.

Data Center/Data sharing Atmospheric measurements –There is no thematic data center for atmospheric measurements. –Standardize formats as much as possible, and have a site to point to sources. Include flagging methods/standards in this. –Carbon tracker provides some more potential for synthesizing stationary data sources –Need a working group to pursue data format standardization and access, perhaps via carbon tracker (NOAA). Atmospheric transport modeling –Do we need a thematic data center for the above? This is MAST-DC. We must talk with them about this. Identify sources that we need, and go to MAST-DC. –Outcome-based evaluation – have a data center that allows a single PI to do ensemble transport analysis. –NACP and NACP/MCI should foster intercomparison of elements of atmospheric transport modeling/inversion methods.

Community meeting/workshop activities to make this proceed. Trace gas measurement recommendation/white paper. Back trajectory/influence function comparison activity. Similar comparison activities for other atmospheric transport/analysis tools. Meeting/discussion to decide who will host a co2/trace gas data center - virtual data center. MAST-DC discussion towards creating a common site to link to all tools/data needed for a typical top-down atmospheric analysis. ‘one stop shopping’ Optimal design studies – working group of investigators to decide how best to proceed. There should be funding for this. Future meetings –do we need annual NACP meetings? Yes. –We should define purpose for the next meeting – gather results. Include stakeholders who should evaluate the utility of our results. Interaction with stakeholder community - avoid having the political decisions be decoupled from science – initiate interaction.