A FEASIBLE GLOBAL CARBON-CYCLE OBSERVING SYSTEM - A PLAN TO DECIPHER TODAYS CARBON-CYCLE BASED ON OBSERVATIONS

A design is presented to continuously monitor the transfers of carbon between the atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere and oceans on lar ge spatial scales. A consideration of the expected signal-to-noise sug gests that a very cost effective method is to perform repeated measure ments of the mixing ratios of trace gases in the atmospheric column at an increased number of sites compared to the present geographical cov erage, This can be accomplished with existing technology, provided tha t more automation is applied to the sampling process as well as to the analytical procedures. The resulting data will be crucial to test ext rapolations based on direct flux measurements to regional and global s cales.