Bandaru (CMS 2020): Improving, Evaluating, and Extending Satellite-Based High Resolution Cropland Carbon Monitoring System
Varaprasad Bandaru, USDA ARS, prasad.bandaru@usda.gov (Presenter)
Croplands have the potential to stabilize atmospheric CO2 and mitigate climate change but also contribute to global warming through greenhouse gas emissions. A recent State of the Carbon (C) Cycle Report (SOCCR2) highlighted the significance of accounting spatial variability of impacts of land use and land management practices in agriculture to improve the estimates of net carbon balance on croplands. Considering the need for a comprehensive CO2 monitoring system of agricultural lands to support C management policies and programs, with support from the NASA Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) program, a prototype of a high-resolution cropland carbon monitoring system (CCMS v.1.0) was developed. This system integrates satellite remote sensing-based crop inputs (i.e. crop phenological metrics and crop type maps) and intermediate state variables (e.g. crop type leaf area index) with the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) agroecosystem model to generate estimates of net C balances at 500 m resolution.
The implementation of the CCMS framework over U.S corn, soybean and winter wheat systems grown in 2012 (drought year) and 2015 (normal year) provided insights on agroecosystem C dynamics that vary with changes in management, crop type, and weather conditions. Further, it revealed a few sources of uncertainty in the CCMS estimates and indicated the importance of understanding and quantifying long-term trends. To address some identified uncertainties in the current framework, and to provide improved and extended products, we propose to continue our CMS work with four major objectives. In the first objective, we will enhance the CCMS v1.0 through assimilating SMAP based Thermal Hydraulic disaggregation of Soil Moisture (THySM) high-resolution soil moisture (1km) product using a robust ensemble propagation approach, and by integrating Landsat and Sentinel based spatially resolved 30 m tillage maps. To ensure the quality of the CCMS products to use in the state and regional carbon and climate related programs, in the second objective, we will conduct an evaluation study in five pilot regions (located in Maryland, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, and Manitoba) representing major cropping systems in the U.S and Canada. We will collect extensive in-situ data to adjust crop parameters to reflect crop specific dynamics and local conditions, and to understand the performance of improved CCMS framework (CCMS v2.0) to estimate C and N2O fluxes at local scale. In the third objective, we will deploy the CCMS v2.0 framework over U.S and Canada croplands to estimate seasonal and annual C fluxes and N2O emissions at 500m spatial resolution under major cropping systems (i.e. corn, soybean, winter wheat, spring wheat, rice, cotton and canola) for a five year-period (2017-2021). Further, we will quantify the uncertainty in the CCMS products using observed data from USDA long-term agroecosystem research (USDA-LTAR), USDA-GRACEnet, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada flux sites, and AmeriFlux sites, as well as reported country yield statistics. In order to improve usability and obtain feedback on our CMS products, in our fourth objective we will work closely with USDA regional climate hubs, the Maryland state government, the Arkansas NRCS, and Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, and will integrate CCMS products in their conservation and climate change mitigation programs.
The proposed project directly contributes to the NASA CMS solicited research topic on “Studies that build upon, extend, evaluate and/or improve the existing CMS products for biomass and flux”. Ultimately, the proposed work will advance C and N2O monitoring capability on croplands and the products developed under this project are expected to contribute to the national and international programs targeting greenhouse gas reduction and climate friendly agriculture. Further, the data products will help in developing carbon markets, and improve national inventories and C budget reporting.
Associated Project(s):
Poster Location ID: 15
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Poster Session 1
Session Date: Wednesday (9/27) 1:15 PM