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National Centre for Atmospheric Science joins national effort to monitor greenhouse gas emissions

The National Centre for Atmospheric Science is teaming up with leading UK environmental science organisations to enhance the national monitoring network for greenhouse gases.

A £5 million investment by the Natural Environment Research Council will enable the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, and a consortium of partners including the National Physical Laboratory, National Centre for Earth Observation, and UK universities to improve and standardise greenhouse gas measurements across the country. 

Through the UK government’s Building a Green Future fund, existing UK ground-based greenhouse gas measurement capability will be expanded and enhanced through the implementation of new measurement locations along with state-of-the-art instrumentation. These new measurements will be key to help better identify and quantify UK emissions.

The investment will enable new instrumentation to be installed at the Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory, one of the National Centre for Atmospheric Science managed facilities that makes advanced measurements of the atmosphere, to help better understand sources and sinks of greenhouse gases. 

It’s very exciting that measurements from the National Centre for Atmospheric Science’s Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory will be part of this national collaboration. Our observations will provide independent verification of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. Bringing together the UK’s ground-based greenhouse gas measurement capability will also better support modelling activities, which will allow us to track the UK’s progress towards achieving net zero.

Dr Grant Forster, Research Scientist and Joint Deputy Head of the NCAS Atmospheric Measurement and Observation Facility

Greenhouse gas emissions data provides important and timely insights into the UK’s transition to net zero. This investment will enable the UK to better quantify its progress towards achieving national emission reduction targets and carbon budget commitments targeted at net zero. This is key if we are to accurately assess the UK’s efforts at keeping global temperature rise below 1.5C by the end of the century.

“The National Centre for Atmospheric Science already contributes to a vast network of observatories and ground-based monitoring activities. We’re delighted to be part of a new national effort to improve the current capabilities of the UK research community, build a more detailed understanding of greenhouse gas emissions, and provide better evidence about the effectiveness of net zero related measures” says Dr Barbara Brooks, Scientific Services, Facilities, and Training Director at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science.