PI sourish basu is responsible for overall coordination of the project. This will consume 1 month per year of his time. Coordination tasks include: (1) acting as point person between NASA JPL…

This federal contract award was granted to the University of Maryland, College Park (UMD) by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for a research project focused on atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements. The contract, valued at $224,561.61, is a grant for PI Sourish Basu to coordinate various collaborative activities, including working with NASA, NOAA, and international partners to collect in-situ and satellite-based CO2 data. The project aims to design and perform observing system simulation experiments, correct for biases in lower tropospheric CO2 measurements, and deliver improved CO2 flux products. This award is not associated with any set-aside designation. UMD, a prominent U.S. state university and 1862 land grant college, has a strong track record of conducting advanced scientific research for federal agencies like NASA through contracts and grants.

PI sourish basu is responsible for overall coordination of the project. This will consume 1 month per year of his time. Coordination tasks include: (1) acting as point person between NASA JPL (collaborator gregory osterman), NASA ames (CO-i laura iraci) and scientific aviation INC. To ensure the collection of profiles under OCO2 glint tracks off the coast of california. (2) acting as point person between NOAA esrl (CO-i john miller) and pucp (collaborator eric cosio) to ensure continuation of in situ CO2 measurements at tambopatta, peru. (3) providing a common set of outputs to collaborating modelers (prabir patra, frederic chevallier, junjie LIU and david baker) and gathering output. (4) obtaining aircore profiles under OCO2 land soundings (collaborators colm sweeney and kathryn mckain) (5) overall management of the project to ensure a successful outcome, and periodic filings of progress reports as necessary. In addition, PI basu s scientific responsibilities include (3 months/year): (1) designing and performing observing system simulation experiments in year 1 to determine the optimal lower tropospheric partial CO2 column (LT CO2). (2) online bias correction of LT CO2 through flux inversions in year 2. (3) perform inversions with bias corrected LT CO2 in year 3 and deliver flux products. All of the modeling activity will be performed by basu on NASA s pleiades cluster, on which he has already obtained the necessary allocation.