North American Carbon Program

Visualization showing forest change in various locations from 1986 to 2010, part of the NACP.

The North American Carbon Program (NACP) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and carbon monoxide (CO) in North America and in adjacent ocean regions.

The specific program goals are to:

Develop quantitative scientific knowledge, robust observations, and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO₂, CH₄, and CO, changes in carbon stocks, and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins.

Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales. This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO₂ sinks and emissions of CH₄.

Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes, sources, and sinks of atmospheric CO₂ and CH₄, and develop forecasts for future trends.

The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities.

See also

• Carbon sink
• Futuregen
• Greenhouse effect
• Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

 http://www.nacarbon.org/cgi-bin/google_maps/google_map_all.pl?

External links

• North American Carbon Program Website