This research program, called Calipso, will last five years and must be used for the work of the IPCC.
It’s a deep dive into the effects of global warming. An international team of scientists, led by the French Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, will study for five years how the Warming climate affects carbon sinks, thanks to the program called Calipso, financed by the Schmidt Futures Foundation.
>> Global warming: “The dystopian future is already here”, warns the UN
Philippe Ciais is a carbon specialist. Every year, at the time of the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP), he presents the highly anticipated Global carbon project, which makes it possible to assess carbon emissions. CO2 and the carbon budget that we have left to try to limit warming to 1.5° C. With Calipso, he should add another stone to this building.
The program plans to measure how global warming and events extreme weigh on the capacity of oceans, forests and lands to absorb CO2. These carbon sinks are essential. But we don’t yet measure precisely all the effects that the Warming can have on them, explains Philippe Ciais.
“The good news is that since we have been emitting carbon, nature continues to absorb on average 50%. But in certain years like 2023, marked by extreme fires in Canada, we can suddenly lose a lot of carbon .”
Philippe Ciais, carbon specialistat franceinfo
“What we want to analyze, he continues, This is the risk, as climate change progresses, of having a less and less controllable loss of carbon by the ocean, vegetation and soils.”
>> Global warming: attribution studies, a scientific discipline which is developing and allows “the popularization of climate change”
Satellites and artificial intelligence
Concretely, around twenty researchers will look at the effect of extreme fires, droughts, warming of soils and ice, and on the functioning of the oceans. The consortium will use satellites and process 100 million images taken from the oceans. Scientists also plan to use artificial intelligence.
“This will allow us to have more realistic climate models, and therefore better confidence in predictions for the future.”
Philippe Ciais, carbon specialistat franceinfo
There are around forty climate models in the world. France has two. THE results of Calipso will be used has complete that of the Pierre Simon Institute Thereplace.