Anna Michalak, Carnegie Institution of Washington: A Bird's Eye View of the Carbon Cycle

I joined the Carnegie Institution for Science and Stanford communities this summer, and will take this opportunity to give an overview of some of my group’s research.  Our work focuses on characterizing complexity and quantifying uncertainty in environmental systems with the goal of improving our understanding of these systems and our ability to forecast their variability.  Our current research spans water quality monitoring and contaminant source identification, use of remote sensing data for earth system characterization, and atmospheric greenhouse gas emission and sequestration estimation.  The common theme of our research is the development and application of statistical and geostatistical data fusion methods for optimizing the use of limited in situ and remote sensing environmental data.  In this talk, I will give an overview of our work looking at the role of atmospheric observations of carbon dioxide in helping to improve understanding of the natural and anthropogenic components of the global carbon cycle.  For those interested, I am also giving a talk in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering seminar series on December 2, which will give an overview of my group’s work in hydrology and water quality monitoring (http://www.stanford.edu/group/ees/events.html).