Carbon and biogeochemistry

The central issue in global biogeochemistry is understanding the processes that result in flow, storage, and transformation of carbon in the atmosphere, terrestrial vegetation and soil, and oceans. To understand the terrestrial biogeochemistry of carbon it is also necessary to know the dynamics of N in particular, and also P and S. N and S also have important trace gas components in their biogeochemical cycles. In all these activities, remote sensing can play several valuable roles. In order to identify these roles and provide information that can lead to future remote sensing developments that can aid investigations into global biogeochemistry, we need to (a) identify important phenomena, (b) define measures and concepts needed to model and understand them, and (c) clarify the role that remote sensing can play.