Region Averaging and Date


Flux anomalies (Left) Difference between the annual-mean one-degree fluxes depicted above, and the long-term mean climatological annual flux shown in the right panel. Negative anomalies (blue colors) represent greater-than-average CO2 uptake by the land biosphere, whereas positive anomalies (red colors) indicate regions in which the land biosphere has less-than-average uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere. Units are gC m-2 yr-1.

Climatological fluxes (Right) Mean of 2001-2012 annual-mean fluxes, representing the CarbonTracker climatological flux. This NEE represents land-to-atmosphere carbon exchange from photosynthesis and respiration in terrestrial ecosystems, and a contribution from fires. It does not include fossil fuel emissions. Negative fluxes (blue colors) represent CO2 uptake by the land biosphere, whereas positive fluxes (red colors) indicate regions in which the land biosphere is a net source of CO2 to the atmosphere. Units are gC m-2 yr-1.

Summary Fluxes for annual mean for 2016 (all units PgC yr-1)
RegionFirst GuessFinal EstimateFire EmissionFossil EmissionTotal Flux
All of South America-0.05 ± 0.76 0.14 ± 0.52 0.42 0.33 ± 0.01 0.89 ± 0.52
Tropical South America0.18 ± 0.63 0.33 ± 0.43 0.29 0.14 ± 0.01 0.75 ± 0.43
Temperate South America-0.23 ± 0.47 -0.19 ± 0.29 0.13 0.20 ± 0.01 0.14 ± 0.29
Summary fluxes. This table shows first-guess, final estimate, and imposed fluxes and associated uncertainties, integrated over the region of interest and averaged over the relevant time period. The "first guess" and "final estimate" fluxes are the sum of land and ocean fluxes over the region of interest, excluding fossil and fire emissions. They represent the prior and posterior, optimized fluxes respectively. Fossil and fire emissions are prescribed in CarbonTracker. The "total flux" is the sum of the final estimate, fossil fuel emissions, and fire fluxes.

Note that fossil fuel emissions can occur over regions characterized as ocean. This is partly due to real emissions from international shipping, and partly due to emissions occurring in coastal land regions that are assigned to the ocean in our coarse 1x1 degree division scheme. The same is true for fossil fuel emissions over non-optimized regions such as ice, polar deserts, and inland seas.