Wetland Extent and Methane Dynamics: An Overview of the ESA ALANIS-Methane Project

The European Space Agency (ESA), as part of its Support to Science Element (STSE), has initiated the Atmosphere-LANd Interactions Study (ALANIS) in collaboration with the Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study (iLEAPS). One of the three themes in ALANIS is considering wetland dynamics and methane emissions (denoted hereinafter ALANIS methane). The ALANIS methane project has a focus on the boreal Eurasia region. The main goal of the project is to produce and use a suite of relevant information derived from Earth Observation (EO) for this domain to validate and improve one of the next generation land-surface models and thus reduce current uncertainties in wetland-related CH4 emissions. This paper presents an overview of the project, the products and its current status.