ALANIS Methane - Wetland Extent and Methane Dynamics: Work PACKAGE 1 Scientific Requirements Consolidation.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has initiated the Atmosphere-LANd Interactions Study (ALANIS) in collaboration with the Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study (iLEAPS). The overall objective of the ALANIS project is to advance towards the development and validation of novel Earth Observation-based (EO-based) multi-mission products and their integration into suitable land-atmosphere coupled models responding directly to the specific scientific requirements of the iLEAPS community. One of the three themes in ALANIS considers wetland dynamics and CH4 emissions (‘ALANIS methane’). The main goal of the ALANIS methane project is to produce and use a suite of relevant information derived from Earth Observation (EO) to validate and improve one of the next generation land-surface models and thus reduce current uncertainties in wetland-related CH4 emissions. This document, the Scientific Consolidation Requirements, outlines how Earth Observation data products could be used to constrain and improve the description of CH4 emissions from boreal wetlands in current state-of-the-art land surface models.