CMS: Terrestrial Carbon Stocks and Fluxes for Conterminous US, 2001-2016

NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) dataset provides modeled estimates of terrestrial carbon pools and fluxes across the contiguous United States. It offers monthly averages at 0.5-degree resolution from 2001 through 2016, derived using the CARDAMOM model-data fusion framework. The model integrates climate data, biomass maps, and Forest Inventory and Analysis plot data to constrain estimates of carbon stocks, emissions, and removals.

Use Cases

• Quantifying regional carbon sequestration based on modeled gross primary production (GPP) and net primary production (NPP) fluxes.
• Analyzing spatial distributions of soil organic carbon pools for land management planning.
• Validating earth system models using estimates of autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration.
• Attributing changes in forest carbon stocks using above-ground biomass constraints from FIA data.
• Assessing interannual variability in net biome exchange across different terrestrial land cover types.

Strengths

• Provides a 16-year monthly time series (2001-2016) for analyzing long-term trends.
• Integrates multiple data sources (climate, biomass maps, FIA plots) in a model-data fusion framework.
• Includes estimates for multiple carbon pools (e.g., soil organic carbon, woody carbon) and fluxes (e.g., GPP, NPP).
• Available on multiple platforms (Data.gov, NASA Earthdata), indicating established provenance and utility.

Limitations

• Specific column names and dataset size/row counts are not provided in any source description.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between platforms (2016-12-31 vs. 2026-04-10), creating uncertainty about metadata freshness.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without details.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Model-data fusion using the CARbon DAta MOdel fraMework (CARDAMOM), constrained with climate data, biomass maps, and Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot data.

Time Range

2001-01-01 to 2016-12-31

Freshness

2026-04-10 04:08:24.876527

Geography

Contiguous United States (CONUS)