North American carbon budget and implications for the global carbon cycle [also known as the Prototype State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR) focused on North America]

P. Tans

Environmental Research Laboratories
Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303-3328

Tel: (303) 497-6811

 

Education:        Doctorandus, Theoretical Physics (1973) (cum laude).

PhD, Experimental Physics (1978), Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Thesis

adviser: Prof. W.G. Mook. Thesis title: "¹³C and ¹⁴C in Tree Rings and the

Atmospheric CO₂ Increase"

 

Employment:

8/78-7/79         Postdoc, Scripps Inst. Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, with C.D. Keeling.

8/79-3/85         Staff scientist, Astrophysics Group, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley.

4/85-2/90         Research Associate, CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder.

3/90-12/96       Supervisory Physicist, Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Boulder.

12/96-              Chief Scientist, Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory.

 

Past research:   Magnetic impurities in an electron lattice gas; One-dimensional radiative climate model; High precision ¹⁴C counting; Stable isotopes in tree rings; Radioisotope detection with a cyclotron; Development of Raman scattering method to detect minute changes in the ratio of atmospheric O₂ to N₂.

Present:            Biogeochemical cycles; Global climate change; Stable isotope applications; Atmospheric chemistry and transport; Inverse models; Air-sea exchange of gases;

                        Development of new generation of accurate and robust gas analyzers

 

7/92-8/00         Professor Adjoint, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University

                        of Colorado at Boulder.

92-93               Committee on Oceanic Carbon, Ocean Studies Board, NRC

95-97               Dec-Cen Panel, Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, NRC

5/97-                CIRES fellow

98-99               Working Group drafting a multi-agency U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan

96-                   Associate Editor, Journal of Climate

97-                   Editorial Advisory Board, Tellus B

 

10/95-              Corresponding member, Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences

8/00                 Gold Medal, Department of Commerce

6/02- ISI Highly Cited (248 most cited authors in the geosciences 1981-1999)

1/04-                Fellow, American Geophysical Union

 

 

Other interests and activities:

            Sustainability of the earth’s resources

            Sailboat racing (former world & Dutch national champion)

 

Courses taught: Physical Chemistry 1 & 2, Environmental Chemistry

 

Patents:            Fiber-optic beam splitter

                        Infrared viewing of subcutaneous vascular structures

 

Research Support: NOAA Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, NOAA Climate Observations and Services Program, NASA LBA-ECO.

 

Selected Publications:

 

Francey, R. J. and P. P. Tans, Latitudinal variation in oxygen-18 of atmospheric CO₂, Nature 327, 495-497, 1987.

Tans, P. P., T. J. Conway, and T. Nakazawa, Latitudinal distribution of the sources and sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide derived from surface observations and atmospheric transport model, J. Geophys. Res. 94, 5151-5172, 1989.

Tans, P. P., I. Y. Fung, and T. Takahashi, Observational constraints on the global atmospheric carbon dioxide budget, Science 247, 1431-1438, 1990.

Steele, L.P., E.J. Dlugokencky, P.M. Lang, P.P. Tans, R.C. Martin, and K.A. Masarie, Slowing down of the global accumulation of atmospheric methane during the 1980's, Nature, 358, 313-316, 1992.

Tans, P.P., J.A. Berry, and R.F. Keeling, Oceanic ¹³C/¹²C observations, a new window on CO₂ uptake by the oceans, Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles, 7, 353-368, 1993.

Novelli, P.C., K.A. Masarie, P.P. Tans, and P.M. Lang, Recent changes in atmospheric carbon monoxide, Science, 263, 1587-1590, 1994.

Bender, M.L., P.P. Tans, J.T. Ellis, J. Orchardo, and K. Habfast, A high precision isotope ratio mass spectrometry method for measuring the O₂/N₂ ratio of air, Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 58, 4751-4758, 1994.

Ciais, P., P.P. Tans, M. Trolier, J.W.C. White, and R.J. Francey, A large northern hemisphere terrestrial CO₂ sink indicated by the ¹³C/¹²C ratio of atmospheric CO₂, Science, 269, 1098-1102, 1995.

Battle, M., M. Bender, T. Sowers, P. Tans, J. Butler, J. Elkins, J. Ellis, T. Conway, N. Zhang, P. Lang, and A. Clarke, Atmospheric gas concentrations over the past century measured in air from firn at the South Pole, Nature 383, 231-235, 1996.

Tans, P.P., Why carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning won't go away, in: Perspectives in Environmental Chemistry, edited by D. Macalady, Ch. 12, pp. 271-291, Oxford University Press, New York, 1998.

Tans, P.P., The CO₂ lifetime concept should be banished, Climatic Change, 37, 487-490, 1997.

Fan, S., M. Gloor, J. Mahlman, S. Pacala, J. Sarmiento, T. Takahashi, and P. Tans, A large terrestrial sink in North America implied by atmospheric and oceanic carbon dioxide data and models, Science 282, 442-446, 1998.

Bousquet, Philippe, Philippe Peylin, Philippe Ciais, Corinne le Quere, Pierre Friedlingstein, and Pieter Tans, Regional changes in carbon dioxide fluxes of land and oceans since 1980, Science 290, 1342-1346, 2000.