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What the land breathes, measured.

Forests, croplands and wetlands take up and release carbon and water every hour. Eddy covariance towers measure that exchange directly, ten or twenty times a second, and turn it into the fluxes that carbon accounts, climate models and land managers need.

Industry

Climate

Measurements

4

Sources cited

3

1. Climate · Ecosystem carbon and water fluxes

   The land breathes

   Forests, croplands and wetlands take up and release carbon and water every hour, and the balance decides whether a landscape is a sink or a source. Eddy covariance towers measure that exchange directly and continuously, and fluxes are essential climate variables in the global observing plan.

2. What is measured

   Wind and gas, twenty times a second

   A sonic anemometer and a fast gas analyser above the canopy measure wind and gas ten to twenty times a second. Radiation and weather sensors measure the energy arriving, and soil profiles across the footprint measure temperature, moisture and heat flux below ground.

   Instruments

   Sonic anemometer · Fast gas analyser · Radiation · Soil profiles

3. The base node

   Fluxes computed at the tower

   The node records the high-rate data, computes half-hourly fluxes with the standard corrections, flags rain, low turbulence and sensor faults, and sends fluxes and diagnostics, while keeping the raw data so everything can be reprocessed when methods improve or other sites are compared.

4. Radio and links

   Fluxes from the forest

   Where coverage reaches the site, cellular carries half-hourly fluxes and diagnostics; remote forest and wetland sites send by satellite. Soil plots across the footprint reach the tower over a low-power radio, so no cables cross or disturb the land being measured.

   Links

   Public cellular · Satellite · LoRaWAN

5. How it works

   From a gust to a carbon budget

   A summer afternoon: the forest takes up carbon while the sun is high. Each half hour the node computes the flux; in a drought week uptake falls and respiration rises. Gap-filled fluxes add up to the year’s budget, and the forest manager sees what the drought cost.

6. From order to operation · Order

   Scope the land and the question

   The scope reads the land types, the carbon or water question, existing towers and the partners who will use the data. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the site plan, instrument set, processing to community methods and a price per site and per year.

   Plan a deployment

7. From order to operation · Survey

   Survey for uniform land

   Crews and scientists walk candidate sites for uniform vegetation in the prevailing wind, canopy height, access for the tower, power and backhaul. Footprints are modelled from local wind. Findings are recorded with drawings and photographs. Findings shape the kit for each site before anything is built.

8. From order to operation · Permits

   Land, permits and wildlife

   Land owners and forest or conservation authorities approve the tower and plots, tower building follows local rules, and work avoids nesting seasons. Every approval is kept with the site record. No crew goes to site before its approvals are in place.

9. From order to operation · Build

   Build and intercompare

   Sonic anemometers and gas analysers are calibrated and intercompared, radiation sensors checked, soil probes prepared, nodes configured with the processing method and enrolled with their identities. The system runs together before shipping. Nothing ships until the whole kit has passed its tests together.

   Open the Station Builder

10. From order to operation · Install

    Raise the tower

    Crews raise the tower above the canopy, mount the fast sensors, radiation and weather sensors at their heights, install soil profiles across the footprint, and fit power and backhaul. Every height and orientation is recorded. Crews follow the site safety plan throughout the work.

11. From order to operation · Commission

    Commission the fluxes

    Each node proves its identity. Energy balance closure, sensor diagnostics and fluxes are checked over the first weeks, the gas analyser is calibrated in the field and data are compared with network standards. The site enters the network when checks pass.

12. From order to operation · Operate

    Measure every half hour

    Scientists see fluxes, diagnostics and gaps live. Carbon and water budgets are built from gap-filled half-hourly fluxes, land managers see how drought or harvest changed uptake, and every value keeps its processing record. Every alert and action is kept on the record.

13. From order to operation · Maintain

    Clean, calibrate, reprocess

    Sensors are cleaned and calibrated on site visits, gas analysers recalibrated on the agreed plan, raw data reprocessed when methods improve, and software updates roll out in rings. Every change is kept with the site record. Maintenance history stays with each site for its whole life.

    Book field services

14. Data products

    For scientists and land managers

    Scientists and flux networks receive half-hourly carbon, water and energy fluxes; land managers and carbon programmes receive annual budgets; forest and farm managers receive drought and disturbance impacts; climate and land surface modellers receive evaluation data, each with its full processing record.

    See the data products

15. Evidence

    Community methods, on record

    Stations follow research infrastructure ecosystem specifications, fluxes and soil variables are reported as essential climate variables, and meteorology follows the instrument guide. Every flux keeps its raw data, corrections and flags, so results can be reproduced and compared across sites.

    Drawn against

    ICOS Ecosystem Station Specifications · GCOS-244 · WMO-No. 8

16. What you get

    Research site and instrument services

    Site power, connectivity, timing and operations for telescopes, flux towers and research stations. Delivered as managed service and professional services, for universities, research infrastructures, space agencies. Scale: Global research sites. Service levels are written as numbers you can measure on your own dashboard.

    Talk to sales

17. Next step

    Plan ecosystem carbon and water fluxes with us

    Tell us the site, the measurements and the rules it answers to. We reply with a survey proposal, a design and a scope for ecosystem carbon and water fluxes. An engineer replies with a survey proposal and a scope, and the plan grows from one site to the network you need, at your pace.

    Plan a deploymentOpen the Station BuilderOpen the Studio

01The place and its hazards

Where it runs, and what can go wrong.

Operating contextEcosystem fluxes are measured by eddy covariance to the station specifications of research infrastructures, and fluxes, soil carbon and moisture are essential climate variables in the global observing plan. Measurements need fast sensors, careful siting over uniform land, continuous power and processing that follows community methods.

Hazards

• Sensors fouled by rain, dust, insects and ice
• Power failures that break the high-rate record
• Towers sited where the land is not uniform
• Processing choices that make sites incomparable
• Gaps that bias annual carbon totals

02What must be measured

What, where, how often, and under which rules.

Each measurement names where it is taken, how often, and the public standard or regulation behind it. Numbers in the sources column open the cited source below.

03The observation stack

From one base unit to a network.

The same blocks at every scale: instruments and a base node, a site with its radio, a fleet run as one, and a network federated on the open protocol.

1. 01

   Base unit

   A flux system: a sonic anemometer and fast gas analyser, radiation and weather sensors and soil probes on an edge node.

   Build a station →
2. 02

   Site

   A site: the tower above the canopy, soil plots, solar power with batteries and a backhaul.

   Plan a site →
3. 03

   Fleet

   A network of flux sites across land types, processed with one method and one database.

   Managed offers →
4. 04

   Network

   Sites share fluxes with research infrastructures and global flux networks in standard formats.

   The open protocol →

• 01Compact weather station
• 02Soil probe
• 03Sensor and instrument gateway
• 04Edge node (Wedge)
• 05Cellular modem/router
• 06LEO flat-panel terminal
• 07Solar array
• 08Lattice tower

Radio and links

Public cellular

Where coverage reaches the site, cellular carries half-hourly fluxes and diagnostics.

Radio and links

Satellite

Remote forest and wetland sites send their data by satellite.

Radio and links

LoRaWAN

Soil plots across the footprint reach the tower over a low-power link.

Edge computeThe node records the high-rate data, computes half-hourly fluxes with standard corrections, flags rain, low turbulence and sensor faults, and sends fluxes and diagnostics while keeping the raw data for reprocessing.

PowerSolar panels and batteries sized for the cloudiest weeks, or mains where it reaches; the gas analyser has the largest load and its heaters run only when needed.

04How it works

From the instrument to the product.

One observation’s path, tier by tier, with the interface on every link and a bill of materials below; then how the one node grows to a site, a fleet and federated networks.

05From order to operation

Every step, from the first call to a running site.

The same crew and the same record carry the work from scope to maintenance.

1. 01 Order

   Scope the land and the question

   The scope reads the land types, the carbon or water question, existing towers and the partners who will use the data. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the site plan, instrument set, processing to community methods and a price per site and per year. 1

2. 02 Survey

   Survey for uniform land

   Crews and scientists walk candidate sites for uniform vegetation in the prevailing wind, canopy height, access for the tower, power and backhaul. Footprints are modelled from local wind. Findings are recorded with drawings and photographs. Findings shape the kit for each site before anything is built. 1

3. 03 Permits

   Land, permits and wildlife

   Land owners and forest or conservation authorities approve the tower and plots, tower building follows local rules, and work avoids nesting seasons. Every approval is kept with the site record. No crew goes to site before its approvals are in place.

4. 04 Build

   Build and intercompare

   Sonic anemometers and gas analysers are calibrated and intercompared, radiation sensors checked, soil probes prepared, nodes configured with the processing method and enrolled with their identities. The system runs together before shipping. Nothing ships until the whole kit has passed its tests together. 1

5. 05 Install

   Raise the tower

   Crews raise the tower above the canopy, mount the fast sensors, radiation and weather sensors at their heights, install soil profiles across the footprint, and fit power and backhaul. Every height and orientation is recorded. Crews follow the site safety plan throughout the work.

6. 06 Commission

   Commission the fluxes

   Each node proves its identity. Energy balance closure, sensor diagnostics and fluxes are checked over the first weeks, the gas analyser is calibrated in the field and data are compared with network standards. The site enters the network when checks pass. 12

7. 07 Operate

   Measure every half hour

   Scientists see fluxes, diagnostics and gaps live. Carbon and water budgets are built from gap-filled half-hourly fluxes, land managers see how drought or harvest changed uptake, and every value keeps its processing record. Every alert and action is kept on the record. 2

8. 08 Maintain

   Clean, calibrate, reprocess

   Sensors are cleaned and calibrated on site visits, gas analysers recalibrated on the agreed plan, raw data reprocessed when methods improve, and software updates roll out in rings. Every change is kept with the site record. Maintenance history stays with each site for its whole life.

06Data products and integration

What it delivers, to whom, and into which systems.

Data products

• Half-hourly carbon, water and energy fluxesScientists and flux networks
• Annual carbon budgetsLand managers and carbon programmes
• Drought and disturbance impactsForest and farm managers
• Model evaluation dataClimate and land surface modellers

Integration

• Research infrastructuresFluxes are submitted in the infrastructure’s formats and processing.
• Carbon programmesBudgets support measurement, reporting and verification.
• Land managementUptake trends reach forest and farm planning tools.

Exchanged through netCDF-CF, OGC SensorThings API, MQTT.

07Questions buyers ask

Before you scope it.

How big an area does a tower see?

Its footprint, modelled from wind, typically covers the uniform land around it.

Can it run off grid?

Yes, on solar and batteries sized for the site.

Are fluxes comparable with other networks?

Processing follows the community methods.

Can it support carbon credits?

It measures the ecosystem; crediting rules are set by each programme.

08Resources

The sources behind this page.

Public standards, regulations and guidance, cited where they apply. Each applies only where its jurisdiction or scope does.

1. 1ICOS Ecosystem Station SpecificationsIntegrated Carbon Observation System
2. 2GCOS-244: The 2022 GCOS Implementation PlanGlobal Climate Observing System · 2022
3. 3WMO-No. 8: Guide to Instruments and Methods of ObservationWorld Meteorological Organization

09Related

Use cases and solutions.

10Climate: specialized fields

Other fields of this industry.

Bring us the site.

Plan a deployment, configure a station, model it in the Studio or talk to sales. The form names who receives your details.