The International Geosphere/Biosphere Programme (IGBP) new integration project, the Analysis, Integration and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES), has been established to address scientific components needed to assess human perturbations to the biogeochemical and climate systems and to combine these components to address integrative Earth System questions. The Global Emissions Inventory Activity (GEIA; www.geiacenter.org) will provide the critical databases that link dynamic interactions between human societies and their environment.

GEIA to date has focused on development and distribution of global emissions inventories. The development of accurate databases of human and natural emissions from surface (e.g. fossil fuel and the terrestrial biosphere) and atmospheric (e.g. aircraft and lightning) sources to drive global models of the Earth system requires updated inventories and data management for complex integrated model implementation. AIMES has embraced GEIA to promote model integration of human activities. Specifically, GEIA will develop new inventories, facilitate model and data intercomparison and evaluation, prioritize observations, develop temporal datasets, and develop initialization schemes for chemical exchange models. The challenge of GEIA will be to develop databases for use in increasingly complex, integrated models. For this purpose, GEIA will work directly with the IGBP Integrated Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study (iLEAPS; http://www.atm.helsinki.fi/ILEAPS/), and will establish formal links with the international Projects involved in ocean and human studies, building on existing connections between GEIA and these Projects.

Integrating GEIA with the new AIMES will require an understanding of the complicated blend of models and observations that comprise the global emissions databases, as there are no readily available underlying databases for either global emissions or deposition fluxes. At the recent GAIM/AIMES SSC meeting, it was proposed that detailed databases of driving variables be provided as gridded products by GEIA and AIMES. For instance, information on emission source distributions, algorithms, factors, etc. dealing with fires, vegetation, human activities and other driving variables would be made available in a format suitable for a coupled modeling framework.

New information developed as part of the GEIA/AIMES work will continue to be organized, communicated and solicited through the existing and continually expanding NSF and NASA supported GEIA coordination effort, web site (www.geiacenter.org), and GEIA E-network (over 500 scientists worldwide). This work will continue to be done in collaboration with the ACCENT European Network (Atmospheric Composition Change: A European Network) whose web site is currently hosting the most recent GEIA data bases. To facilitate development of highest quality, most useful information and data on emissions and related human activities, a formal discussion forum dealing with integrated modelling and data needs is being developed and implemented through the GEIA and ACCENT websites. Planning workshops also are needed and the next data management and web organizational meeting followed by the open GEIA meeting will be held in Paris 2006 (see the flier below). To establish a clear understanding of the current state of science to better guide the development of new data, GEIA, in collaboration with SOLAS, iLEAPS and others, is promoting a summer school on emissions and Earth system modelling. This school would result in the development of a comprehensive book on current status and important next steps.

Claire Granier (Service d'Aéronomie/IPSL, France) and Alex Guenther (NCAR) are the scientific leads for GEIA. Paulette Middleton (Panorama Pathways) helps coordinate GEIA planning and outreach activities, manages the GEIA web site and operates the GEIA E-mail network.

July 2006