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We present an estimate of net CO2 exchange between the terrestrial biosphere and the atmosphere across North America for every week in the period 2000 through 2005. This estimate is derived from a set of 28,000 CO2 mole fraction observations in the global atmosphere that are fed into a state-of-the-art data assimilation system for CO2 called CarbonTracker. By design, the surface fluxes produced in CarbonTracker are consistent with the recent history of CO2 in the atmosphere and provide constraints on the net carbon flux independent from national inventories derived from accounting efforts. We find the North American terrestrial biosphere to have absorbed ؊0. carbon cycle ͉ greenhouse gases ͉ data assimilation ͉ biogeochemistry ͉ atmospheric composition

[1] Monthly CO 2 fluxes are estimated across 1988-2003 for 22 emission regions using data from 78 CO 2 measurement sites. The same inversion (method, priors, data) is performed with 13 different atmospheric transport models, and the spread in the results is taken as a measure of transport model error. Interannual variability (IAV) in the winds is not modeled, so any IAV in the measurements is attributed to IAV in the fluxes. When both this transport error and the random estimation errors are considered, the flux IAV obtained is statistically significant at P 0.05 when the fluxes are grouped into land and ocean components for three broad latitude bands, but is much less so when grouped into continents and basins. The transport errors have the largest impact in the extratropical northern latitudes. A third of the 22 emission regions have significant IAV, including the Tropical East Pacific (with physically plausible uptake/release across the 1997-2000 El Niño/La Niña) and Tropical Asia (with strong release in 1997/1998 coinciding with large-scale fires there). Most of the global IAV is attributed robustly to the tropical/southern land biosphere, including both the large release during the 1997/1998 El Niño and the post-Pinatubo uptake.

The distribution and variations of atmospheric CO2 from 1981 to 1992 were determined by measuring CO2 mixing ratios in samples collected weekly at a cooperative global air sampling network. The results constitute the most geographically extensive, carefully calibrated, internally consistent CO2 data set available. Analysis of the data reveals that the global CO2 growth rate has declined from a peak of ∼2.5 ppm yr−1 in 1987–1988 to ∼0.6 ppm yr−1 in 1992. In 1992 we find no increase in atmospheric CO2 from 30° to 90°N. Variations in fossil fuel CO2 emissions cannot explain this result. The north pole‐south pole CO2 difference increased from ∼3 ppm during 1981–1987 to ∼4 ppm during 1988–1991. In 1992 the difference was again ∼3 ppm. A two‐dimensional model analysis of the data indicates that the low CO2 growth rate in 1992 is mainly due to an increase in the northern hemisphere CO2 sink from 3.9 Gt C yr−1 in 1991 to 5.0 Gt C yr−1 in 1992. The increase in the north pole‐south pole CO2 difference appears to result from an increase in the southern hemisphere CO2 sink from ∼0.5 to ∼1.5 Gt C yr−1.