MAGIC

Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are the two main greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted by human activities.

To better understand their concentration and vertical distribution in several key regions and to prepare future space missions dedicated to GHG, the MAGIC initiative has been put in place.

MAGIC stands for: Monitoring of Atmospheric composition and Greenhouse gases through multi-Instruments Campaigns.

Since 2018, annual campaigns have been organized with two main goals: (i) to better understand the vertical exchange of GHG along the atmospheric column, in connection with atmospheric transport, sources and sinks of the gases at the surface and in the atmosphere; (ii) to contribute to the preparation and validation of space missions dedicated to the monitoring of greenhouse gases.

To address these objectives, various instruments are deployed on various platforms: aircraft, balloons, ground. They perform simultaneous observations of GHG concentration: direct in-situ
observations at the surface or along the vertical, total and partial weighted columns.

The MAGIC initiative is strongly supported by CNES and CNRS, with additional support from ESA, EUMETSAT, Ecole polytechnique, CEA, Météo-France and the Universities of Versaille-Saint-Quentin, Lille, Reims and Sorbonne.