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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2025-5971</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Top-down estimate of regional carbon sinks over East Asia for 2010&amp;ndash;2019 using satellite observations</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kim</surname>
<given-names>Mina</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5844-7305</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Park</surname>
<given-names>Rokjin J.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8922-0234</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Jung</surname>
<given-names>Jingi</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Oh</surname>
<given-names>Sang-Ik</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8267-0784</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ha</surname>
<given-names>Eunjo S.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8337-0462</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Jeong</surname>
<given-names>Jaein I.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Yeh</surname>
<given-names>Sang-Wook</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>School of Earth and Environmental Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Department of Marine Sciences and Convergent Engineering, Hanyang University, ERICA, Republic of Korea</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>19</day>
<month>01</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>29</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Mina Kim et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-5971/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-5971/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-5971/egusphere-2025-5971.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-5971/egusphere-2025-5971.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Given East Asia&apos;s highest CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; emissions, quantifying natural carbon sinks in this region is essential for improving climate projections and informing mitigation strategies. We estimated the Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) and ocean carbon fluxes over East Asia (18.5&amp;deg; N&amp;ndash;54&amp;deg; N, 73&amp;deg; E&amp;ndash;146&amp;deg; E) during 2010&amp;ndash;2019 using a Bayesian inversion framework. The GEOS-Chem chemical transport model was combined with GOSAT ACOS v9.0 XCO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; retrievals, and region-specific prior uncertainties were assigned using standard deviations from land and ocean models. Posterior estimates show enhanced carbon uptake relative to the prior, with NEE increasing from &amp;minus;0.17 &amp;plusmn; 0.08 to &amp;minus;0.31 &amp;plusmn; 0.06 PgC yr⁻&amp;sup1; and ocean uptake changing slightly from &amp;minus;0.20 &amp;plusmn; 0.03 to &amp;minus;0.21 &amp;plusmn; 0.03 PgC yr⁻&amp;sup1;. Simulated CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; concentrations based on posterior fluxes agreed better with independent observations than those from prior fluxes. Most subregions in East Asia acted as net carbon sinks over the past decade. Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) trends also support strengthened carbon uptake. However, several regions showed temporary net carbon releases in 2015&amp;ndash;2016, likely linked to the strong 2015/16 El Ni&amp;ntilde;o. East Asia released a net flux of +3.45 PgC yr⁻&amp;sup1; to the atmosphere during 2010&amp;ndash;2019. Natural sinks offset only ~13.6 % of fossil fuel emissions, leaving a substantial residual source. Despite strengthened posterior sinks, they remain insufficient to counter regional emissions, sustaining elevated CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; levels and continued outflow from East Asia.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="29"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea</funding-source>
<award-id>2021M3I6A1086803</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
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