The MEMENTO (Marine Methane and Nitrous Oxide) database project has been initiated to work with the research community to bring together global oceanic and atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) data (see also the attached essay "MEMENTO: A proposal to develop a database of marine nitrous oxide and methane measurements").

MEMENTO is a joint initiative of the International SOLAS (Surface Ocean - Lower Atmosphere Study, www.solas-int.org) and the COST Action 735 of the European Science Foundation (www.cost-735.org), both of which have the express aim of providing best-estimates of global air-sea fluxes.

MEMENTO aims to utilise data collected during numerous hydrographic cruises and from other platforms in order to assemble a global database, which would represent a substantial resource that we will make available to the community. We will publish global surface concentration fields and air-sea fluxes, with all data providers as co-authors. The product is intended for use in global models as validation tool and/or input field.

We encourage you to contribute your data and become a part of MEMENTO. The intention is that the database will eventually be published in a global data centre, accompanied by a publication in the peer-reviewed open access journal Earth System Science Data (www.earth-system-science-data.net). You can either send your data via e-mail to hbange@ifm-geomar.de where it will then be transferred into a common template, or you can submit your data using the template provided on the SOLAS Project Integration web site: www.bodc.ac.uk/solas_integration/implementation_products/group3/

We welcome your questions or comments about MEMENTO. Please feel free to contact me or Dr Tom Bell from the SOLAS Project Integration (thomas.bell@uea.ac.uk) for more information.

Dr. Hermann W. Bange
Forschungsbereich Marine Biogeochemie
IFM-GEOMAR
Leibniz-Institut fuer Meereswissenschaften
Duesternbrooker Weg 20
24105 Kiel, Germany