The carbon footprint of astronomical research is an increasingly topical issue with first estimates of research institute and national community footprints having recently been published. As these assessments have typically excluded the contribution of astronomical research infrastructures, we complement these studies by providing an estimate of the contribution of astronomical space missions and ground-based observatories using greenhouse gas emission factors that relates cost and payload mass to carbon footprint. We find that worldwide active astronomical research infrastructures currently have a carbon footprint of 20.3$\pm$3.3 MtCO$_2$ equivalent (CO$_2$e) and an annual emission of 1,169$\pm$249 ktCO$_2$e yr$^{-1}$ corresponding to a footprint of 36.6$\pm$14.0 tCO$_2$e per year per astronomer. Compared with contributions from other aspects of astronomy research activity, our results suggest that research infrastructures make the single largest contribution to the carbon footprint of an astronomer. We discuss the limitations and uncertainties of our method and explore measures that can bring greenhouse gas emissions from astronomical research infrastructures towards a sustainable level.
Survey Footprint Explorer: A Browser-Based Interactive Tool for Visualizing and Cross-Matching Astronomical Survey Footprints
Waterloo Centre for Astrophysics, University of Waterloo（滑铁卢天体物理中心，滑铁卢大学）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学物理与天文系）；Center for Astronomy, Space Science and Astrophysics, Independent University, Bangladesh（孟加拉独立大学天文学、空间科学与天体物理中心）；Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学卡普坦天体物理研究所）；Definity Insurance Company（Definity保险公司）
Power Challenges of Large Scale Research Infrastructures: the Square Kilometer Array and Solar Energy Integration; Towards a zero-carbon footprint next generation telescope
Who Uses Whose Telescopes? Analyzing the Knowledge Geography and Research Dominance of Global Astronomical Facilities
Institute of Science of Science and S&T Management & WISE Lab, Dalian University of Technology（大连理工大学科学学与科学技术管理研究所及WISE实验室）；School of Architecture & Fine Arts, Dalian University of Technology（大连理工大学建筑与艺术学院）
