###### Abstract  
Atmospheric CO\({}_{2}\) concentrations are sensitive to the effects of climate extremes on carbon sources and sinks of the land biosphere. Therefore, extreme changes of atmospheric CO\({}_{2}\) can be used to identify anomalous sources and sinks of carbon. In this study, we develop a spatiotemporal extreme change detection method for atmospheric CO\({}_{2}\) concentrations using column-averaged CO\({}_{2}\) dry air mole fraction (XCO\({}_{2}\)) retrieved from the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) from 1 June 2009 to 31 May 2016. For extreme events identified, we attributed the main drivers using surface environmental parameters, including surface skin temperature, self-calibrating Palmer drought severity index, burned area, and gross primary production (GPP). We also tested the sensitivity of XCO\({}_{2}\) response to changing surface CO\({}_{2}\) fluxes using model simulations and Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS)-Chem atmospheric transport. Several extreme high XCO\({}_{2}\) events are detected around mid-2010 over Eurasia and in early 2016 in the tropics. The magnitudes of extreme XCO\({}_{2}\) increases are around 1.5-1.8 ppm in the Northern Hemisphere and 1.2-1.4 ppm in Southern Hemisphere. The spatiotemporal pattern of detected high XCO\({}_{2}\) events are similar to patterns of local surface environmental parameter extremes. The extreme high XCO\({}_{2}\) events often occurred during periods of increased temperature, severe drought, increased wildfire or reduced GPP. Our sensitivity tests show that the magnitude of detectable anomalies varies with location, for example 25% or larger anomalies in local CO\({}_{2}\) emission fluxes are detectable in tropical forest, whereas anomalies must be half again as large in mid-latitudes (\(\sim\)37.5%). In conclusion, we present a method for extreme high XCO\({}_{2}\) detection, and large changes in land CO\({}_{2}\) fluxes. This provides another tool to monitor large-scale changes in the land carbon sink and potential feedbacks on the climate system. XCO\({}_{2}\); GOSAT; extreme events; spatiotemporal; biosphere-atmosphere interaction; atmospheric transport 2018 10 839 10.3390/rs10060839 10. 2009 to 2016 was 0.44 ppm yr\({}^{-1}\)[2]. Carbon sources/sinks from the terrestrial biosphere contribute most to the inter-annual variability [3]. Climate extremes like drought and heat waves have been shown to result in large changes in carbon sources and sinks of terrestrial biosphere, which have the potential to substantially modify regional carbon dioxide (CO\({}_{2}\)) uptake/release [4]. As a result, regional atmospheric CO\({}_{2}\) concentration could vary with climate change in addition to the global atmospheric CO\({}_{2}\) growth rate. The change of atmospheric CO\({}_{2}\) concentration is not only impacted by anomalous terrestrial biosphere CO\({}_{2}\) uptake or release, caused by anomalous weather events, but also intensifying climate changes [5; 6]. Understanding the relationship between the CO\({}_{2}\) concentration changes response to climate events, makes an important contribution to carbon sources and sinks change detection and forecasting [7]. Extreme weather events have increased and are predicted to increase in the frequency as result of global warming [6; 8; 9; 10; 11]. They attract social interest for their fundamental impacts on the natural environment and human society [12; 13]. Previous research has attempted to link extreme events and their effects on the land carbon sink. Combining reanalysis data and remote sensing observations, [PERSON] et al. [4] found that the drought during 2000-2004 in western North America reduced carbon uptake by 30-298 TgC/yr. During the heat and drought in 2003 over Europe, the gross primary production (GPP) was decreased by 30%, which resulted in strong anomalous CO\({}_{2}\) emission of 0.5 PgC/yr [14]. From the extreme wildfires in western Russia over the summer of 2010, CO\({}_{2}\) emission increased 255.76 Tg based on satellite data [15].