Thursday, February 5. 2009

NASA Satellite to Map Earth's CO2 Levels

NASA will soon launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), a satellite that will effectively detect the levels of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Prior to the launch of the OCO, CO₂ measurements were taken with land-based instrumentation such as FLUXNET and AmeriFlux both of which are management by Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL). The OCO will measure the reflected radiance in both the near IR (.77 µ) and slightly longer wavelengths (2.06 µm) for oxygen and CO₂ bands, respectively, to model the actual CO₂ levels. Chemical and Engineering News reports that the launch is scheduled for Feb. 23. Airborne instruments will support the calibration of the model.

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