NASA satellite begins to map CO2 levels in Earth’s atmosphere

Nature : Earlier this year NASA launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 to monitor carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere. Although a design flaw was detected soon after launch, the problem was quickly rectified, and the satellite is now returning data on the sources and sinks of CO₂. The data will allow researchers to better understand the effects of both human activities and natural systems. Through the burning of forests and fossil fuels, humans are sending some 40 billion tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere, as evidenced by the high concentrations of the gas that have been detected over Africa, Australia, Brazil, China, Europe, and North America. About half remains in the atmosphere and half is absorbed by the oceans and land-based vegetation. How long the pollution will continue to be absorbed by those systems is one of the questions the satellite mission was designed to answer.