Monday, June 30, 2014

​NASA's next satellite wants to know where all our carbon dioxide is going


Scientists have a pretty good idea what man-made greenhouse gasses are doing in our upper atmosphere, but not all of humanity's emissions stay up there. A good deal of that gas floats back down to Earth, seeping into the world's oceans and being absorbed by soil and plants on land. We're all familiar with this process, but NASA is looking for specifics: where on Earth, exactly, is this gas going, and why haven't we seen an increase in forestation to keep pace with our increased carbon emissions? That's what NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory hopes to find out. Tomorrow, it's launching Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 -- a satellite built specifically to keep an eye on how carbon dioxide is distributed across the globe.

The satellite mission tasks it with surveying specific spots on Earth every 16 days by recording the type of sunlight that reflects off of the atmosphere. Scientists can measure CO2 by evaluating the color and intensity of these reflections, and will compare this data to carbon measuring devices on the ground to map out where our emissions are going. NASA hopes to use this data to create better predictions for future atmospheric carbon increases. It's not as exciting as one of SpaceX's launches, but missions like this are the stuff that could help keep Earth clean in the long run. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory is scheduled to launch in the early hours of July 1st. Check out the source links below for full details.


[Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech]


Filed under:


Comments


Related Posts:

  • ESPN sues Verizon for offering custom FiOS TV plans We knew ESPN wasn't happy with Verizon's recently announced flexible TV plans, and now it is ready to take legal action on the matter. According to CNBC, The Worldwide Leader in Sports is suing Verizon over the FiOS Custom T… Read More
  • ESPN sues Verizon for custom FiOS TV plans We knew ESPN wasn't happy with Verizon's recently announced flexible TV plans, and now it is ready to take legal action for it. According to CNBC, The Worldwide Leader in Sports is suing Verizon over the FiOS Custom TV packa… Read More
  • Wimbledon bans 'nuisance' selfie sticks If you're heading to the All England Lawn Tennis Club in June to enjoy some strawberries and cream and perhaps snap the odd selfie while watching the world's best tennis players, we have some bad news: Wimbledon has banned t… Read More
  • Every major US credit card will soon work with Apple Pay The roster of credit cards that work with Apple's mobile payments platform has always had one notable absentee. Thankfully, the folks at Discover have realized that there's little to be gained from not being available to use… Read More
  • Wireless glove adds touch to VR video games While Oculus, Valve, Samsung and HTC are all looking to captialize on the resurgence of VR, their solutions all focus on what we can see and hear. That's more than enough to immerse you in a virtual world, but what if you wa… Read More

0 comments:

Post a Comment