Eye in the sky

By Jonathan Hiskes @Gristmill
24th February 2009

NASA hopes to start solving one of climate science’s most vexing mysteries Tuesday morning when it launches the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), its first spacecraft dedicated to measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide. The satellite is designed to measure the CO2 content of vertical “columns” stretching from the Earth’s surface up to the top of the atmosphere, providing vastly more information than land-based measurements currently supply.

Ultimately, mission scientists hope, the satellite will lead them to the “missing” carbon sinks — repositories of carbon dioxide that haven’t been accounted for in the atmosphere, the oceans, or on land.

NASA’s press office elaborates:

Of all the carbon humans have added to Earth’s atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution, only about 40 percent has remained in Earth’s atmosphere. About half of the remaining 60 percent can be accounted for in Earth’s ocean. The rest must have been absorbed somewhere on land, but scientists cannot yet determine specifically where this is taking place or what controls the efficiency of these land sinks. Scientists refer to this as the “missing” carbon sink.

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