Feature, January 23, 2009


The Orbiting Carbon Observatory and the Mystery of the Missing Sinks


Picture a tree in the forest. The tree "inhales" carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, transforming that greenhouse gas into the building materials and energy it needs to grow its branches and leaves.

By removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the tree serves as an indispensable "sink," or warehouse, for carbon that, in tandem with Earth's other trees, plants and the ocean, helps reduce rising levels of carbon dioxide in the air that contribute to global warming.

Each year, humans release more than 30-billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels for powering vehicles, generating electricity and manufacturing products. Up to five-and-a-half additional tons of carbon dioxide are released each year by biomass burning, forest fires and land-use practices such as slash-and-burn agriculture. Between 40 and 50 percent of that amount remains in the atmosphere, according to measurements by about 100 ground-based carbon dioxide monitoring stations scattered across the globe. Another estimated 30 percent is dissolved into the ocean, the world's largest sink.

But what about the rest? The math doesn't add up. For years, scientists have sought to find the answer to this mystery. Though scientists agree the remaining carbon dioxide is also "inhaled" by Earth, they have been unable to precisely determine where it is going, what processes are involved, and whether Earth will continue to absorb it in the future. A new NASA satellite scheduled to launch in February 2009 is poised to shed a very bright light on these "missing" sinks: the Orbiting Carbon Observatory.

"It's important to make clear that the 'missing' sinks aren't really missing, they are just poorly understood," said Scott Denning, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo. "We know the 'missing' sinks are terrestrial, land areas where forests, grasslands, crops and soil are absorbing carbon dioxide. But finding these sinks is like finding a needle in a haystack. It would be great if we could measure how much carbon every tree, shrub, peat bog or blade of grass takes in, but the world is too big and too diverse and is constantly changing, making such measurements virtually impossible. The solution is not in measuring carbon in trees. The solution is measuring carbon in the air."

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will do just that: measure carbon in the air, from Earth's surface to the top of the atmosphere.

"NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite will work as a detective from space, measuring the distribution of carbon dioxide thousands of times daily as it orbits the planet, providing the data to create very precise carbon dioxide maps that will help us confirm the whereabouts, nature and efficiency of the sinks absorbing the 30 percent of carbon dioxide that disappears each year from the atmosphere," said Steve Wofsy, a professor of atmospheric and environmental chemistry at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and a co-investigator for the mission.

Carbon, a chemical element that is the basis of all known life and part of the chemical compound carbon dioxide, is the basic "currency" of the carbon cycle. It is "inhaled" by sinks to fuel photosynthesis in plant life. It is "exhaled" by natural sources when plant life dies or burns, and through human activities like the burning of fossil fuels, crops and forests.

If we think of Earth as "breathing," the balance between photosynthesis, or "inhaling," and respiration, or "exhaling," was about equal until humans began mining and burning large amounts of fossilized organic matter like coal, oil and natural gas a couple of hundred years ago.

Until about 1990, most scientists believed land was primarily a source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere because forests are continuously being destroyed by human activities like deforestation in tropical areas, urban and suburban development, and land clearing for farming.

"The amazing truth is that on a global scale, photosynthesis is greater than decomposition and has been for decades," said Denning. "Believe it or not, plant life is growing faster than it's dying. This means land is a net sink for carbon dioxide, rather than a net source."

Denning outlined the six different ways carbon dioxide sinks can develop on land:

Carbon dioxide fertilization, a process often prominent in land areas, happens when more carbon dioxide in the air stimulates photosynthesis to produce a temporary "bump" in the growth rates of plant life.

Agricultural abandonment occurs where once-deforested land formerly used as family farms is abandoned, allowing forests to re-grow into terrestrial carbon dioxide sinks.

Forest fire suppression, the aggressive extinguishing of forest fires that has led to preservation of more wooded areas than existed 100 years ago, saves trees that pull carbon dioxide from the air for growth.

Woody encroachment occurs when cattle graze on grass but leave behind carbon dioxide-absorbing woody shrubs that accumulate over land ranges throughout the western U.S. and elsewhere.

Boreal, or northern, warming takes place in northern latitude forests that are experiencing longer frost-free growing seasons due to global warming, allowing more woody growth and more absorption of carbon dioxide.

Lastly, carbon dioxide sinks are created when nitrogen in agricultural fertilizer or nitrogen oxide from car emissions dissolves into clouds, spreads for hundreds of miles on vegetation with rainfall, and acts in tandem with carbon dioxide fertilization to accelerate plant growth.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will help scientists locate and characterize areas experiencing these biological processes.

"The future behavior of carbon dioxide sinks is one of the most uncertain things in predicting climate in the 21st century," said Denning. "Mapping today's sinks will allow us to measure how much of the carbon budget is controlled by carbon dioxide intake from ocean mixing, versus carbon dioxide fertilization, versus forest re-growth, etc. If we can determine that current land sinks are dominated by carbon dioxide fertilization, it would buy us more time to develop alternative energy and other mitigation measures."

Past attempts by researchers to measure terrestrial carbon dioxide were limited by an inability to account for the different ages of forests or how disturbances to the forests have affected their ability to absorb carbon dioxide. Similar attempts to measure carbon dioxide in human-managed ecosystems like cropland, pastures, golf courses and suburban landscapes are also difficult because such areas are so varied and numerous.

"We're expecting the Orbiting Carbon Observatory to allow us to identify the precise geographic locations of these 'missing' carbon dioxide-absorbing areas as well as the make-up of the sinks and the rate at which they soak up carbon dioxide," said Wofsy. "The efficiency of a sink and its location with respect to that of sources emitting carbon dioxide has critical implications for our ability to regulate carbon dioxide in global efforts to offset the well-documented global climate warming trend. We're anticipating a big step forward on this front with the Orbiting Carbon Observatory's help."

For more information on the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, visit: www.nasa.gov/oco .



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From: Subscription email

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena , Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Steve Cole 202-358-0918
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

News release: 2008-012, Jan. 29, 2009

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's first spacecraft dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide is in final preparations for a Feb. 23 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California . Carbon dioxide is the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth's climate.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will provide the first complete picture of human and natural carbon dioxide sources as well as their "sinks," the places where carbon dioxide is pulled out of the atmosphere and stored. It will map the global geographic distribution of these sources and sinks and study their changes over time. The measurements will be combined with data from ground stations, aircraft and other satellites to help answer questions about the processes that regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide and its role in Earth's climate and carbon cycle.

Mission data will help scientists reduce uncertainties in predicting future carbon dioxide increases and make more accurate climate change predictions. Policymakers and business leaders can use the data to make more informed decisions that improve the quality of life on Earth.

"It's critical that we understand the processes controlling carbon dioxide in our atmosphere today so we can predict how fast it will build up in the future and how quickly we'll have to adapt to climate change caused by carbon dioxide buildup," said David Crisp, principal investigator for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"The Orbiting Carbon Observatory's carbon dioxide measurements will be pivotal in advancing our knowledge of virtually all Earth system land, atmosphere, and ocean processes," said Michael Freilich, director of NASA's Earth Science Division in Washington . "They will play crucial roles in refining our knowledge of climate forcings and Earth's response processes."

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is determined by the balance between its sources and the sinks where it is absorbed on land and in the ocean. Human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning and deforestation, have upset Earth's carbon cycle balance. Since the Industrial Revolution began in 1750, atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased from about 280 parts per million to about 385 parts per million. Climate models indicate increased greenhouse gases have been the primary driver of Earth's increasing surface temperature.

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.

The new observatory will dramatically improve global carbon dioxide measurements, collecting about 8 million measurements every 16 days for at least two years with the precision, resolution and coverage needed to characterize carbon dioxide's global distribution. Scientists need these precise measurements because carbon dioxide varies by just 10 parts per million throughout the year on regional to continental scales.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory's three high-resolution spectrometers spread reflected sunlight into its various colors like a prism. Each spectrometer focuses on a different, narrow color range, detecting light with the specific colors absorbed by carbon dioxide and molecular oxygen. The less carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere, the more light the spectrometers detect. By analyzing the amount of light, scientists can determine relative concentrations of these chemicals. The data will then be input into computer models of the global atmosphere to quantify carbon dioxide sources and sinks.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will be launched on a Taurus XL rocket into a 438-mile near-polar orbit. It will lead five other NASA satellites that cross the equator each day shortly after noon, making a wide range of nearly simultaneous Earth observations.

For more information about the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, visit: www.nasa.gov/oco .

JPL manages the Orbiting Carbon Observatory for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington . The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles , Va. , built the spacecraft and the Taurus XL rocket and provides mission operations under JPL leadership. NASA's Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center , Fla. , leads launch and countdown management.


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From: subscription email

Totally, Jon.

Here's another one I dug out online - fuel cells, photoelectrolysis, and other stuff like that:

______________________________________

"BELTA"
Saturday, 31 January 2009
18:55

Belarusian, French scientists to create unique equipment to study air pollution in Antarctica
The B.I. Stepanov Physics Institute and the National Scientific Research Center of France plan to create unique equipment to measure air pollution in Antarctica, academician Valentin Orlovich, President of the Research Council of the Belarusian National Fund for Fundamental Research, told media in Minsk on January 29.

It will be a lidar station able to measure the pollution of each atmospheric stratum, he said. No other country has such equipment. The project is supposed to be accomplished within the next one-two years.

Valentin Orlovich said, Belarusian and French scientists have been cooperating in lidar technologies for years. For instance, at present a polarizing spectrum scanning solar radiometer is used near the Belarusian polar expedition camp Mount Vechernyaya. The device was made in France and uses Belarusian software to measure overall atmospheric pollution in Antarctica.

In the future the B.I. Stepanov Physics Institute and the National Scientific Research Center of France plan to expand areas of cooperation. During a recent visit of a delegation of French scientists to Minsk a decision was made to implement new projects for the development of fuel cells with proton-exchange membranes for better power conversion effectiveness, to study uses of ferrofluids in instrument making, to develop a method for forming nanostructured titanium dioxide porous films and using them to create devices for water photoelectrolysis. Apart from that, scientific basis will be created for manufacturing corrosion-proof and thermal resistant materials, microlasers and laser radiation transformers and other innovations.

_______________________________________

Feature, February 5, 2009

Recent years have seen an increase in record-setting events related to climate change. For example, 2005 was the warmest year globally in more than a century, and in 2007, Arctic sea ice retreated more than in any other time in recorded history. A new NASA mission set to launch later this month will help scientists better understand the most important human-produced greenhouse gas contributing to climate change: carbon dioxide. Called the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, the satellite may help us better predict how our climate may change in the future.

Scientists rely on models to forecast future impacts of carbon dioxide on Earth's climate. When the carbon dioxide concentrations used in, or predicted by, these models are not accurate, the resulting climate projections can have a large degree of uncertainty. To accurately predict atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in the future, we need to understand natural and human sources of carbon dioxide, as well as the natural "sinks" that remove this gas from our atmosphere.

The rapid buildup of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels is a relatively well understood and predictable source. Other impacts, however, such as forestry and agricultural practices, which can act as either sources or sinks, are far harder to predict with confidence. More importantly, measurements from a global network of greenhouse gas monitoring stations indicate that more than half of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities is currently being absorbed by the ocean and by plants on land. But the current ground-based carbon dioxide monitoring network does not have the coverage or resolution needed to identify sufficiently the natural sinks responsible for absorbing this carbon dioxide. In addition, the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by natural sinks varies dramatically from year to year, for reasons that are largely unknown. Because the nature, location and processes controlling these natural sinks are not well understood, it is impossible to accurately predict how much carbon dioxide they might absorb in the future as the climate changes. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory aims to help resolve these and other open carbon-cycle questions.

"The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will provide the initial steps in the journey of measuring carbon dioxide from space, and the discoveries will be profound-we'll gather basic information about the distribution of carbon that we wouldn't have been able to do any other way," says Graeme Stephens of Colorado State University, Fort Collins, a co-investigator on the Orbiting Carbon Observatory science team.

Researchers have shown that warming, particularly from greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide, is driving Earth's climate toward "tipping points." Those are the points at which temperatures could set in motion processes that are very difficult to reverse. One potential example is the runaway disintegration of Arctic sea ice and of the West Antarctic ice sheet. In this scenario, warmer temperatures melt more ice and create more open water, which absorbs more heat. This, in turn, melts more ice, in a process that feeds upon itself.

Research by James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, and colleagues suggests that to avoid dangerous tipping points, Earth's atmosphere should be limited to a carbon dioxide concentration of 450 parts per million at the most, and potentially much lower. Today, the level of carbon dioxide is about 385 parts per million, and over the last few decades that number has been rising by about two parts per million per year. But arriving at models that accurately predict how carbon dioxide levels will change in the future depends, in part, on whether researchers can collect enough data to untangle the mysteries of the carbon cycle.

"As human-caused emissions change, what will happen to the carbon budget [the contribution of carbon dioxide's various sources]?" Stephens asked. "There's a gross lack of understanding as to where the re-absorbed carbon is going because it's currently impossible to make global observations to see how carbon dioxide varies on both global and regional scales."

Currently, a sparse network of stations across the globe collects precise measurements of carbon dioxide near Earth's surface, but the number of stations is limited and most are located far away from power plants, automobiles and other sources of carbon dioxide. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will complement the ground-based network by collecting thousands of times as many measurements over the sunlit side of Earth. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite now routinely provides global maps of carbon dioxide at altitudes between 5 and 13 kilometers (3 and 8 miles) high, where it is most efficient as a greenhouse gas. Orbiting Carbon Observatory measurements will complement those from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder because they are much more sensitive to the concentration of carbon dioxide near Earth's surface, where most of it is emitted by sources or absorbed by sinks.

Measurements from ground stations and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder have already shown that the level of carbon dioxide is more varied throughout the atmosphere than was previously believed. The levels fluctuate with weather and temperature and are influenced by land plants and the ocean. It's the goal of carbon cycle models to explain and ultimately predict the response of this complex system.

"It's like a domino effect," Stephens said. "The climate system is so interconnected, and the carbon dioxide system is an integral part of that system."

A new generation of climate modelers already considers the interactions of carbon between land, ocean and atmosphere. These models predict that the growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide and of global warming will accelerate as Earth's land and ocean show a decreased capacity to absorb carbon dioxide. But with the current scant observations of the carbon system, the magnitude and timing of such model predictions are highly uncertain. The next generation of carbon-climate models will better represent these systems, thanks to more abundant global carbon dioxide data from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory and other future satellite missions. And while the data from these new satellites may not be as precise as data from ground stations, the models will nonetheless improve due to the tremendous volume of data from across the globe and throughout the atmosphere.

Researchers expect the volume of carbon dioxide data to increase dramatically. "This is tremendous," says Inez Fung of the University of California , Berkeley, a co-investigator on the Orbiting Carbon Observatory science team. "There is much horizontal and vertical variation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to sources and sinks and turbulent mixing processes that vary between day and night, from place to place, and from season to season. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will give scientists a much more complete global picture of how the carbon cycle works."

The observatory will measure the percentage of carbon dioxide present within columns of the atmosphere that span less than 4.1 square kilometers (1.6 square miles) on the surface and extend all the way up to the satellite 705 kilometers (438 miles) above. "This is a major advance over the traditional surface observations, which are sparse and which sample only at fixed heights and mostly near the ground," Fung said.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory information will allow researchers to "see" for the first time carbon dioxide sources and sinks. The information will allow researchers to assess, or "rank," the performance of carbon-climate models and will help to flag areas that need additional study. Researchers also expect the observatory to turn up surprises where little or no carbon dioxide data have been taken, such as over Africa, Eurasia and the open ocean.

"I am extremely excited-I have been working on the carbon cycle for over 25 years and have been hampered by the data scarcity," Fung said. "Christmas is coming."

For more information on the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, see: www.nasa.gov/oco .

This image shows the past half-century of carbon dioxide trends, beginning in 1950 when global industrialization took off. A more complete understanding of Earth's carbon cycle gained from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory will help researchers arrive at models that better predict future trends. Credit: NASA


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From : subscription email

Feature, February 10, 2009


The challenge: very precisely measure carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere all over the world, especially near Earth's surface.

For Orbiting Carbon Observatory Principal Investigator David Crisp of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and his team, the logical solution was an Earth-orbiting spacecraft. But shopping for a science instrument that could accomplish these objectives was no easy task.

In this case, "shopping" meant finding the right technology to meet the mission's demanding requirements. The observatory contains a custom-built instrument designed to make what Deputy Principal Investigator Charles Miller of JPL calls "the most difficult atmospheric trace-gas measurement that's ever been made from space." To put that measurement challenge into perspective, consider that all of Earth's trace gases combined, including carbon dioxide, make up less than one percent of Earth's atmosphere. In addition, carbon dioxide levels vary by only about two percent from pole to pole. To substantially increase our understanding of how carbon dioxide sources (places where carbon dioxide is emitted) and sinks (places where it is absorbed, or stored) are geographically distributed on regional scales and study how their distribution changes over time, the new mission needed to be able to resolve differences in atmospheric carbon dioxide as small as 0.3 percent on regional scales every month.

While one spaceborne instrument is already making carbon dioxide measurements from space-the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on NASA's Aqua satellite-it sees the gas high up in the atmosphere, not near the surface, where it is emitted and where some of it is absorbed into land systems and the ocean. An instrument designed from the start to measure carbon dioxide down to Earth's surface was clearly needed.

Enter NASA's team of experts in atmospheric science, remote sensing instrumentation and the optical properties of the atmosphere's components.

The principle behind the observatory's measurement is relatively simple. Carbon dioxide, like all molecules, has an affinity for certain colors, or wavelengths, of light that have exactly the right energy to make the molecule vibrate or rotate at specific frequencies. A good analogy would be how a radio broadcasts sounds when it is tuned to a specific channel. So, if you could shine a light through Earth's atmosphere and see how the different colors that are sensitive to carbon dioxide respond, you could use that information to calculate how much carbon dioxide is present. Do this precisely enough and often enough and it would be possible to see changes in carbon dioxide levels over time-the key to identifying carbon dioxide sources and sinks.

The observatory uses the sun as its light source. To measure changes in sunlight as it passes through the atmosphere, its instrument incorporates a trio of high-resolution grating spectrometers, which divide light from the sun into a very fine rainbow of colors called a spectrum. They are known as grating spectrometers because they use a grate, or grid, to partition light into different wavelengths.

"You can see a good example of how a grating spectrometer works by looking at the back of a compact disc illuminated by a bright light," said Crisp. "The narrow circular tracks that record the information on the disk are very effective at splitting light into different colors."

As the Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite circles the globe, the telescope on its instrument captures sunlight reflected by the surface below-light that has traveled from the sun, down through Earth's atmosphere and back up again to space. It sends the light to the three spectrometers, each of which looks at a different range of colors and breaks that spectral range down even further into more than 1,000 discrete colors. Two of the three spectral ranges that the spectrometers target are sensitive to carbon dioxide, and one responds to molecular oxygen.

The resulting spectra look something like bar codes, with dark lines showing where carbon dioxide or oxygen have absorbed specific colors. "By measuring the fraction of the light that has been absorbed in each of these dark lines, we can count the number of carbon dioxide or oxygen molecules in the atmosphere," said Crisp.

Three separate digital detectors, one for each spectrometer, record a spectrum three times each second as the observatory flies above Earth's surface. Fast exposures are essential because the spacecraft moves at more than four miles per second along its orbit track. "We don't want long exposures that could include clouds as well as clear sky within individual exposures," says Crisp. "We also want to take the data fast and get more clear views to the surface."

While similar to the digital detectors in an ordinary camera, the observatory's detectors take advantage of advances from the world of astronomy to achieve the greatest possible sensitivity. "These detectors were originally developed to measure objects that are faint, fuzzy and far-away," said Crisp. "Here, we use them to measure very fine details in the spectrum of sunlight reflected from Earth."

The three spectral ranges measured by the observatory's spectrometers are in the near-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, invisible to the human eye. Each provides a critical piece of information. One provides precise information about changes in the amount of carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere, while the others show just how much of the atmosphere is being measured. "We need all three of these measurements to do the job," said Crisp.

One spectral range absorbs carbon dioxide relatively weakly, but it measures carbon dioxide the most precisely, especially near Earth's surface.

The second spectral range absorbs carbon dioxide much more strongly, so much so that almost all of the light in this part of the spectrum is absorbed completely as it traverses the atmosphere. Adding more carbon dioxide produces little additional absorption, so this wavelength is less useful for showing changes in carbon dioxide amounts. However, it does provide needed information about the pathway the light has taken. It helps determine whether the observatory is looking at light coming up all the way from the surface, or if clouds or aerosols, such as particles of smog or smoke, have gotten in the way and reflected the light back to space before it can be absorbed by carbon dioxide.

The third spectral range shows how much oxygen is present in the light's pathway, another way to determine how much atmosphere the light has passed through.

"Oxygen makes up about 21 percent of the atmosphere," explained Crisp. "Because we know the concentration, we know how much sunlight it should absorb over any particular surface elevation. If the sunlight penetrates all the way to sea level before it is reflected back to the spacecraft, it will produce more absorption than if it penetrates only to the top of a mountain or to the top of a cloud before it is reflected to space. We can even use measurements of the oxygen absorption to infer the surface pressure differences associated with elevation changes as small as 100 feet. We can also detect scattering by very thin clouds or hazes that reflect less than one percent of light back to space. These precise measurements of the atmospheric optical path are essential for accurate carbon dioxide measurements."

The high-resolution grating spectrometers and the digital detectors make it possible to make these measurements from a space-based instrument, according to Crisp.

Another technological challenge for the mission was designing the instrument to meet the strict size and energy requirements of an Earth-orbiting spacecraft.

"One of the most challenging aspects of the mission was not inventing components, but fitting a big instrument into a small spacecraft about the size of a phone booth and designing it to use very little power," said JPL's Randy Pollock, the mission's instrument systems engineer. The observatory's instrument uses only about 100 watts of electricity, while the entire spacecraft uses only 400-500 watts, about half the amount used by most microwave ovens.

Once received back on Earth, the observatory's data will be analyzed to yield estimates of the carbon dioxide concentration over Earth's sunlit hemisphere at spatial resolutions as small as one square mile using complex mathematical algorithms. Scientists will then analyze these carbon dioxide estimates using global transport models similar to those used for weather prediction to quantify carbon dioxide sources and sinks.

"Carbon dioxide is the primary human-produced greenhouse gas and, therefore, the primary human-caused driver of global warming," said Crisp. "To estimate the rate of global warming, we have to understand the processes controlling the buildup of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. Global, space-based monitoring systems like the Orbiting Carbon Observatory are essential tools for this task. The technology we validate on this mission will be used to develop future carbon dioxide monitoring missions."

For more information on the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, visit: www.nasa.gov/oco .


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From: subscription email

Feature, February 19, 2009

As the concentration of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere continues to rise, so also does public awareness, as well as efforts to find solutions to this global problem. Increasing concentrations of this potent greenhouse gas threaten to alter Earth's climate in ways that will have profound impacts on the welfare and productivity of society and Earth's ecosystems.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientist Charles David Keeling's Mauna Loa carbon dioxide record, the longest continuous record of atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements. Until now, precise ground-based measurements such as these have been the main tool for scientists monitoring the rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

Comparisons of these data with carbon dioxide emission rates from fossil fuel combustion, biomass burning and other human activities tell us that only about half of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere during this period has remained there. The rest has apparently been absorbed by surface "sinks" in the land biosphere or oceans. These measurements also show that, despite the steady long-term growth of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the buildup varies dramatically from year to year, even though emissions have increased smoothly. However, the ground-based carbon dioxide monitoring network is too sparse to identify the locations of these sinks or tell us what controls changes in their efficiency from year to year.

NASA's new Orbiting Carbon Observatory is designed to help meet this need. It will measure the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over any spot on Earth's surface and establish a record of how carbon dioxide concentrations change over time. Observations from the mission will improve our understanding of the carbon cycle—the movement of carbon among its "reservoirs" in the Earth system—and help us understand the influence of the carbon cycle on climate.

The observatory's ability to locate and monitor changes in carbon sources (places where carbon is generated) and sinks (places where carbon is absorbed or stored) will provide valuable information to support decision making by those responsible for managing carbon in the environment. It will assist them in developing effective strategies for managing global carbon dioxide and monitoring the effectiveness of those strategies.

Phil DeCola, a senior policy analyst in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and former Orbiting Carbon Observatory program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said solving the scientific mystery of the missing sinks and their curious variability is likely to have large policy and economic impacts.

"If the nations of the world take serious action to limit the use of fossil fuels, the right to emit carbon dioxide will become scarcer, and emission rights would become an increasingly valuable traded commodity," DeCola said. "Observations of the location, amount and rate of carbon dioxide emission into the air, as well as the stock and flow of all forms of carbon on land and in the ocean, will be needed to manage such a world market fairly and efficiently."

Two commonly discussed strategies for reducing the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide are a carbon tax and a "cap-and-trade" system. A carbon tax is a fee imposed on activities, such as burning of fossil fuels, which emit carbon compounds into the atmosphere. The carbon tax reduces carbon emissions by encouraging efficiencies of use, or by alternative, non-carbon emitting processes.

Cap-and-trade systems establish limits on the carbon emissions that a company, industry or country is allowed to produce. Those who exceed their established limits must compensate by either purchasing emissions rights from those whose carbon dioxide emissions fall below their established limits, or by arranging, through contracts, for sequestration (i.e., storage) of their excess emissions in plants, soils or beneath Earth's surface. Effective use of either strategy requires more accurate information on the existing sources, sinks and fluxes of carbon dioxide, information that the Orbiting Carbon Observatory can help provide.

"The new mission will provide information to help develop and implement domestic policies and international collaborations to control the movement of carbon in the environment," said Edwin Sheffner, deputy chief of Earth Science at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "By identifying and monitoring carbon sources and sinks within a given region, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory will enable comparisons of net carbon dioxide emission sources among regions and counties, and will improve annual reporting of carbon budgets by industrial countries in northern latitudes, and by tropical states with large forests."

"Future monitoring systems based on Orbiting Carbon Observatory technology could report on regional carbon sources and sinks to verify carbon reporting for many countries as well," he added.

Use of Orbiting Carbon Observatory data in ecosystem models may reduce uncertainties about carbon uptake, a required part of any carbon management effort. The mission will help clarify the quantity of carbon dioxide being removed from the atmosphere in different geographic regions. For example, more carbon appears to be taken up by coastal and terrestrial ecosystems in North America than in many other parts of the world. Orbiting Carbon Observatory observations will help determine the specific roles that Alaska, Canada, the contiguous United States and Mexico play in this North American carbon sink. Understanding the relative roles of different regions will help policymakers develop the most efficient carbon dioxide sequestration and reduction policies.

The observatory's measurements may also have direct applications for a variety of current efforts to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. While the mission will not be able to identify small, individual sources of carbon dioxide emissions, it will likely be able to detect high-emission events such as gas flares, where unwanted gas or other materials are burned in large quantities. This ability could allow it to verify adherence to policies aimed at reducing such flares.

Orbiting Carbon Observatory data will also have implications for land management and agricultural practices. Plants take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere as they grow—a natural type of carbon sequestration. By repeating its measurements over multiple seasons and over regions with different types of vegetation, such as cornfields or grasslands, the observatory will help identify how changes in land use affect the amount of carbon being sequestered.

Agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture may base policies for crop production and land conservation, in part, on information from Orbiting Carbon Observatory observations, according to Sheffner. Similar observations can be used by the Department of Energy to help evaluate the carbon-capture potential of various biofuels and to assess their impacts on the environment and the carbon cycle. "These findings will influence both near- and long-term policy decisions related to alternative energy," Sheffner added. In regions with large-scale agricultural land cover, Orbiting Carbon Observatory-type observations over several growing seasons could help quantify the relative roles of different types of crops and assess the effectiveness of rangeland management strategies in statewide carbon budget management.

Orbiting Carbon Observatory data may also prove to be an important addition to the ongoing effort by the California Air Resources Board and NASA scientists to improve California's database on fluctuations in greenhouse gas emissions. "These state figures, when used to enhance NASA ecosystem carbon models, can increase our precision and confidence in the allocation of industrial sources of carbon dioxide emissions as compared to emissions caused by terrestrial events such as wildfires or crop production," Sheffner said.

Evaluation of the ocean, which takes up about one third of the carbon humans put into the atmosphere, and its role in the global carbon cycle, will also benefit from the new mission's observations. Orbiting Carbon Observatory data may help show how large-scale ocean events, such as El Niño or La Niña, affect carbon storage in the deep ocean and in coastal regions. They may also help verify the impacts of these events on carbon storage on the continents, such as reduced plant growth during an El Niño-influenced drought in the U.S. Southwest.

"As the ocean absorbs large amounts of carbon dioxide, seawater becomes more acidic, potentially threatening marine life. By monitoring changes in the ocean's carbon uptake, the mission may shed new light on ocean acidification and the resulting changes in ocean ecosystems," said Sheffner. Knowing more about how ocean carbon levels fluctuate will also help scientists evaluate the possibility of using biological or chemical processes in the ocean to sequester carbon and perhaps even mitigate ocean acidification.

Sheffner explained that the Orbiting Carbon Observatory may also aid efforts to find effective ways to store excess carbon safely underground. Combining mission data with observations from airborne and ground-based instruments will create much more accurate maps of global carbon sources and sinks than were ever possible before. "Once we have a better understanding of the 'background' fluctuations in carbon dioxide near proposed underground carbon storage sites, the observatory's data could be useful for monitoring underground carbon storage sites for leakage," he explained.

"The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will provide information needed for evaluating policy options and monitoring the effectiveness of efforts to reduce carbon emissions and increase carbon sequestration locally, regionally and globally," Sheffner said, in summing up.

Looking to the future, DeCola said the mission will serve as a prototype for the next generation of greenhouse gas space missions. "The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will be an important experiment because its results will be used to develop the future long-term, space-based missions needed to monitor carbon dioxide for science and decision support," he said.

For more information on the Orbiting Carbon Observatory, see: www.nasa.gov/oco .


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From: subscription email

A-a-and there we go:


________________________________________

Alan Buis 818-653-8339
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Steve Cole 202-657-2194
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

George Diller 805-605-3051
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
George.h.diller@nasa.gov

RELEASE: 2009-026 Feb. 24, 2009

NASA's Launch of Carbon-Seeking Satellite is Unsuccessful

PASADENA -- NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite failed to reach orbit after its 1:55 a.m. PST liftoff Tuesday from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Preliminary indications are that the fairing on the Taurus XL launch vehicle failed to separate. The fairing is a clamshell structure that encapsulates the satellite as it travels through the atmosphere.

A Mishap Investigation Board will be immediately convened to determine the cause of the launch failure.

For more information, visit:

www.nasa.gov



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_________________________________________


From: subscription email

Alan Buis 818-354-0474/354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.D.Buis@jpl.nasa.gov

INTERNET ADVISORY: 2009-048, March 12, 2008

New interactive features on NASA's Global Climate Change Web site give the public the opportunity to "fly along" with NASA's fleet of Earth science missions and observe Earth from a global perspective in an immersive, 3-D environment.

Developed using a state-of-the-art, browser-based visualization technology, "Eyes on the Earth 3-D" displays the location of all of NASA's 15 currently operating Earth-observing missions in real time. These missions constantly monitor our planet's vital signs, such as sea level height, concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, global temperatures and extent of sea ice in the Arctic, to name a few.

The new "Eyes on the Earth 3-D" features are online at: climate.jpl.nasa.gov .

Visitors to "Eyes on the Earth 3-D" can:

- Ride along with a spacecraft, observing Earth as it sweeps below in accelerated time.

- View authentic data maps of ozone, sea level or carbon dioxide distribution, mapped onto the surface of the globe.

- Compare the size of each satellite to a car or a scientist.

- Blast through a global carbon dioxide map to uncover some of the world's most populous cities in the new interactive game, "Metropolis."

"This innovative new Web application gives the public an unprecedented perspective on our changing planet, as only NASA can," said Michael Greene, manager for public engagement strategy at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

NASA's Global Climate Change Web site is devoted to educating the public about Earth's changing climate, providing easy-to-understand information about the causes and effects of climate change and how NASA studies it. For more on NASA's Earth Science Program, visit: www.nasa.gov. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.


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From: subscription email

By LiveScience Staff
posted: 08 April 2009 07:03 pm ET

As a last resort, the White House would look at shooting particles into the atmosphere to cool the climate, Obama's new science adviser John Holdren told the Associated Press. Some media are playing up the "radical" aspect of the idea.
Well, it's certainly out there, and there's no agreement among scientists as to whether it'd be smart. Here's how it would work:

Certain types of aerosols, or tiny particles suspended in the air, are thought to have an overall cooling effect on the atmosphere. These particles intercept some solar radiation and scatter it back into space. The cooling effect on the Earth's climate can be seen after a volcanic eruption, which can spew millions of tons of sulfur into the atmosphere. Some scientists have suggested that we mimic nature and inject a bunch of sulfur into the atmosphere to counteract global warming. One problem with this plan is the increased amount of acid rain this would generate. Another is that sulfur would have to be regularly injected into the atmosphere to keep up the cooling, or global warming would pick up right where it left off.

Read more about this and 9 other wild and crazy environmental ideas, www.livescience.com/environm...deas.html , we looked at recently as ways to improve the health of the planet, including such complex tasks as burying carbon underground and simple ideas like changing your diet.

Holdren (and presumably his boss) are worried we'll reach a tipping point on global warming before emissions can be reigned in. Like many scientists, the White House aims to reduce emissions. But how? That's fast becoming the multi-billion dollar question, as high-profile fuels like ethanol have not panned out as expected, and energy companies are not as excited about funding alternative projects as many had hoped.

Go here to vote on the one you think we should pour money into - www.livescience.com/environm...poll.html


Original Story: www.livescience.com/environm...plan.html

By Livescience Staff
posted: 14 April 2009 11:36 am ET


Solar power beamed down from space will generate electricity for California homes as soon as 2016, under a new plan by a utility company to ramp up renewable energy technology far beyond solar panels on roofs.

PG&E would buy 200 megawatts of space solar power from Solaren Corp. over 15 years under a power purchase agreement, enough to power tens of thousands of homes. The utility company has begun seeking approval for the deal from California state regulators.

Solaren would use solar panels on satellites in orbit to capture the sun's power, and then convert it into radio frequency energy that could beam down to a receiving station. The energy would then undergo a conversion to electricity and feed into PG&E's power grid.

Having solar panels in orbit could provide a clean, reliable source of solar power that avoids the interruptions of cloudy days and bad weather on Earth. That tempting prospect has led NASA, www.space.com/businesstec...r-obama.html , and the U.S. Defense Department to investigate possibilities, www.livescience.com/environm...olar.html , for space solar power, despite the hefty cost of launching solar panels into orbit.

A former NASA scientist went so far as to demonstrate the radio wave transmission technology that would carry energy from space to Earth. He and his team transmitted solar power, www.livescience.com/space/08...test.html , over a distance of 92 miles between two Hawaiian islands, during a four-month experiment in 2008.


Beaming Solar Power from Space - Mafic Studios depicts how solar power satellites could beam energy to Earth from orbit in this animation. Credit: Mafic Studios, Inc. - Video: www.livescience.com/common/m...layer.php


No one has built a system with equivalent size and scale to what Solaren envisions. But the transmission technology is "very mature" and based on what communications satellites use today, said Gary Spirnak, Solaren CEO.

"For over 45 years, satellites have collected solar energy in Earth orbit via solar cells, and converted it to radio frequency energy for transmissions to Earth receive stations," Spirnak noted.

The pilot power satellites designed by Solaren would make use of existing launch capabilities, meaning that the plan does not require new types of rockets. The ground receiving station would also sit close to existing power transmission lines, somewhere in Fresno County, Calif.

More details about Solaren's pilot project for its power satellites are expected this summer.


Original Story: www.livescience.com/technolo...olar.html

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Steve Cole 202-358-0918
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2009-107, July 7, 2009


PASADENA, Calif. – Arctic sea ice thinned dramatically between the winters of 2004 and 2008, with thin seasonal ice replacing thick older ice as the dominant type for the first time on record. The new results, based on data from a NASA Earth-orbiting spacecraft, provide further evidence for the rapid, ongoing transformation of the Arctic's ice cover.

Scientists from NASA and the University of Washington in Seattle conducted the most comprehensive survey to date using observations from NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite, known as ICESat, to make the first basin-wide estimate of the thickness and volume of the Arctic Ocean's ice cover. Ron Kwok of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., led the research team, which published its findings July 7 in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Oceans.

The Arctic ice cap grows each winter as the sun sets for several months and intense cold ensues. In the summer, wind and ocean currents cause some of the ice naturally to flow out of the Arctic, while much of it melts in place. But not all of the Arctic ice melts each summer; the thicker, older ice is more likely to survive. Seasonal sea ice usually reaches about 2 meters (6 feet) in thickness, while multi-year ice averages 3 meters (9 feet).

Using ICESat measurements, scientists found that overall Arctic sea ice thinned about 0.17 meters (7 inches) a year, for a total of 0.68 meters (2.2 feet) over four winters. The total area covered by the thicker, older "multi-year" ice that has survived one or more summers shrank by 42 percent.

Previously, scientists relied only on measurements of area to determine how much of the Arctic Ocean is covered in ice, but ICESat makes it possible to monitor ice thickness and volume changes over the entire Arctic Ocean for the first time. The results give scientists a better understanding of the regional distribution of ice and provide better insight into what is happening in the Arctic.

"Ice volume allows us to calculate annual ice production and gives us an inventory of the freshwater and total ice mass stored in Arctic sea ice," said Kwok. "Even in years when the overall extent of sea ice remains stable or grows slightly, the thickness and volume of the ice cover is continuing to decline, making the ice more vulnerable to continued shrinkage. Our data will help scientists better understand how fast the volume of Arctic ice is decreasing and how soon we might see a nearly ice-free Arctic in the summer."

In recent years, the amount of ice replaced in the winter has not been sufficient to offset summer ice losses. The result is more open water in summer, which then absorbs more heat, warming the ocean and further melting the ice. Between 2004 and 2008, multi-year ice cover shrank 1.54 million square kilometers (595,000 square miles) -- nearly the size of Alaska's land area.

During the study period, the relative contributions of the two ice types to the total volume of the Arctic's ice cover were reversed. In 2003, 62 percent of the Arctic's total ice volume was stored in multi-year ice, with 38 percent stored in first-year seasonal ice. By 2008, 68 percent of the total ice volume was first-year ice, with 32 percent multi-year ice.

"One of the main things that has been missing from information about what is happening with sea ice is comprehensive data about ice thickness," said Jay Zwally, study co-author and ICESat project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "U.S. Navy submarines provide a long-term, high-resolution record of ice thickness over only parts of the Arctic. The submarine data agree with the ICESat measurements, giving us great confidence in satellites as a way of monitoring thickness across the whole Arctic Basin."

The research team attributes the changes in the overall thickness and volume of Arctic Ocean sea ice to the recent warming and anomalies in patterns of sea ice circulation.

"The near-zero replenishment of the multi-year ice cover, combined with unusual exports of ice out of the Arctic after the summers of 2005 and 2007, have both played significant roles in the loss of Arctic sea ice volume over the ICESat record," said Kwok.

For images of the Arctic sea ice decline, visit: www.nasa.gov/topics/eart...0090707.html .

For more information about ICESat, visit: icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov .

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit: www.nasa.gov .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.



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From: subscription email

love the work and the numbers... but since the recording of these numbers... we have had some significant eruptions and other volcanic activity. I still believe that we are not the source of the planetary problems...
Do they have levels taken after, well say Mount St Helens? to negate that particular natural addition?


Global warming? I was in Iowa last weekend and there was almost a frost In August! and we never hit 100 here in Missouri... makes ya wonder...