OCO-2

Atmospheric Science

Updates:

● NASA Pinpoints Cause of Earth’s Recent Record Carbon Dioxide Spike

A new NASA study provides space-based evidence that Earth’s tropical regions were the cause of the largest annual increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration seen in at least 2,000 years... The findings are published in the journal Science Friday as part of a collection of five research papers based on OCO-2 data.

Via the LA Times / Oct 2017

How NASA tracks carbon emissions from space to better understand — and deal with — climate change

Global temperatures have been on the rise, thanks largely to the human-driven increase in greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. But not all of the carbon dioxide produced each year ends up in the atmosphere. Some of it ends up trapped in the ocean, or locked on land thanks to plants that use the gas during photosynthesis.

“We know how much we’re emitting when we burn fossil fuel, and we see that about half of it stays in the atmosphere and the other half appears to go get absorbed into the land and the ocean,” said Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) atmospheric scientist Annmarie Eldering, the mission’s deputy project scientist. “But there are still these questions of which parts of the land are doing that.”

Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, or OCO-2, was launched in July 2014 to help discover those mechanisms and solve that mystery...

“Now we can see that the tropical forest and plants didn’t absorb as much carbon as they usually do and that’s what caused this big increase in that time period,” Eldering explains.

Drought and higher temperatures have been linked to the climate change fueled by greenhouse gases. Now, it seems that there could be a vicious cycle at work.

“The projections of climate suggest there will be more heat and there will be more drought in the future,” Eldering says. “This would suggest that with more warmth and more heat, we’ll have more carbon left in the atmosphere, so that would even accelerate the growth rate of carbon dioxide.”

The results should help experts develop more effective strategies to deal with climate change in the future.

“If you want to make a good plan, you’ve got to have some good information,” she says. “This is going to add to that information, and hopefully be reflected in a better plan down the road.”

The findings come a few months after President Trump’s budget plan proposed to cut OCO-3, a follow-up mission that would continue OCO-2’s work.

More at Climate News

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OCO-2 / Orbiting Carbon Observatory Mission

● I am OCO-2 / Reporting home, follow my tweets from space

Climate deniers blame global warming on nature. This NASA data begs to differ

Earth atmosphere emission data begins to be made available -- Sept 2015

OCO-2 "Game Changing" Earth Science

New Definitions of National Security

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2015

Mission Reports

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) team refines mission... OCO-2 will orbit closer to CloudSat and CALIPSO in the Afternoon "A-Train" of Earth-circling satellites.

OCO-2 research team changes of OCO-2 orbit to enable pairing up one million daily measurements of carbon dioxide made by OCO-2 with cloud and aerosol measurements made by the other A-Train satellites.

Instrument calibration and data reprocessing updates result in improved visualizations of how carbon is moving around the planet, as baseline data is gathered and studied.

"Planet citizens/planet scientists" can now enter and utilize the Earth Observation open access database.

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March/April 2015

Follow OCO-2

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/oco2/index.html

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February 2015

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/february/new-nasa-earth-science-missions-expand-view-of-our-home-planet/

December 2014

Historic Orbiting Carbon Observatory Satellite Sends Back Most Detailed CO2 View Ever / Dec 18, 2014

The 'Initial Level 1 round' of data was made available to the public on Dec 30, 2014.

A full Level 2 set of CO2 data is scheduled to be available in March for scientists and the public "planet citizens" to download and explore.

Phys.org - Discovery - Weather - Nature

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● OCO-2 Data Portal

● OCO-2 Data Center

November

Counting carbon over Southern California - OCO-2 at work

October

Mission status report

September

OCO Orbit

Megacities

August

August 13th/Climate Central news report of first data

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist who develops software algorithms for OCO to retrieve information about carbon dioxide in our atmosphere

July 2, 2014

● OCO-2 Mission Overview

NASA Launches New Carbon-Sensing Mission to Monitor Earth’s Breathing

"Climate change is the challenge of our generation," says NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/july/nasa-launches-new-carbon-sensing-mission-to-monitor-earth-s-breathing/

Follow the tweets of the OCO-2 bird

OCO-2, a "game changer"... Follow the NASA climate blog

Earth Right Now

Climate.NASA

OCO Mission teams

"Game changing" science Unraveling mysteries

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Observing Global Warming with #OCO-2

Historic launch #PlanetCitizen mission to study #EarthsAtmosphere

"First Light!" [1] [2] OCO-2 announces 'We have data!'

OCO-2 tweets - https://twitter.com/IamOCO2

What monitoring a potential existential crisis looks like...spectra from #OCO-2 #Earth360

Earth observing satellites, Orbiting Carbon Observatory the "Afternoon Constellation", the "A-Train" joined by ‪#‎OCO-2 newly launched and historic in its mission to study global warming

"Watching the Earth Breathe from Space" [3] [4] [5] [6]

About the Earth Observatory Mission

OCO-2 Infographic

Where the Trees Are - US

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https://oco.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/quickfacts/

The OCO-2 Project primary science objective is to collect the first space-based measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide with the precision, resolution and coverage needed to characterize its sources and sinks and quantify their variability over the seasonal cycle. During its two-year mission, OCO-2 will fly in a sun-synchronous, near-polar orbit with a group of Earth-orbiting satellites with synergistic science objectives whose ascending node crosses the equator near 13:30 hours Mean Local Time (MLT). Near-global coverage of the sunlit portion of Earth is provided in this orbit over a 16-day (233-revolution) repeat cycle. OCO-2’s single instrument incorporates three high-resolution grating spectrometers, designed to measure the near-infrared absorption of reflected sunlight by carbon dioxide and molecular oxygen.

Further objectives include:

- Retrieve estimates of the column-averaged carbon dioxide dry air mole fraction (XCO2) on regional scales (1,000 kilometers or greater) from space-based measurements of the absorption of reflected sunlight by atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen, collected in cloud-free scenes at least 80 percent of the range of latitudes on the sunlit hemisphere at monthly intervals for two years.

- Compare space-based and ground-based XCO2 retrievals from soundings collected during overflights of three or more primary ground validation sites at least once each season to identify and correct global-scale systematic biases in the space-based XCO2 product and to demonstrate a precision of 0.3 percent or less for collections of 100 or more cloud-free soundings.

- Record, validate, publish and deliver science data records and calibrated geophysical data products to the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center for use by the scientific community.

- Validate a space-based measurement approach and analysis concept that could be used for future systematic carbon dioxide monitoring missions.

The main points for the mission are:

Message One: The burning of fossil fuels and other human activities are currently adding more than 36 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year, producing an unprecedented buildup in this important greenhouse gas. OCO-2 provides a new tool for understanding the sources of carbon dioxide emissions and how they are changing over time.

Message Two: Less than half of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere by human activities stays there. The location and identity of the natural “sinks” that are absorbing the rest of this carbon dioxide are currently not well understood. OCO-2 will help solve this critical scientific puzzle.

Sub-message: Knowing what parts of Earth are helping remove carbon from the atmosphere will help us understand if they will keep doing so in the future. OCO-2 measurements will help scientists construct better models to predict how much carbon dioxide these sinks will be able to absorb in the future.

Message Three: The innovative technologies incorporated into OCO-2 will enable space-based measurements of carbon dioxide with the sensitivity, resolution and coverage needed to understand human and natural sources of carbon dioxide emissions and the natural sinks that control its buildup, at regional scales, everywhere on Earth. Sub-message: To control carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, we need to be able to measure it. We can only manage what we can measure.

Message Four: OCO-2 will help assess the usefulness of space-based measurements of carbon dioxide for managing emissions of this important greenhouse gas.

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With launch of OCO-2, a "game changer", #Earth360 science will grow in unprecedented ways

#Earthdata enables informed decisions and policy

"You can manage only what you can measure"

File:Good science needs good data.png

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● #EarthScience data is coming in and being openly distributed

● Be a Planet Citizen, a Citizen Scientist

● Use your digital tools as a Planet Scientist and Citizen

● Take up the challenge with NEX and #OpenSource and #PlanetAPI ventures available for the first time

NASA NEX Earth Sciences Asks the Public to Join In

●Add your #PlanetCitizen talent to a future of seeing with an #EarthPOV

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Eyes on the Earth

NASA's 'Eyes on the Earth' Gets Sharper Vision

NASA's Eyes Monitor Our Planet's Vital Signs

Earth Science, Vital Signs

Earth Right Now

NASA/JPL Education

NASA Climate

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