Article: Accounting from Above
Publishing Date: February 12th 2009
From: The Economist
Understanding the earth’s carbon cycle would answer many questions regarding the cause and effect of global climate change. Thus far, researchers have only been able to analyze specific areas of the earth with regards to greenhouse gases. However, the launching of two satellites that are designed to monitor greenhouse gases from space will provide concentration maps of areas around the entire globe.
The satellites Ibuki, launched by JAXA (Japanese space agency), and OCO (Orbiting Carbon Observatory), launched by NASA (American space agency), will be providing the information that will help the understanding of where carbon enters and leaves the atmosphere. Ibuki orbits the earth approximately every 100 minutes and it has two detectors that gather information from 56,000 places on the earth. It does this by measuring, with a spectrometer, the amount of sunlight that is reflected from the earth’s surface, therefore detecting the carbon and methane concentration (they both reflect sunlight, each in a unique way). OCO, which will be part of a larger group of satellites, orbits the earth every 99 minutes and studies the carbon dioxide and oxygen levels in the earth, again through reflected sunlight.
Currently, it is estimated that the carbon cycle turns over approximately 330 tons of carbon dioxide every year and oceans absorb approximately half of this. The satellites will provide information on this topic. In addition they can resolve debates over, for example, where the large surface ‘sink’ of atmospheric carbon dioxide is located, since they provide information on areas that are inaccessible to humans. Though the information they provide will be less precise, they will cover a much larger area and provide a lot of data.
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