The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will launch Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), which will keep an eye on carbon dioxide, which is also responsible for climate changes on the Earth.
The project will cost NASA around $465 million and will be able to find where forests and oceans on the planet are reabsorbing the carbon present in the atmosphere. The reabsorbing of the atmospheric carbon is very important for Earth's temperature.
Scientists refer to 50 years of carbon dioxide measurements of the planet and reveal that more than 50 percent of the released carbon dioxide, either by human activities or natural process, is reabsorbed by forests and oceans. The scientists also say that even though the carbon dioxide release level has significantly increased, the reabsorption level remains very constant. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography claims that currently carbon dioxide concentration is 400 parts per million, when compared to 315 parts per million in the 1950's.
Ralph Basilio, project manager at OCO, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California says that even though the reabsorption level remains fairly constant it is important to understand how it varies from year to year. Basilio adds that if the reabsorption variability can be understood then scientists will be able to understand to a certain level on what may happen in the future.
OCO will be placed 438 miles, or 705 kms, above the Earth. The observatory will be inclined which will enable it to pass over the Earth at the same point and at the same time every 16 days. The inclined position of OCO will give scientists a better understanding on how carbon dioxide levels change over weeks, months and years.
"The data we will provide will help our decision-makers at both the local and federal levels be better-equipped to understand carbon dioxide's role in climate change because (the observatory) will be measuring this greenhouse globally," says Betsy Edwards, program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
This is not the first time that NASA is trying to launch OCO. In 2009, NASA launched the OCO but the launch failed. The government agreed to fund OCO-2, which will is expected to launch at 5:56 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 1, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
