The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), is NASA’s first spacecraft dedicated to making space-based observations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the principal human-produced driver of climate change. This new Earth science mission will have the accuracy, resolution and coverage needed to provide the first complete picture of the geographic distribution and seasonal variations of both human and natural sources of  carbon dioxide emissions and the places where they are being absorbed (sinks), at regional scales, mapping the globe once every 16 days.

Currently, about 380 out of every million molecules in the atmosphere is carbon dioxide.  Modeling studies show that the ability to estimate atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations to an accuracy of one to two parts per million (0.3 to 0.5 percent), on regional scales at monthly intervals, would dramatically improve our understanding of the natural processes and human activities that regulate the abundance and distribution of this important greenhouse gas. The observatory will use unique implementations of technologies and advanced analytical techniques to do just that.

Scientists will use data from the mission to make more reliable forecasts of future atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and how they may affect Earth’s climate. This exploratory science mission is designed to last at least two years, long enough to validate a novel, space-based measurement approach and analysis concept that could be
applied to future long-term, space-based carbon dioxide monitoring missions.

The observatory will fly at an altitude of 705 kilometers (438 miles), completing one near-polar Earth orbit every 98.8 minutes. The nearly north-south orbit track repeats every 16 days.

It will fly in a loose formation with the other Earth-observing satellites of NASA’s Afternoon Constellation, or “A-Train,” each of which monitors various aspects of the same region of the atmosphere at about the same time. .

Flying as part of the A-Train , (NASA’s Aqua, CloudSat, Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (Calipso) and Aura spacecrafts), will complement the mission’s science return.

Launch: No earlier than February 23, 2009, at 1:53 a.m. PST (4:53 a.m. EST) from Launch Complex 576-E, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

A secondary benefit to this mission is exact data, that will once and for all, put to rest the debate over humankind’s role in enhancing the greenhouse effect and contributing to overall global warming.

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Tags: Carbon dioxide, CloudSat, environment, global warming, greenhouse gas, nasa, Orbiting Carbon Observatory, Vandenberg Air Force Base

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