NASA On Air: NASA's OCO-2 Satellite Provides First Global Maps Of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (12/16/2015)

LEAD: Year number one of data from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory (or OCO-2) satellite is providing NASA’s first detailed, global measurements of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

1. Every 16 days, during which it makes 232 orbits and 16 million soundings (measurements), the OCO-2 satellite yields a global view of CO2 with unprecedented detail.

2. Across the northern hemisphere, the annual CO2 concentration changes of 2 percent can be seen as the concentrations increase through blue, up to green, to yellow and to the high levels in red, and then back down.

3. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels recently surpassed a concentration of 400 parts per million, higher than any time in at least the past 400,000 years.

TAG: As carbon dioxide is the largest human-produced driver of our change climate, having regular observations from space is a major step in understanding and predicting climate change.