Earth  ID: 3440

Aqua/AIRS Global Carbon Dioxide

Visualizations by Lori Perkins Released on December 30, 2007
Although originally designed to measure atmospheric water vapor and temperature profiles for weather forecasting, data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft are now also being used by scientists to observe atmospheric carbon dioxide. Scientists from NASA; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey; and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Pasadena, Calif., are using several different methods to measure the concentration of carbon dioxide in the mid-troposphere (about eight kilometers, or five miles, above the surface). This visualization shows Aqua/AIRS mid-tropospheric carbon dioxide from July 2003. Low concentrations, 360 ppm, are shown in blue and high concentrations, 385 ppm, are shown in red. Notice that despite carbon dioxide's high degree of mixing, the regional patterns of atmospheric sources and sinks are still apparent in mid-troposphere carbon dioxide concentrations. This pattern of high carbon dioxide in the Northern Hemisphere (North America, Atlantic Ocean, and Central Asia) is consistent with model predictions.

For more information on AIRS, visit the AIRS Project Web Site: http://airs.jpl.nasa.gov. The AIRS data products are available at http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/AIRS/index.shtml.
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This visualization shows global carbon dioxide from July 2003 at 8 km. Low concentrations are shown in blue and high concentrations are shown in red.
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The Aqua/Airs instrument reads a low region of carbon dioxide over the Himalayas.
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High levels of carbon dioxide are detected over the Asian Pacific Rim.
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This image shows the global monthly average Carbon Dioxide in July 2003 as seen by Aqua/AIRS.
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Carbon Dioxide Colortable

Visualization Credits

Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Animator
Tom Pagano (NASA/JPL CalTech): Scientist
Edward Olsen (NASA/JPL CalTech): Scientist
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center and NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory Scientific Visualization Studio

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3440

Data Used:
Aqua/AIRS
2003/07/01-31
For more information on the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, click http://www-airs.jpl.nasa.gov/
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Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
COGlobalTransport

Keywords:
DLESE >> Atmospheric science
SVS >> Carbon Dioxide
DLESE >> Chemistry
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Volume
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Chemistry
GCMD >> Earth Science >> Atmosphere >> Atmospheric Chemistry/Carbon and Hydrocarbon Compounds
NASA Science >> Earth

GCMD keywords can be found on the Internet with the following citation: Olsen, L.M., G. Major, K. Shein, J. Scialdone, S. Ritz, T. Stevens, M. Morahan, A. Aleman, R. Vogel, S. Leicester, H. Weir, M. Meaux, S. Grebas, C.Solomon, M. Holland, T. Northcutt, R. A. Restrepo, R. Bilodeau, 2013. NASA/Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Earth Science Keywords. Version 8.0.0.0.0