Birth of a Space Laser Instrument

  • Released Thursday, August 30, 2012
View full credits

A new C02 laser, which will globally measure carbon dioxide from space, is due to be launched in 2023 on the ASCENDS mission. One of the exciting things about this project is that you can actually watch trees eat and breathe. Of course, trees are breathing all the time, but they are only eating, meaning, performing photosynthesis when the sun is out. The main science is to measure how much carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere at this particular time on the Earth, how much is there total and where is it located.

For More Information



Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Release date

This page was originally published on Thursday, August 30, 2012.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:52 PM EDT.


Series

This visualization can be found in the following series:

Tapes

This visualization originally appeared on the following tapes:
  • Birth of a Space Laser Instrument (ID: 2012052)
    Thursday, August 30, 2012 at 4:00AM
    Produced by - Tim Carnahan (NASA)