Never at rest: the air over Los Angeles

This animation shows a global map of fossil-fuel CO2 emissions and the world s largest cities (highlighted here) and satellite observations of nearly all urban areas. The surface grid squares illustrate the surface footprint of future geostationary satellites that could be focused on the 2-3% of land surface area producing the majority of emissions.The Megacities Carbon Project will develop and test methods for monitoring the greenhouse gas emissions of the largest human contributors to climate change.

This animation shows an artist concept of the CLARS instrument on Mt Wilson scanning the LA basin for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The Megacities Carbon Project is developing and testing methods for monitoring the greenhouse gas emissions of cities, the largest human contributors to climate change. One of the sites in the Megacities monitoring network for Los Angeles is the California Laboratory for Atmospheric Remote Sensing (CLARS) located on Mt Wilson. From an altitude of nearly 6000 ft, CLARS makes frequent scans during daylight hours across the LA basin. In this animation, the CLARS telescope mirror points sequentially to different pre-programmed points to sample sunlight scattering off the Earth - providing frequent wall-to-wall mapping of greenhouse gases across entire cities and broader regions.CLARS was developed by JPL with support from the NASA Earth Science Technology Office. CLARS operations are funded jointly by NASA and NIST.

This animation shows the carbon monitoring system for the Los Angeles megacity and the different measurement methods and vantage points. The Megacities Carbon Project is developing and testing methods for monitoring the greenhouse gas emissions of cities, the largest human contributors to climate change. Pilot activities have begun in the megacities of Los Angeles and Paris that build on existing research infrastructure there and collaboration with efforts in smaller cities.This animation shows a perspective view of the Los Angeles basin looking north. Yellow columns represent continuous measurements of atmospheric carbon from commercial gas analyzers on radio towers and roof-tops. The California Laboratory for Atmospheric Remote Sensing (CLARS) on Mt Wilson uses reflected sunlight to track carbon across the basin.Aircraft periodically sample the air coming in and out of the megacity domain. Satellites such as NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS), and the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Implementing project partners for LA include: JPL, California Institute of Technology, Arizona State University, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, CARB, Earth Networks, NASA Ames Research Center, and Sigma Space.