GeoCarb Observes Greenhouse Gasses from Geosynchronous Orbit
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- Visualizations by:
- Greg Shirah
- View full credits
This visualization shows the GeoCarb spacecraft orbiting the Earth and taking data. The visualization starts close to the Earth with the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) orbiting and taking carbon dioxide data shown as a thin trail underneath the spacecraft. These measurements are critical for our understanding of the climate. However, the OCO-2 swath is narrow and it takes a long time to cover a large region.
GeoCarb is a follow-on mission to OCO-2 which also measures carbon dioxide. However, GeoCarb's is in a geosynchronous orbit. This means that GeoCarb stays over the same location on the Earth, so it has a continuous view. GeoCarb orbits over North and South America. It is able to make scans of most of North and South America twice per day in the northern hemisphere summer. Geocarb has a resolution of 6km wide by 4km high; this means that each 'pixel' of GeoCarb data represents that area. Like OCO-2 GeoCarb can not make measurements at night.
In addition to carbon dioxide, GeoCarb also measures carbon monoxide, methane, and solar induced fluorescence. Each of these constituents provide additional, vital information for climate research.
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
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Visualizers
- Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
- Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)
- Mark SubbaRao (NASA/GSFC)
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Technical support
- Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
- Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.)
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Communications specialist
- Lauren Capraro (University of Oklahoma)
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Deputy instrument scientist
- Timothy Miller (University of Oklahoma)
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Deputy principal investigator
- Sean Crowell (University of Oklahoma)
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Deputy project manager
- Adam Matuszeski (NASA/GSFC)
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Principal investigator
- Berrien Moore (University of Oklahoma)
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Project manager
- Todd King (NASA/GSFC)
Datasets used in this visualization
Example GeoCarb Scanning Scenario
Example pre-launch scanning pattern for GeoCarb
See more visualizations using this data setCelesTrak Spacecraft Orbit Ephemeris
Dataset can be found at: http://celestrak.com
See more visualizations using this data setGEOS-5 G5NR-Chem (A.K.A. Chemistry) (Collected with the Nature Run sensor)
GMAO GEOS Atmospheric Methane (A.K.A. GMAO GEOS Atmospheric Methane)
MetOp GOME-2 Solar Induced Fluorescence at 740 nm (Collected with the GOME-2 sensor)
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.