National Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) budgets inferred from atmospheric observations

Data visualization of global carbon dioxide (CO₂) for the period January 2015-February 2022, showcasing data from NASA s Obriting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) Gridded/Level 3 product. NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory, 2 (OCO-2) provides the most complete dataset tracking the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂), the main driver of climate change. Since its launch (July 2014), OCO-2 measures sunlight reflected from Earth’s surface to infer the dry-air column-averaged CO2 mixing ratio and provides around 100,000 cloud-free observations.However, the OCO-2 data as observed by the on-board instrument have large data gaps in coverage due to the narrow 10-km ground track and an inability to see through clouds and aerosols. To provide a gap-filled view of Earth’s carbon cycle and atmosphere NASA’s Global and Modeling Assimilation Office (GMAO) ingests OCO-2 retrievals every 6 hours with a modeling and assimilation technique and derives the Gridded Monthly OCO-2 Carbon Dioxide/OCO-2 GEOS Level 3 product.The visualizations on this page feature the Gridded Monthly OCO-2 Carbon Dioxide assimilated dataset and demonstrate the global distribution and variation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for the period January 2015-February 2022. One obvious feature that we see in the data visualization is a continual increase in carbon dioxide with time, as seen in the shift in the color of the map from dark purple towards light yellow as time progresses. Another feature is the seasonal variation of carbon dioxide in the northern hemisphere, which is governed by the growth cycle of plants. This can be seen as a pulsing in the colors, with a shift towards lighter colors starting in April/May each year and a shift towards darker as the end of each growing season passes into winter. The seasonal cycle is more pronounced in the northern hemisphere than the southern hemisphere since most of the land mass is in the north.The visualization includes a data-driven spatial map of global carbon dioxide (CO₂) that is paired with a date legend (monthly timestep) and an animated colormap that includes the monthly global mean value of carbon dioxide from OCO-2. The rest of this page offers visualization assets, layers in plate carrée and mollweide projections and a custom version for Science on a Sphere displays.Assets for plate carrée projection This set of frames provides the map layer of the OCO-2 gridded global carbon dioxide visualization sequence. Frames are provided with transparency in 4K resolution. This set of frames provides the annotation layer of the OCO-2 gridded global carbon dioxide visualization sequence. The annotation layer consists of the visualization title, the animated colorbar and the timestamp. Frames are provided with transparency in 4K resolution. Assets for mollweide projection This set of frames provides the composition of the OCO-2 gridded global carbon dioxide visualization sequence in mollweide projection with transparency. Frames are provided in 4K resolution. This set of frames provides the map layer of the OCO-2 gridded global carbon dioxide visualization sequence in mollweide projection. Frames are provided with transparency in 4K resolution. Science on a Sphere (SOS) contentThe following section contains assets designed for Science On a Sphere and related displays.SOS playlist file: playlist.sosSOS label file: labels.txt Frames and movie in 4096x2048 resolution for Science On a Sphere displays. Colorbar for OCO-2 gridded global carbon dioxide (CO₂). Thumbnail image for Science on a Sphere (SOS). ColormapThe following section contains colormap information. Colorbar for the OCO-2 gridded global carbon dioxide (CO₂) visualization sequence. Blue/purple- to-orange/yellow colormap (low-to-high values) to show the increase and seasonality of global carbon dioxide over the years. For More InformationSee [https://ocov2.jpl.nasa.gov/](https://ocov2.jpl.nasa.gov/)

Data visualization of global carbon dioxide (CO₂) for the period September 2002-October 2022, showcasing data products from NASA s Aqua mission. Data visualization assets are designed for 4K resolution. Science On a Sphere (SOS) contentThe following section contains assets designed for Science On a Sphere and related displays.SOS playlist file: playlist.sosSOS label file: labels.txt Frames and movie in 4096x2048 resolution for Science On a Sphere displays. Colorbar of AIRS global carbon dioxide (CO2) data and annotations.Light yellow (low value) to red (very high value) sequential colorbar to illustrate the increase of global carbon dioxide over the years. The striped overlays in the data visualization mark areas of low data quality. Thumbnail image for Science On a Sphere. ColormapThe following section contains colormap information. Colorbar created for the AIRS global carbon dioxide (CO2) visualization. White/yellow-to-red colormap (low-to-high values) to show the increase of global carbon dioxide over the years.The stops and rgb values are available in the following .csv files:Colormap in RGB(0, 1): AIRS_colormap_RGB_range0_1.csvColormap in RGB(0, 255): AIRS_colormap_RGB_range0_255.csv

This webpage provides a wide aspect ratio version of: Global Carbon Dioxide 2020-2021, released on November 2, 2021. This version has been created for wide aspect ratio display systems with resolution up to 9600x3240. It is recommended to use content from this version for display systems with 16:9 aspect ratio. Data visualization in wide aspect ratio and 9600x3240 resolution, featuring volumetric carbon dioxide on a global scale for the period June 1, 2020 - July 31, 2021. This set of frames can be shown on 5x3 hyperwalls and wide aspect ratio displays. Lower resolution movies are provided for preview. This low resolution movie includes lines to illustrate the extents of the 5x3 hyperwall screens. This movie is provided only for preview. NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory, 2 (OCO-2) provides the most complete dataset tracking the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), the main driver of climate change. Every day, OCO-2 measures sunlight reflected from Earth’s surface to infer the dry-air column-averaged CO2 mixing ratio and provides around 100,000 cloud-free observations. Despite these advances, OCO-2 data contain many gaps where sunlight is not present or where clouds or aerosols are too thick to retrieve CO2 data. In order to fill gaps and provide science and applications users a spatially complete product, OCO-2 data are assimilated into NASA’s Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS), a complex modeling and data assimilation system used for studying the Earth’s weather and climate. GEOS is also informed by satellite observations of nighttime lights and vegetation greenness along with about 1 million weather observations collected every hour. These data help scientists infer CO2 mixing ratios even when a direct OCO-2 observation is not present and provide additional information on the altitude of CO2 plumes that the satellite is not able to see. Together, OCO-2 and GEOS create one of the most complete pictures of CO2. The visualization featured on this page shows the atmosphere in three dimensions and highlights the accumulation of CO2 during a single calendar year. Every year, the world’s vegetation and oceans absorb about half of human CO2 emissions, providing an incredibly valuable service that has mitigated the rate of accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. However, around 2.5 parts per million remain in the atmosphere every year causing a steady upward march in concentrations that scientists have tracked since the 1950s at surface stations. The volumetric visualization starts in June 2020, showing all of the model’s values of global CO2. All 3d cells of the model are opaque, revealing a solid brick of data. During the month of June 2020, the higher values of CO2 coalesce around the equatorial belt. By mid-July 2020 the visualization reduces the opacity of lower CO2 values between 385 parts-per-millon (ppm) and 405 ppm in the atmosphere making them transparent. These lower values tend to be higher up in the atmosphere. By doing this, the higher CO2 concentrations, which are closer to the ground, are highlighted revealing the seasonal movement of high CO2 at a global scale. During the months of June-September (summer months for northern hemisphere), global CO2 concentrations tend to be lowest because northern hemisphere plants actively absorb CO2 from the atmosphere via photosynthesis. During northern hemisphere fall and winter months, much of this CO2 is re-released to the atmosphere due to respiration and can be seen building up. By June and July 2021, plants again draw CO2 out of the atmosphere, but notably higher concentrations remain in contrast to the nearly transparent colors of the previous year. The diurnal rhythm of CO2 is apparent over our planet s Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model, which is produced by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. The visualization featured on this page utilizes 3-hourly data for the period June 1, 2020-July 31, 2021.Blue Marble: Next Generation was produced by Reto Stöckli, NASA Earth Observatory (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center). Citation: Reto Stöckli, Eric Vermote, Nazmi Saleous, Robert Simmon and David Herring. The Blue Marble Next Generation – A true color earth dataset including seasonal dynamics from MODIS, October 17, 2005. The visualization on this page utilizes monthly Blue Marble data to map the water and land bodies around the globe and show seasonal changes.Sea ice for the Arctic and Antarctic regions, provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), by utilizing GCOMP-W/AMSR2 10 km Level 3 daily Sea Ice Concentration (SIC) and GCOMP-W/AMSR2 10 km Level 3 daily 89 GHz Brightness Temperature (BT) data for the period June 1, 2020-July 31, 2021.Global 30 Arc-Second Elevation (GTOPO 30) from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). GTOPO30 is a global raster digital elevation model (DEM) with a horizontal grid spacing of 30 arc seconds (approximately 1 kilometer). GTOPO30 was derived from several raster and vector sources of topographic information. The data-driven visualization featured on this page utilizes the GTOPO30 model to represent the three-dimensional features of over land terrain and submarine topography world-wide. doi: 10.5066/F7DF6PQS.

Timeplot of increase of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2) concentrations relative to the pre-industrial CO2 long-term mean value of 278ppm. During 2021, atmospheric CO2 concentrations reached a record-level increase of 50% relative to pre-industrial CO2 levels. Using the complete record of Mauna Loa CO2 monthly mean data, the timeplot featured on this page displays the ongoing Keeling’s research and observations: the monthly average of atmospheric CO2 concentration values, which show the seasonal cycle of CO2 (jagged/wavy red line) and the seasonally-adjusted mean values (adjusted/straight red line). The jagged/wavy red line visualizes natural oscillations caused by plant growth cycles, while the adjusted/straight red line demonstrates the steady increase over time that is caused by human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels. To illustrate the significance of the steady increase of atmospheric CO2 since 1958 and to provide a visual understanding of the monthly average CO2 values as they are measured in parts per million (ppm):Monthly CO2 values are plotted on the range of [0-500] ppm over the period of March 1958 to December 2021 (present).The pre-industrial CO22 average of 278 ppm is marked as an orange block.As time passes the monthly adjusted percent increase is calculated relative to the pre-industrial CO2 value of 278ppm and is shown next to a red arrow. As the timeline unfolds, we can see an increase growing from 13% in March 1958 to more than 50% in December 2021.In addition to highlighting the steady increase of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere, this timeplot underpins the historical contributions of the Keeling Curve to climate science, as it was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society in 2015. Continuous and precise observations across agencies and institutions are critical to help scientists and the public understand the linkages between increases in CO2 and human-caused climate change.The rest of this webpage offers a version of the timeplot with dark background, the Keeling Curve, as of December 2021 and data sources. Timeplot of increase of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2) concentrations relative to the pre-industrial CO2 long-term mean value of 278ppm. During 2021, atmospheric CO2 concentrations reached a record-level increase of 50% relative to pre-industrial CO2 levels. This version is created with a dark background. Keeling Curve for the period March 1958-December 2021 (present). Monthly Carbon Dioxide (CO2) values are plotted on the range of [300-450]ppm. On December 2021, the seasonally-adjusted mean value of CO2 reached 417.41ppm. Data Sources:Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide by NOAA. The visualization featured on this page utilizes the complete record from the Mauna Loa CO2 monthly mean data for the period March 1958-December 2021 (accessed: January 7, 2022). Within the data record the continuous monthly average values are represented in the visualization as the jagged/wavy line that shows the seasonal cycle of CO2 and the monthly de-seasonalized mean values are represented in the visualization as the adjusted line.Citation: Dr. Pieter Tans, NOAA/GML (gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/) and Dr. Ralph Keeling, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/).Citation: Keeling, Ralph F; Keeling, Charles D. (2017). Atmospheric Monthly In Situ CO2 Data - Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (Archive 2021-09-07). In Scripps CO2 Program Data. UC San Diego Library Digital Collections. https://doi.org/10.6075/J08W3BHW

Data visualization featuring volumetric carbon dioxide on a global scale for the period June 1, 2020 - July 31, 2021.Coming soon to our YouTube channel. NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory, 2 (OCO-2) provides the most complete dataset tracking the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), the main driver of climate change. Every day, OCO-2 measures sunlight reflected from Earth’s surface to infer the dry-air column-averaged CO2 mixing ratio and provides around 100,000 cloud-free observations. Despite these advances, OCO-2 data contain many gaps where sunlight is not present or where clouds or aerosols are too thick to retrieve CO2 data. In order to fill gaps and provide science and applications users a spatially complete product, OCO-2 data are assimilated into NASA’s Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS), a complex modeling and data assimilation system used for studying the Earth’s weather and climate. GEOS is also informed by satellite observations of nighttime lights and vegetation greenness along with about 1 million weather observations collected every hour. These data help scientists infer CO2 mixing ratios even when a direct OCO-2 observation is not present and provide additional information on the altitude of CO2 plumes that the satellite is not able to see. Together, OCO-2 and GEOS create one of the most complete pictures of CO2. The visualization featured on this page shows the atmosphere in three dimensions and highlights the accumulation of CO2 during a single calendar year. Every year, the world’s vegetation and oceans absorb about half of human CO2 emissions, providing an incredibly valuable service that has mitigated the rate of accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. However, around 2.5 parts per million remain in the atmosphere every year causing a steady upward march in concentrations that scientists have tracked since the 1950s at surface stations. The volumetric visualization starts in June 2020, showing all of the model’s values of global CO2. All 3d cells of the model are opaque, revealing a solid brick of data. During the month of June 2020, the higher values of CO2 coalesce around the equatorial belt. By mid-July 2020 the visualization reduces the opacity of lower CO2 values between 385 parts-per-millon (ppm) and 405 ppm in the atmosphere making them transparent. These lower values tend to be higher up in the atmosphere. By doing this, the higher CO2 concentrations, which are closer to the ground, are highlighted revealing the seasonal movement of high CO2 at a global scale. During the months of June-September (summer months for northern hemisphere), global CO2 concentrations tend to be lowest because northern hemisphere plants actively absorb CO2 from the atmosphere via photosynthesis. During northern hemisphere fall and winter months, much of this CO2 is re-released to the atmosphere due to respiration and can be seen building up. By June and July 2021, plants again draw CO2 out of the atmosphere, but notably higher concentrations remain in contrast to the nearly transparent colors of the previous year. The diurnal rhythm of CO2 is apparent over our planet s Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model, which is produced by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. The visualization featured on this page utilizes 3-hourly data for the period June 1, 2020-July 31, 2021.Blue Marble: Next Generation was produced by Reto Stöckli, NASA Earth Observatory (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center). Citation: Reto Stöckli, Eric Vermote, Nazmi Saleous, Robert Simmon and David Herring. The Blue Marble Next Generation – A true color earth dataset including seasonal dynamics from MODIS, October 17, 2005. The visualization on this page utilizes monthly Blue Marble data to map the water and land bodies around the globe and show seasonal changes.Sea ice for the Arctic and Antarctic regions, provided by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), by utilizing GCOMP-W/AMSR2 10 km Level 3 daily Sea Ice Concentration (SIC) and GCOMP-W/AMSR2 10 km Level 3 daily 89 GHz Brightness Temperature (BT) data for the period June 1, 2020-July 31, 2021.Global 30 Arc-Second Elevation (GTOPO 30) from U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). GTOPO30 is a global raster digital elevation model (DEM) with a horizontal grid spacing of 30 arc seconds (approximately 1 kilometer). GTOPO30 was derived from several raster and vector sources of topographic information. The data-driven visualization featured on this page utilizes the GTOPO30 model to represent the three-dimensional features of over land terrain and submarine topography world-wide. doi: 10.5066/F7DF6PQS.