An ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model has provided new insight into how carbon dioxide travels around our atmosphere.
The illustration also demonstrates the differences in carbon levels in the northern and southern hemispheres and swings in global carbon dioxide concentrations that correlate with the growth cycle of plants and trees, NASA reported.
Researchers have taken ground-based measurements of carbon dioxide for decades and in July NASA launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite that takes space-based carbon measurements. Now a computer simulation that is the highest resolution ever created, is the first to show the movement of carbon in the atmosphere in such stunning detail.
"While the presence of carbon dioxide has dramatic global consequences, it's fascinating to see how local emission sources and weather systems produce gradients of its concentration on a very regional scale," said Bill Putman, lead scientist on the project from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Simulations like this, combined with data from observations, will help improve our understanding of both human emissions of carbon dioxide and natural fluxes across the globe."
The simulations were produced by a computer model called GEOS-5 and is part of a simulation called a "Nature Run." Scientists are not looking over the Nature Run carbon dioxide visualization.
"We're very excited to share this revolutionary dataset with the modeling and data assimilation community," Putman said "And we hope the comprehensiveness of this product and its ground-breaking resolution will provide a platform for research and discovery throughout the Earth science community."
In the spring of 2014 atmospheric carbon exceeded 400 parts per billion across the northern hemisphere, before the Industrial Revolution these levels were at only 270 parts per million. Little is known about the pathways carbon dioxide takes from spot of emission to reservoirs such as the oceans and forests, these new findings could help researchers gain insight into these travel patterns.
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