WUWT readers may recall that back in 2009, we reported on the first attempt: Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite burns up
Now they are trying again. From NASA JPL:
NASA’s first spacecraft dedicated to measuring carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere is in final preparations for a July 1 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission will provide a more complete, global picture of the human and natural sources of carbon dioxide, as well as carbon dioxide’s “sinks,” the natural ocean and land processes by which carbon dioxide is pulled out of Earth’s atmosphere and stored. Carbon dioxide, a critical component of Earth’s carbon cycle, is the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth’s climate.
“Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere plays a critical role in our planet’s energy balance and is a key factor in understanding how our climate is changing,” said Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division in Washington. “With the OCO-2 mission, NASA will be contributing an important new source of global observations to the scientific challenge of better understanding our Earth and its future.”
OCO-2 will launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket and maneuver into a 438-mile (705-kilometer) altitude, near-polar orbit. It will become the lead satellite in a constellation of five other international Earth monitoring satellites that circle Earth once every 99 minutes and cross the equator each day near 1:36 p.m. local time, making a wide range of nearly simultaneous Earth observations. OCO-2 is designed to operate for at least two years.
The spacecraft will sample the global geographic distribution of the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide and allow scientists to study their changes over time more completely than can be done with any existing data. Since 2009, Earth scientists have been preparing for OCO-2 by taking advantage of observations from the Japanese GOSAT satellite. OCO-2 replaces a nearly identical NASA spacecraft lost because of a rocket launch mishap in February 2009.
At approximately 400 parts per million, atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at its highest level in at least the past 800,000 years. The burning of fossil fuels and other human activities are currently adding nearly 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year, producing an unprecedented buildup in this greenhouse gas.
Greenhouse gases trap the sun’s heat within Earth’s atmosphere, warming the planet’s surface and helping to maintain habitable temperatures from the poles to the equator. Scientists have concluded increased carbon dioxide from human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning and deforestation, has thrown Earth’s natural carbon cycle off balance, increasing global surface temperatures and changing our planet’s climate.
Currently, less than half the carbon dioxide emitted into Earth’s atmosphere by human activities stays there. Some of the remainder is absorbed by Earth’s ocean, but the location and identity of the natural land sinks believed to be absorbing the rest are not well understood. OCO-2 scientists hope to coax these sinks out of hiding and resolve a longstanding scientific puzzle.
“Knowing what parts of Earth are helping remove carbon from our atmosphere will help us understand whether they will keep doing so in the future,” said Michael Gunson, OCO-2 project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “Understanding the processes controlling carbon dioxide in our atmosphere will help us predict how fast it will build up in the future. Data from this mission will help scientists reduce uncertainties in forecasts of how much carbon dioxide will be in the atmosphere and improve the accuracy of global climate change predictions.”
OCO-2 measurements will be combined with data from ground stations, aircraft and other satellites to help answer questions about the processes that regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide and its role in Earth’s climate and carbon cycle. Mission data will also help assess the usefulness of space-based measurements of carbon dioxide for monitoring emissions.
The observatory’s science instrument features three high-resolution spectrometers that spread reflected sunlight into its component colors and then precisely measure the intensity of each color. Each spectrometer is optimized to record a different, specific color absorbed by carbon dioxide and oxygen molecules in Earth’s atmosphere. The less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the more light the spectrometers detect. By analyzing the amount of light, scientists can estimate the relative concentrations of these chemicals.
The new observatory will dramatically increase the number of observations of carbon dioxide, collecting hundreds of thousands of measurements each day when the satellite flies over Earth’s sunlit hemisphere. High-precision, detailed, near-global observations are needed to characterize carbon dioxide’s distribution because the concentration of carbon dioxide varies by only a few percent throughout the year on regional to continental scales. Scientists will analyze the OCO-2 data, using computer models similar to those used to predict the weather, to locate and understand the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide.
OCO-2 is a NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Program mission managed by JPL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Virginia, built the spacecraft bus and provides mission operations under JPL’s leadership. The science instrument was built by JPL, based on the instrument design co-developed for the original OCO mission by Hamilton Sundstrand in Pomona, California. NASA’s Launch Services Program at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for launch management. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
For more information about the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, visit:
and
Two years? Just in time for the “see, we told you so” screed before the 2016 elections, but no time for fact checking.
You know what they call this “replacement” of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory? Carbon Copy…
“John Hendrickson says:
June 13, 2014 at 4:39 am
So the carbon sinks are identified by the swirl of color?”
No
Personaly I think 4 comments in is a bit early to be complaining about the quality of the comments. And I don’t think those first 3 comments were THAT dismisive of the project.
I think the “at least 2 years” has to do with how long is the initial funding for the mission and not so much about the length of time the satellite can operate. You see this all the time with NASA planetary missions. The MESSENGER mission at Mercury started with one year and will end next year with a third extended mission, not because of spacecraft failure but because they’ve done everything they wanted to do. Cassini at Saturn had a 4 year mission but is still operating marking its 10th year at the end of this month. And of course one of the Mars Exploration Rovers is still operating after 10 years despite it’s 90 day guarantee.
“Unprecedented build up”? In what terms? Rate of increase? How do you know? In relation to what time period? The level of CO2 certainly isn’t unprecedented and certainly isn’t a cause for alarm. Sounds like a vague term used for hyperbole. My taking a walk down a particular road could be unprecedented, historic and groundbreaking – yet insignificant. They use these words all the time in the media to grab attention whether in sports, politics or gossip.
If the satellite launches the Jig-will-be-up. The launch therefore requires sabotage.
The last one burned up. I hope they didn’t build this one out of wood.
SasjaL says:
June 13, 2014 at 3:49 am
NASA to attempt launching another ‘carbon observatory’ – the last one burned up
– Ie, NASA is burning money …
Each spectrometer is optimized to record a different, specific color absorbed by carbon dioxide and oxygen molecules in Earth’s atmosphere.
– And there are no other molecules in the atmosphere that absorbe the very same frequency?
Correct.
ggm says:
June 13, 2014 at 5:44 am
So they are analysing which wavelengths of IR that CO2 and O2 absorb – but what about H20 ? There is a huge overlap between the absorption spectrum of those 3 molecules.
No there isn’t, you’ve been misinformed by cartoon versions of the spectra, it’s very easy to separate the signals.
Polluting space is a serious problem.
ggm on June 13, 2014 at 5:44 am
Yes, what I indicated in my second paragraph @ur momisugly 3:49 am. (Unfortunally some readers here don’t get irony or even sarcasm without a tag at the end of the comment … My bad, should have remember that.)
It’s likely that they knowingly utilize the situation. The characteristics of water are taught in elementary school or at least was once taught. If not anymore, they are old enough to have learned, so there are no excuses … When using measurement methods, especially indirect (like satellites) and sources of error are ignored, it’s ether ignorance, (criminal) intent or a combination of both. Take a pick!
Kenny says: June 13, 2014 at 4:37 am
Hey…..I work at ULA….That’s our Delta II!
Can you make sure that the “payload fairing” does not fail to separate, NASA said. The fairing covers the top of the satellite during launch and needs to come off so the satellite can detach from the rocket and enter orbit. The reason the last one didn’t make it.
OCO-2 will launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket and maneuver into a 438-mile (705-kilometer) altitude, near-polar orbit. It will become the lead satellite in a constellation of five other international Earth monitoring satellites that circle Earth once every 99 minutes and cross the equator each day near 1:36 p.m. local time, making a wide range of nearly simultaneous Earth observations. OCO-2 is designed to operate for at least two years.
If you are trying to observe and monitor a process and that process gets converted and changed at varying times per day (Remember, when plants photosynthesize in the presence of sunlight, they produce oxygen. Then, in the absence of sunlight, they “respire,” or use oxygen and release carbon dioxide, or CO2. Carbon dioxide reacts instantly with water (H20) to form a mild acid called “carbonic acid.” Its chemical formula is H2CO3. As a result, when aquatic plants are respiring, or releasing CO2, the water around them is slightly acidic, and when they are photosynthesizing, the acidity decreases. The standard measure of acidity is pH. When water is acidic, the pH measure is less than 7. The opposite of pH is called “alkalinity.” When water is alkaline, the pH measure is more than 7. When water is perfectly neutral – neither acidic nor alkaline – the pH measure is exactly 7.
JEA Science Project: 7th Grade Water: Watching Plants Breathe) why are you so proud to have the monitor always at the same time of day?
Sure, “Good Luck” to this project. However, they begin with the assumption
“Carbon dioxide,…, is the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth’s climate.”
Interesting is the now inserted adjective “human-produced.” Are we to take from this that Earth Mother Gaia doesn’t produce any CO2, or that humans don’t produce any H2O? Then there is the term “driving”, as in “control knob.” This is all bovine biomass waste.
Let’s hope the rocket science is better than the climate science.
I am sorry but this is a grant gravy train chaser and rises to the same level as the two-minute AO “opinion” piece, IE not worth much and filled with mistakes. The fact that the first CO2 satellite blew up makes me think this is a low-end piece of equipment built on a dime and is probably being used in hopes of priming the pump for a later big ticket program complete with a much more expensive watermelon toilet seat. I wouldn’t buy this at a flea market. However, the fact that it is still a very expensive plain ol’ toilet seat, gifted to a now very political and self-important bratty branch of public government constantly tugging on daddy’s sleeve for a piece of candy and is bent on sucking mommy dry, irritates the hell out of me.
In my next post I will tell you how I REALLY feel!
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I think part of the hostility isn’t an objection to gathering more data or the skepticism that is healthy for the “conclusions” of any scientific research but rather a suspicion that any data gathered will be spun to support the CAGW meme and/or suppressed if it does not.
Whatever the raw data presents should not require a FOIA request to be analyzed..
Let’s wait and see if it does.
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Or use any carbon fibers!
Probably “calibrated” to confirm warmunist claims.
I wonder what will happen if the satellite determines places like the north american land mass are found to be carbon dioxide sinks, and the oceans, and antarctic volcanoes are found to be carbon dioxide sources.
At approximately 400 parts per million, atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at its highest level in at least the past 800,000 years. This is only correct, if the measurement of the CO2 in ice-cores are reliable. But nobody has shown this until today. As the late Prof. Jawurowski has shown there around 20 natural processes, that can change the CO2-content in Icecores.
It is my understanding that for every ton of CO2 added to the atmosphere 15 tons is added to the oceans. It has been determined that 1/2 the CO2 created by humans remains in the atmosphere. So the obvious question is: where did all the CO2 that goes into the oceans come from. One part came from humans. Where did the other 14 parts come from?
Dn’t recall seeing a post on this at WUWT.
Pamela Gray says:
June 13, 2014 at 9:06 am
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I feel sorry for the trout.
How long was the original designed to operate?
Even if it only operates about two years, I think it will be worth it. It will be very interesting to see how CO2 moves over a year.
Rick Werme,
+1000
To Willis Eschenbach:
You asked: “Two years? We’re spending millions to put it up there and
it’s so shoddily built that it has only a two year design lifetime?
Space scientists in the crowd … is this usual?”
Fear not, Willis. I am no longer working in space science, but when I
did, many missions exceeded their design lifetime. A large project
that I was involved with, the International Solar-Terrestrial Physics program,
involved 2 NASA spacecraft (also spacecraft from ESA and the Japanese).
The POLAR spacecraft, half of NASA’s contribution, launched in 1996
and had a design lifetime of 3 years. It ceased operation in 2008. WIND,
the other half of NASA’s contribution, launched in 1994, is still providing
data, even though its design lifetime was again only 3 years.
For the record, since the “burned up” description is being used to slam quality work by quality people in the aerospace industry, it did not burn up. It is at the bottom of the ocean, banged up from impact with the water, but assuredly not burned up. The spacecraft did not fail in any way as “a low end piece of equipment built on a dime”. When you get easy details wrong, it undermines your credibility in debating of other more complex subjects. I come here for thoughtful debate of how to interpret facts and data. Much of the above commentary falls way short of that goal.