Jun 7, 2021
This animation shows the accumulation of data from NASA’s OCO-3 instrument used to create a map of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations that covers about 50 square miles (80 square kilometers) of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The highest concentrations are in yellow.Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Such detailed maps could help policymakers choose the most effective ways of cutting carbon emissions.
Using data from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3) instrument on the International Space Station, researchers have released one of the most accurate maps ever made from space of the human influence on carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The map shows tiny variations in airborne CO2 from one mile of the giant L.A. Basin to the next.
The highest CO2 readings, in yellow on the map, are on the west side of downtown L.A. – a densely populated area with congested freeways and CO2-emitting industries. Yellow indicates atmospheric CO2 elevated by five or more molecules out of every million molecules of air, or five parts per million. That’s equivalent to the amount that global atmospheric CO2 is rising globally on average every two years
The animation shows five adjoining swaths of data the OCO-3 instrument collected over the metropolitan area to create a map of CO2 concentrations that covers about 50 square miles (80 square kilometers). Each pixel is about 1.3 miles (2.2 kilometers); the color indicates how much higher the concentration of CO2 is in that spot than in clean desert air north of the city (measured at NASA’s Armstrong Research Center, upper right).
Most of the increasing CO2 in the global atmosphere comes from humans burning fossil fuels for energy, and 70% of that comes from cities. Los Angeles has set goals for cutting its carbon emissions. This type of data can help decision makers choose the most effective policies to reach those goals and to measure the effectiveness of new regulations. Data from ground level provides critical local measurements, but satellite data is equally necessary because it covers a wider area and also measures CO2 throughout the entire depth of the atmosphere.
The International Space Station, which hosts the OCO-3 instrument, circles Earth between 52 degrees north and 52 degrees south latitudes – about the latitudes of London and Patagonia. Almost all cities on Earth come within its view on average once every three days. The OCO-3 team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California schedules measurements at up to 40 locations a day. Most of these targets are high-CO2-emitting cities.
The instrument consists of a telescope and three spectrometers, a kind of instrument that analyzes wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum of sunlight to find the spectral “fingerprint” of carbon dioxide. The telescope swivels rapidly to collect as many adjoining swaths of data as possible over a targeted location within two minutes. OCO-3 usually collects a single swath of data as it orbits, like its predecessor the OCO-2 mission (which is still operating), but it’s designed to create snapshot maps like this one to give researchers a more complete picture of emissions from cities and other areas of interest.
The maps were published this week in a paper in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment.
Jane J. Lee / Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Any chance the data is contaminated by activities at the Inglewood Oil Field?
Here is a gem while we are thinking about who is emitting what. You will recall the demand that we only count per capita emissions in assigning blame for the coming climate inferno and calculating who has to reduce. Or that we take account of historical emissions when calculating who has to reduce.
Well, here we have from The Intelligencer:
Scrivener noted that China produced more concrete in three years in the 21st century than the U.S. did in the whole of the 20th century. “This emphasizes the point that if we’re going to have an impact on the cement and concrete, we have to work with all these countries worldwide,” she said.
Concrete being a huge emitter globally.
Oh dear, the historical emissions play isn’t going to work. Per capita isn’t working either because China is at EU levels.
What else can we possibly think of to explain why we want everyone but China to reduce to zero?
China leads the world in bridge failures and building failures. Concrete must have the proper mixture and curing or it will fail……no cutting corners like it apparently happens in China.
And as expected LAX doesn’t even show up. Who’d of thought?
The animation video gives us several “swaths.” Hint: Each of these are not from the same orbit. This isn’t real-time data, nor even the same time from one swath to the next. No indication is given just how many orbits of the space station there are between observations, but it does not follow the same ground path from orbit-to-orbit, so each swath could be taken weeks apart.
While they can provide some gross levels of sensor data for comparisons, wIthout weather information, time of day, time of year, and time between sensor readings, these images are nearly useless for policy or environmental management decisions. And what might the sensor show around Mauna Loa or Mount Saint Helens, or Louisiana Bayou, or an Iowa corn field just after planting, or abandoned Venezualan oil fields and refineries? Might those image data contradict current theory?
The real pity is that it is the most accurate data, just totally inadequate. Real-time information on most common atmospheric components, not just CO2, integrated with weather and temperature is what is needed, and decades beyond current technology. But be sure that you will hear that some government official or green creep has this same up-to-the-minute information on which to base her/his tyrannical agenda.
Dk_, you say: “Hint: Each of these are not from the same orbit.” But if you look at the time stamps, the swaths are consistent with the article description where it says that the telescope swivels several times rapidly within two minutes. So the data visualized in the movie is pretty clearly from a single overflight.
Most of the increasing CO2 in the global atmosphere
comesis thought to come from humans burning fossil fuels for energy, and 70% of that comes from cities.what about the human exhaled breath
lots of humans equals lots of carbon dioxide
would be interesting to see other major world cities like Hanoi, London, Mumbai etc that have different densities of humans vs machines
I wonder if they could dedicate one of their sampling sites to a carbon sink, such as a large corn growing region. I have seen some sparse data showing how the air above a growing field is rapidly depleted Of CO2 each day. The data is not well sampled over time (on scales of hourly to a whole growing season) or space, so better data on this process would be rather instructive.
Unlike OCO-2’s polar orbit as part of A-Train constellation with global coverage, OCO-3 science team’s convenient use of ISS-based urban snap-shots is intended to produce propanganda, not global scientific evidence of man’s insignificant CO2 production compared to natural sources.