One of the pressing concerns environmentally is getting a grip on how much damage is being done to our atmosphere by the carbon diaoxide that is being spewed out daily. to try and figure this out NASA will be launching the Orbiting Carbon Observatory in January 2009.
the observatory is NASA’s first spacecraft designed to study carbon dioxide and it has just arrived at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California from where it will be launched. The spacecraft will spend 2 years in a 438-mile, near polar, sun-synchronous orbit where every 16 days it will map the globe and collect information about the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.
This observatory will let scientists to see where CO2 is collecting in our atmosphere and what of our activities are contributing to it; as well as seeing what parts of the world are acting as sinks. Most important though it will allow more accurate measurements of total CO2 in the atmosphere which will help in building future models of climate change.
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