NASA map offers essentially the most correct space-based view of LA’s carbon dioxide – watt with the?
From NASA
June 7, 2021
This animation shows the accumulation of data from NASA’s OCO-3 instrument, which was used to create a map of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations that covers approximately 80 square kilometers of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The highest concentrations are yellow. Credits: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Such detailed maps could help policymakers choose the most effective ways to reduce CO2 emissions.
Using data from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3) instrument on the International Space Station, researchers have published one of the most accurate maps ever made from space of human exposure to carbon dioxide (CO2) in the greater Los Angeles area. The map shows tiny swings in airborne CO2 from one mile of the vast LA basin to the next.
The highest levels of CO2, marked in yellow on the map, are on the west side of downtown LA – a densely populated area with congested highways and CO2-emitting industries. Yellow indicates that the atmospheric CO2 is increased by five or more molecules per million air molecules, or five parts per million. This corresponds to the amount that global atmospheric CO2 increases on average every two years worldwide
The animation shows five adjacent strips of data that the OCO-3 instrument collected over the urban area to create a map of CO2 concentrations that covers approximately 80 square kilometers. Each pixel is about 2.2 kilometers long; the color indicates how much higher the CO2 concentration is at this point than in the clean desert air north of the city (measured by NASA’s Armstrong Research Center, top right).
Most of the increasing CO2 in the global atmosphere comes from people who burn fossil fuels for energy, and 70% of that comes from cities. Los Angeles has set goals to reduce its CO2 emissions. This type of data can help decision makers choose the most effective measures to achieve these goals and measure the effectiveness of new regulations. Ground data provides critical local measurements, but satellite data is also necessary because it covers a larger area and also measures CO2 at the full depth of the atmosphere.
The International Space Station, which houses the OCO-3 instrument, orbits the earth between latitudes 52 degrees north and 52 degrees south – roughly the latitudes of London and Patagonia. Almost all cities in the world come into view on average every three days. The OCO-3 team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California plans to take measurements at up to 40 locations per day. Most of these destinations are high carbon cities.
The instrument consists of a telescope and three spectrometers, a type of instrument that analyzes wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum of sunlight to find the spectral “fingerprint” of carbon dioxide. The telescope swivels quickly in order to collect as many neighboring swaths of data about a target location within two minutes. OCO-3 normally collects a single strip of data as it orbits, like its predecessor, the OCO-2 mission (which is still operational), but it was designed to create snapshot maps like this one to give researchers a more complete picture of the Giving emissions from cities and other areas of interest.
The maps were published this week in an article in Remote Sensing of Environment magazine.
Jane J. Lee / Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
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