Tech News Update

NASA is launching a satellite today that will produce the first complete map of the Earth’s sources of carbon dioxide – the gas most closely linked to climate change.The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on board the Taurus XL rocket this morning.Once in orbit it will make 8-million measurements every 16 days, which will be integrated with those from ground observation stations and other satellites.The data will help scientists project increases in the greenhouse gas with greater precision and more accurately forecast climate changes.NASA said the observatory would map the location of carbon dioxide sources both natural and man-made, as well as areas known as ’sinks’ where the gas is pulled out of the atmosphere and stored.Scientists hope to discover why the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by Earth’s natural ocean and land ’sinks’ varies dramatically from year to year. ’These sinks help limit global warming,’ a NASA statement said.’The Orbiting Carbon Observatory will help scientists better understand what causes this variability and whether natural absorption will continue, stop or even reverse.’They also hope the new data will solve the mystery of ‘missing’ carbon – the 30 per cent of human-produced carbon dioxide that disappears into unknown places.Policymakers and the private sector could use the data to make better decisions aimed at improving the quality of life on Earth, NASA said.’It’s critical that we understand the processes controlling carbon dioxide in our atmosphere today so we can predict how fast it will build up in the future and how quickly we’ll have to adapt to climate change caused by carbon dioxide buildup,’ said David Crisp, the OCO’s principal investigator at NASA.