Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 begins survey

bwilson4web · Nov 20, 2014

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) will soon complete its first 90 days of operations in space. The spacecraft meets or exceeds all functional and performance specifications, and all planned instrument checkout activities have been completed. The instrument is making high-precision measurements, and data processing is proceeding on schedule. The observatory is now the sixth member of the international constellation of Earth-observing satellites commonly referred to as the Afternoon Constellation, or "A-Train."

Preliminary processing of OCO-2 science data shows that the instrument's carbon dioxide measurements over all land areas and most of the ocean are exceeding expectations. A small set of measurements taken over the ocean when the sun hits the instrument at a particular angle during one of OCO-2's three data collection modes is less precise than expected, due to a reduction in polarized light entering the instrument. This issue affects a few percent of OCO-2's carbon dioxide observations. This will not impact achieving the mission's overall science requirements. In response, mission planners have identified an operational workaround to slightly adjust the observatory's pointing when flying over the ocean to achieve full-precision measurements.

Scientists have begun working on preliminary OCO-2 data products. They expect to begin archiving calibrated mission data in December, and plan to release their first initial estimates of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in early 2015.
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Soon we'll get some CO{2} source and sink data, a planetary inventory.

Bob Wilson

tochatihu · Nov 21, 2014

NASA website posted a youtube video (I can't see) with CO2 spatial derived from super computer runs and perhaps nothing from OCO. Near as I can tell it shows much more variability than PCers would have thought, based on me saying how well mixed this gas is in the troposphere. If you can post anything like that here, Bob, please do.

bwilson4web · Nov 21, 2014

Ah, something like this:

It never occurred to me that a link here might might get through the Great Wall.

Now this video is a 'model' but now I'm wondering if the CO{2} density varies between the Northern and Southern hemisphere? If so, would the Southern heat loss relative Northern heat retention explain how divergent ice melting appears to be?

In another 90 days, we may have some direct observations of the relative CO{2} concentrations . . . moving beyond this model:

. . .
Plumes of carbon dioxide in the simulation swirl and shift as winds disperse the greenhouse gas away from its sources. The simulation also illustrates differences in carbon dioxide levels in the northern and southern hemispheres and distinct swings in global carbon dioxide concentrations as the growth cycle of plants and trees changes with the seasons.

Scientists have made ground-based measurements of carbon dioxide for decades and in July NASA launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite to make global, space-based carbon observations. But the simulation – the product of a new computer model that is among the highest-resolution ever created – is the first to show in such fine detail how carbon dioxide actually moves through the atmosphere.

“While the presence of carbon dioxide has dramatic global consequences, it’s fascinating to see how local emission sources and weather systems produce gradients of its concentration on a very regional scale,” said Bill Putman, lead scientist on the project from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Simulations like this, combined with data from observations, will help improve our understanding of both human emissions of carbon dioxide and natural fluxes across the globe.”

The carbon dioxide visualization was produced by a computer model called GEOS-5, created by scientists at NASA Goddard’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. In particular, the visualization is part of a simulation called a “Nature Run.” The Nature Run ingests real data on atmospheric conditions and the emission of greenhouse gases and both natural and man-made particulates. The model is then is left to run on its own and simulate the natural behavior of the Earth’s atmosphere. This Nature Run simulates May 2005 to June 2007.

While Goddard scientists have been tweaking a “beta” version of the Nature Run internally for several years, they are now releasing this updated, improved version to the scientific community for the first time. Scientists are presenting a first look at the Nature Run and the carbon dioxide visualization at the SC14 supercomputing conference this week in New Orleans.

“We’re very excited to share this revolutionary dataset with the modeling and data assimilation community,” Putman said, “and we hope the comprehensiveness of this product and its ground-breaking resolution will provide a platform for research and discovery throughout the Earth science community.”

In the spring of 2014, for the first time in modern history, atmospheric carbon dioxide – the key driver of global warming – exceeded 400 parts per million across most of the northern hemisphere. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide concentrations were about 270 parts per million. Concentrations of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere continue to increase, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.

Despite carbon dioxide’s significance, much remains unknown about the pathways it takes from emission source to the atmosphere or carbon reservoirs such as oceans and forests. Combined with satellite observations such as those from NASA’s recently launched OCO-2, computer models will help scientists better understand the processes that drive carbon dioxide concentrations.

The Nature Run also simulates winds, clouds, water vapor and airborne particles such as dust, black carbon, sea salt and emissions from industry and volcanoes.

The resolution of the model is approximately 64 times greater than that of typical global climate models. Most other models used for long-term, high-resolution climate simulations resolve climate variables such as temperatures, pressures, and winds on a horizontal grid consisting of boxes about 50 kilometers (31 miles) wide. The Nature Run resolves these features on a horizontal grid consisting of boxes only 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) wide.

The Nature Run simulation was run on the NASA Center for Climate Simulation’s Discover supercomputer cluster at Goddard Space Flight Center. The simulation produced nearly four petabytes (million billion bytes) of data and required 75 days of dedicated computation to complete.

In addition to providing a striking visual description of the movements of an invisible gas like carbon dioxide, as it is blown by the winds, this kind of high-resolution simulation will help scientists better project future climate. Engineers can also use this model to test new satellite instrument concepts to gauge their usefulness. The model allows engineers to build and operate a “virtual” instrument inside a computer.

Using GEOS-5 in tests known as Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSE) allows scientists to see how new satellite instruments might aid weather and climate forecasts.

“While researchers working on OSSEs have had to rely on regional models to provide such high-resolution Nature Run simulations in the past, this global simulation now provides a new source of experimentation in a comprehensive global context,” Putman said. “This will provide critical value for the design of Earth-orbiting satellite instruments.”
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Source: NASA Computer Model Provides a New Portrait of Carbon Dioxide | NASA

Bob Wilson

tochatihu · Nov 21, 2014

S Hemi CO2 is lower, and I think the Scripps CO2 site has links for SH data sets. If the differences is 10 ppm or less (as I remember), that does not allow for much heat-trapping difference.

bwilson4web · Nov 22, 2014

tochatihu said: ↑

S Hemi CO2 is lower, and I think the Scripps CO2 site has links for SH data sets. If the differences is 10 ppm or less (as I remember), that does not allow for much heat-trapping difference.
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Although the base may vary by ~2%, the NASA simulation suggests there are local, seasonal variations with likely, higher concentrations. I suspect these local effects spread over large areas lead to a type of heat island effect in the Northern hemisphere.

The Southern hemisphere has a lot more water to absorb the smaller heat. Then the Antarctica Circumpolar Current insulates it from what should be a lower, heat source. Regardless, OCO-2 will give us more detailed metrics.

Bob Wilson

tochatihu · Dec 18, 2014

First data! tease here:

BBC News - Carbon dioxide satellite mission returns first global maps

I'll snuffle around the AGU meeting website to see if more is available.

bwilson4web · Dec 18, 2014

First taste:

Bob Wilson

bwilson4web · Jul 4, 2015

Source: Data From NASA's OCO-2 Satellite Show a Year in the Life of the Planet's CO2 Emissions - CityLab

bwilson4web · Oct 13, 2017

A nice summary before the climate deniers shutdown the mission:
New insights from OCO-2

Emissions From Individual Cities and Volcanoes Visible From Space

El Niño Suppressed Tropical Ocean's Release of Carbon

A New Way to Measure Photosynthesis

Another source: NASA: Carbon Dioxide Spike Caused by Three Tropical Hotspots

For instance, in South America, 2015 was the driest year in decades. Higher-than-average temperatures combined with those climatic conditions to stress massive amounts of plant life, meaning there was less photosynthesis than normal – and thus less carbon was removed from the atmosphere than normal.

Tropical forests in eastern Africa had normal rainfall, but the temperatures were much greater than normal. More death and decomposition of the flora in the region caused more carbon production that was not offset by the living plants.

Indonesia was similar to South America in that it was the second-driest year in 30 years. But those dry conditions created massive forest and peat fires, which drove the carbon increases there, according to the NASA observations.

Bob Wilson

tochatihu · Oct 14, 2017

"before the climate deniers shutdown the mission"

Oh Baaahb. More interesting question is whether mission duration can be extended beyond current plan. This would be necessary to capture dynamics of the next El Nino cycle when it comes along.

tochatihu · Oct 14, 2017

Calibration of OCO-2 sensors against ground truth revealed some 'issues' with IR theory, that got cleaned up. Don't know if those improvements have found their way into climate models yet.

tochatihu · Oct 14, 2017

Imaging methane, another favorite IR absorber:

Methane | Tropomi

We can suspect high concentrations are related to rice cultivation and other warm wetlands. I don't 'see cows' in this image, nor permafrost releases, nor fossil-C releases.

Note that concentrations are much more variable than for CO2. Methane has an atmospheric loss pathway (reacts with hydroxyl radicals) but CO2 does not (only removed by photosynthesis and mineral weathering). Methane does not have enough time to get well mixed by atmospheric twirlies.

This same group has just orbited a successor satellite Sentinel 5P. Limited to 7km resolution while OCO-2 is about 2 km

tochatihu · Feb 5, 2018

I had missed this 2016 article

Direct space-based observations of anthropogenic CO2 emission areas from OCO-2 - Hakkarainen - 2016 - Geophysical Research Letters - Wiley Online Library

Which I am sure the lead author would send for free if asked. Said Dr. Hakkarainen would also know if something newer has been published. Worth asking.

tochatihu · Apr 17, 2018

Another CO2-observing satellite is at work:

First global carbon dioxide maps produced by Chinese observation satellite

bwilson4web · Apr 17, 2018

tochatihu said: ↑

Another CO2-observing satellite is at work:

First global carbon dioxide maps produced by Chinese observation satellite
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That has got to piss off the climate deniers running down the USA EPA.

Bob Wilson

tochatihu · Apr 17, 2018

So far the new satellite provides much less spatial resolution than OCO-2. Perhaps that will improve. It shows the same (narrow) concentration ranges that we have come to expect ~ 385 to 415 ppm.

OCO-2 and tropospheric wind fields (from quickscat) are so darn detailed that inversion models can actually identify sources and sinks on interestingly small scales.

iplug · Apr 17, 2018

Was thinking the same thing. Would really like to zoom in on certain CO2 hotspots around the world. From the article, same spatial resolution, but bigger map:

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00376-018-7312-6.pdf

tochatihu · Aug 18, 2018

New technology for sensing CO2 at a distance:

Miniaturized Laser Heterodyne Radiometer

Nifty for detecting methane and water vapor as well. Mostly describes the look-up role, but there will be a look-down version on a cubesat:

NASA Team Demonstrates Science on a Shoestring with Greenhouse Gas-Measuring Instrument

One might imagine improvements such that the gadget could resolve stable isotopes.

tochatihu · Nov 7, 2018

CO2 is also measured by a few commercial airliners:

Commercial airliners reveal three-dimensional distribution of atmospheric CO2 over Asia Pacific: Seasonality of CO2 under the monsoon meteorological regime -- ScienceDaily

Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 begins survey

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