NASA Launches New Carbon Observatory   
       
   July 2, 2014:  NASA has successfully launched its first spacecraft dedicated   
   to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide.   
       
   On Wednesday, July 2nd, at 2:56 a.m. PDT, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2   
   (OCO-2) raced skyward from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on a United   
   Launch Alliance Delta II rocket. Approximately 56 minutes after the launch,   
   the observatory separated from the rocket's second stage into an initial   
   429-mile (690-kilometer) orbit. Initial telemetry shows the spacecraft is in   
   excellent condition.   
       
   OCO-2 soon will begin a minimum two-year mission to locate Earth's sources of   
   and storage places for atmospheric carbon dioxide, the leading human-produced   
   greenhouse gas responsible for warming our world and a critical component of   
   the planet's carbon cycle.   
       
   "Climate change is the challenge of our generation," said NASA Administrator   
   Charles Bolden. "With OCO-2 and our existing fleet of satellites, NASA is   
   uniquely qualified to take on the challenge of documenting and understanding   
   these changes, predicting the ramifications, and sharing information about   
   these changes for the benefit of society."   
       
   http://youtu.be/BZtXdBBzJyA   
       
   A Delta II rocket leaps off the launch pad to begin NASA's OCO-2 mission at   
   Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Image Credit:  NASA TV.  Play the   
   video   
       
   OCO-2 will take NASA's studies of carbon dioxide and the global carbon cycle   
   to new heights. The mission will produce the most detailed picture to date of   
   natural sources of carbon dioxide, as well as their "sinks" -- places on   
   Earth's surface where carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere. The   
   observatory will study how these sources and sinks are distributed around the   
   globe and how they change over time.   
       
   "This challenging mission is both timely and important," said Michael   
   Freilich, director of the Earth Science Division of NASA's Science Mission   
   Directorate in Washington. "OCO-2 will produce exquisitely precise   
   measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations near Earth's   
   surface, laying the foundation for informed policy decisions on how to adapt   
   to and reduce future climate change."   
       
   Carbon dioxide sinks are at the heart of a longstanding scientific puzzle that   
   has made it difficult for scientists to accurately predict how carbon dioxide   
   levels will change in the future and how those changing concentrations will   
   affect Earth's climate.   
       
   "Scientists currently don't know exactly where and how Earth's oceans and   
   plants have absorbed more than half the carbon dioxide that human activities   
   have emitted into our atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial era,"   
   said David Crisp, OCO-2 science team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion   
   Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "Because of this we cannot predict   
   precisely how these processes will operate in the future as climate changes.   
   For society to better manage carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere, we need   
   to be able to measure the natural source and sink processes."   
       
   Precise measurements of the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide are   
   needed because background levels vary by less than two percent on regional to   
   continental scales. Typical changes can be as small as one-third of one   
   percent. OCO-2 measurements are designed to measure these small changes   
   clearly.   
       
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZtXdBBzJyA&feature=youtu.be   
       
   A ScienceCast video explains the OCO-2 mission.  Play it.   
       
   During the next 10 days, the spacecraft will go through a checkout process and   
   then begin three weeks of maneuvers that will place it in its final 438-mile   
   (705-kilometer), near-polar operational orbit at the head of the international   
   Afternoon Constellation, or "A-Train," of Earth-observing satellites. The   
   A-Train, the first multi-satellite, formation flying "super observatory" to   
   record the health of Earth's atmosphere and surface environment, collects an   
   unprecedented quantity of nearly simultaneous climate and weather measurements.   
       
   OCO-2 science operations will begin about 45 days after launch. Scientists   
   expect to begin archiving calibrated mission data in about six months and plan   
   to release their first initial estimates of atmospheric carbon dioxide   
   concentrations in early 2015.   
       
   The observatory will uniformly sample the atmosphere above Earth's land and   
   waters, collecting more than 100,000 precise individual measurements of carbon   
   dioxide over Earth's entire sunlit hemisphere every day. Scientists will use   
   these data in computer models to generate maps of carbon dioxide emission and   
   uptake at Earth's surface on scales comparable in size to the state of   
   Colorado. These regional-scale maps will provide new tools for locating and   
   identifying carbon dioxide sources and sinks.   
       
   OCO-2 also will measure a phenomenon called solar-induced fluorescence, an   
   indicator of plant growth and health. As plants photosynthesize and take up   
   carbon dioxide, they fluoresce and give off a tiny amount of light that is   
   invisible to the naked eye. Because more photosynthesis translates into more   
   fluorescence, fluorescence data from OCO-2 will help shed new light on the   
   uptake of carbon dioxide by plants   
       
   For more information about OCO-2, visit:  http://www.nasa.gov/oco2   
       
   Credits:   
   Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit:   
   Science@NASA   
       
   Web Links:  Global Climate Change -- climate.nasa.gov   
       
   OCO-2 -- mission home page   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.99   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)