Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most prevalent greenhouse gas driving global climate change. However, its increase in the atmosphere would be even more rapid without land and ocean carbon sinks, which collectively absorb about half of human emissions every year. Advanced computer modeling techniques in NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office allow us to disentangle the influences of sources and sinks and to better understand where carbon is coming from and going to.
This visualization shows the CO2 being added to Earth’s atmosphere over the
course of the year 2021, split into four major contributors: fossil fuels in
orange, burning biomass in red, land ecosystems in green, and the ocean in
blue. The dots on the surface also show how atmospheric carbon dioxide is also
being absorbed by land ecosystems in green and the ocean in blue. Though the
land and oceans are each carbon sinks in a global sense, individual locations
can be sources at different times.
For example, in this view highlighting North America and South America,
during the growing season plants absorb CO2 through photosynthesis, but release
much of this carbon through respiration during winter months. Some interesting
features include fossil fuel emissions from the northeastern urban corridor
that extends from Washington D.C. to Boston in the United States. The fast
oscillation over the Amazon rainforest shows the impact of plants absorbing
carbon while the sun is shining and then releasing it during nighttime hours.
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Credit:
NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
·
Visualizers
o Andrew J
Christensen (SSAI) [Lead]
o Mark SubbaRao (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
o
Brenda Lopez-Silva (SSAI)
o
Helen-Nicole Kostis (USRA)
·
Scientist
o Lesley Ott (NASA/GSFC) [Lead]
·
Technical support
o
Ian Jones (ADNET)
o Laurence Schuler (ADNET)
Source: NASA SVS | Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Tagged by Source
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