First CO2-counting satellites to launch soon

[bananas]

I hope we don't get too many surprises.

http://www.plentymag.com/blogs/edge/2009/01/first_co2counting_satellites_t.php

First CO2-counting satellites to launch soon

Two new satellites will soon launch, each with the specific purpose of counting concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. Japan’s Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite, or GOSAT, is expected to head skyward on January 21 and will monitor the greenhouse gases present at up to 56,000 locations around the world. Later this winter, NASA plans to launch its own carbon-counting satellite, called the Orbiting Carbon Observatory. These two space-based platforms have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of emissions.

Though many countries have long tracked their greenhouse gas emissions, that data comes from ground-based sensors that provide spotty coverage. As a result, large swaths of Africa and South America are currently not being monitored. Earlier earth-observing satellite missions have also contributed atmospheric data relevant to the climate—and one, DSCOVR, which would have measured the earth's reflectivity, was iced by a Republican Congress in 1999—but none have been able to capture how greenhouse-gas concentrations change through the carbon cycle, with carbon uptake and release in constant flux across the planet. GOSAT will be the first space project entirely dedicated to greenhouse gas observation.

<snip>

[BlooInBloo]

1. I'm shocked that bush didn't scuttle that.

[DCKit]

2. He's gonna have Cheney cut the fuse on the rocket a la "Spy v. Spy". n/t