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Hello BEST members, Last week on July 2nd, NASA launched a spacecraft from Vanderberg AirForce Base in California devoted to reading carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. The spacecraft is called Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite (OCO-2). The original OCO was launched in 2009 and crashed into the Pacific Ocean shortly after. OCO-2 is estimated to makes its way into polar orbit with other Earth-surveying satellites 438 miles above Earth's surface about six weeks from July 2nd. Once in orbit OCO-2 will be using a grading spectrometer to measure carbon dioxide with an accuracy of 1 part per million. OCO-2 will be able to move over all of Earth in about 16 days and has the capability to measure carbon dioxide concentrations 24 times within 1 second. This will lead to a large amount of information on CO2 sources and sinks. In other words, information on where CO2 is being produced and where it is being taken away from the air. The launching of this satellite is extremely important to carbon policy issues. The data obtained from the satellite will allow for more accurate information about where the most carbon is coming from and how much of it exactly contributes to global warming. Also it will make sound information available to scientists and decision makers which will hopefully lead to better decision making in regards to carbon policies and climate change. "NASA Launches Satellite to Monitor Carbon Dioxide" 07/02/2014 space.com http://www.space.com/26403-nasa-oco2-carbon-dioxide-satellite-launch.html Thank you, Luiza Costa Undergraduate Intern 2014 BioEnergy & Sustainability School Soil and Water Science Department [log in to unmask]