By Bill Scanlon

FORT COLLINS - Carbon dioxide is the villain in global warming scenarios, and Tuesday’s space launch is all about measuring carbon around the world to see how well it’s behaving — or misbehaving.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory launches into space from Vandenburg Air Force Base in California on Tuesday, armed with a computer program designed by Colorado State University researchers.

The mission essentially “tracks the Earth’s breathing,” said Scott Denning atmospheric science professor at CSU. It employs a spectrograph, a handy scientific tool that can identify elements as they drift through light, forming a prism-like bar code of what’s out there.

CSU’s algorithm works with the spectrograph to detect the ratio of oxygen to carbon in different spots around the world. Because oxygen exists almost perfectly uniformly everywhere on the planet, the varying ratios can pinpoint where there is extra carbon or an absence of it.

Healthy forests and cool oceans “breathe in” carbon by the ton, including about half of the carbon emitted by coal plants, automobiles and other icons of the modern age.

That’s hugely important because the carbon that isn’t absorbed by plants and oceans gets into the atmosphere where it acts as a barrier, preventing sunlight from bouncing back into the upper atmosphere, hence warming the planet.

But decaying forests lose the capacity to absorb carbon, as do
forests that have been razed for farming or development.

Planet-wide, “plants are growing faster than they are dying,
which is remarkable,” Denning said.

The big question is how long that will last, how long will the
Earth’s own living system keep some $400 billion worth of
carbon from getting stuck in the atmosphere each year.

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source: Rocky Mountain News