NASA website posted a youtube video (I can't see) with CO2 spatial derived from super computer runs and perhaps nothing from OCO. Near as I can tell it shows much more variability than PCers would have thought, based on me saying how well mixed this gas is in the troposphere. If you can post anything like that here, Bob, please do.
Ah, something like this: It never occurred to me that a link here might might get through the Great Wall. Now this video is a 'model' but now I'm wondering if the CO{2} density varies between the Northern and Southern hemisphere? If so, would the Southern heat loss relative Northern heat retention explain how divergent ice melting appears to be? In another 90 days, we may have some direct observations of the relative CO{2} concentrations . . . moving beyond this model: Source: NASA Computer Model Provides a New Portrait of Carbon Dioxide | NASA Bob Wilson
S Hemi CO2 is lower, and I think the Scripps CO2 site has links for SH data sets. If the differences is 10 ppm or less (as I remember), that does not allow for much heat-trapping difference.
Although the base may vary by ~2%, the NASA simulation suggests there are local, seasonal variations with likely, higher concentrations. I suspect these local effects spread over large areas lead to a type of heat island effect in the Northern hemisphere. The Southern hemisphere has a lot more water to absorb the smaller heat. Then the Antarctica Circumpolar Current insulates it from what should be a lower, heat source. Regardless, OCO-2 will give us more detailed metrics. Bob Wilson
First data! tease here: BBC News - Carbon dioxide satellite mission returns first global maps I'll snuffle around the AGU meeting website to see if more is available.
Source: Data From NASA's OCO-2 Satellite Show a Year in the Life of the Planet's CO2 Emissions - CityLab
A nice summary before the climate deniers shutdown the mission: New insights from OCO-2 Emissions From Individual Cities and Volcanoes Visible From Space El Niño Suppressed Tropical Ocean's Release of Carbon A New Way to Measure Photosynthesis Another source: NASA: Carbon Dioxide Spike Caused by Three Tropical Hotspots For instance, in South America, 2015 was the driest year in decades. Higher-than-average temperatures combined with those climatic conditions to stress massive amounts of plant life, meaning there was less photosynthesis than normal – and thus less carbon was removed from the atmosphere than normal. Tropical forests in eastern Africa had normal rainfall, but the temperatures were much greater than normal. More death and decomposition of the flora in the region caused more carbon production that was not offset by the living plants. Indonesia was similar to South America in that it was the second-driest year in 30 years. But those dry conditions created massive forest and peat fires, which drove the carbon increases there, according to the NASA observations. Bob Wilson
"before the climate deniers shutdown the mission" Oh Baaahb. More interesting question is whether mission duration can be extended beyond current plan. This would be necessary to capture dynamics of the next El Nino cycle when it comes along.
Calibration of OCO-2 sensors against ground truth revealed some 'issues' with IR theory, that got cleaned up. Don't know if those improvements have found their way into climate models yet.
Imaging methane, another favorite IR absorber: Methane | Tropomi We can suspect high concentrations are related to rice cultivation and other warm wetlands. I don't 'see cows' in this image, nor permafrost releases, nor fossil-C releases. Note that concentrations are much more variable than for CO2. Methane has an atmospheric loss pathway (reacts with hydroxyl radicals) but CO2 does not (only removed by photosynthesis and mineral weathering). Methane does not have enough time to get well mixed by atmospheric twirlies. This same group has just orbited a successor satellite Sentinel 5P. Limited to 7km resolution while OCO-2 is about 2 km
I had missed this 2016 article Direct space-based observations of anthropogenic CO2 emission areas from OCO-2 - Hakkarainen - 2016 - Geophysical Research Letters - Wiley Online Library Which I am sure the lead author would send for free if asked. Said Dr. Hakkarainen would also know if something newer has been published. Worth asking.
Another CO2-observing satellite is at work: First global carbon dioxide maps produced by Chinese observation satellite
So far the new satellite provides much less spatial resolution than OCO-2. Perhaps that will improve. It shows the same (narrow) concentration ranges that we have come to expect ~ 385 to 415 ppm. OCO-2 and tropospheric wind fields (from quickscat) are so darn detailed that inversion models can actually identify sources and sinks on interestingly small scales.
Was thinking the same thing. Would really like to zoom in on certain CO2 hotspots around the world. From the article, same spatial resolution, but bigger map: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00376-018-7312-6.pdf
New technology for sensing CO2 at a distance: Miniaturized Laser Heterodyne Radiometer Nifty for detecting methane and water vapor as well. Mostly describes the look-up role, but there will be a look-down version on a cubesat: NASA Team Demonstrates Science on a Shoestring with Greenhouse Gas-Measuring Instrument One might imagine improvements such that the gadget could resolve stable isotopes.
CO2 is also measured by a few commercial airliners: Commercial airliners reveal three-dimensional distribution of atmospheric CO2 over Asia Pacific: Seasonality of CO2 under the monsoon meteorological regime -- ScienceDaily
