NASA is poised to launch a satellite that will monitor greenhouse gas levels from space — a first-of-its-kind technological project that costs millions of dollars.
Specifically, the craft costs $465 million and will both measure and map carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere so that scientists can then track emissions and absorption levels over oceans, lands and forests, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“We really don’t have a lot of data right now to understand the uptake of carbon by these terrestrial ecosystems,” said Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 team member Paul Wennberg, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, in the Los Angeles Times.
The launch is set for early Tuesday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
An earlier version of the same type satellite was lost during a failed Feb. 24, 2009, launch attempt. That one burned up on re-entry — at a lost cost of $209 million.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.