NASA Captures Images of CO2 Bubbling in the Sky

Amazing clip shows greenhouse gas emissions around the world

READ MORE: Experts blame hottest day on record

It is the most abundant greenhouse gas and is warming the Earth at an alarming rate.

Today, incredible new images show the bubbling masses of carbon dioxide (CO2) that are fueling climate change.

NASA satellites have detected swirls of the gas, emitted by power plants, wildfires, livestock raised for meat and more.

Of course, CO2 is invisible, but experts at NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio have made it bright orange so you can see it clearly.

In the clip, the gas appears in fascinating “pulses” as the earth rotates and day turns to night.

NASA video shows carbon dioxide concentrations as the gas moved through Earth’s atmosphere from January to March 2020

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“As policymakers and scientists, we’re trying to figure out where carbon comes from and how it affects the planet,” said climate scientist Lesley Ott of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

“You see here how everything is interconnected by these different weather patterns.”

Satellites in space have instruments called spectrometers that detect and monitor greenhouse gases like CO2.

NASA’s global map shows CO2 concentrations as the gas moved through Earth’s atmosphere from January to March 2020, driven by winds and atmospheric circulation.

As the video zooms in, you see emissions rising from power plants, fires and cities, then spreading across continents and oceans.

The most intense emissions (with higher intensity of CO2 molecules) appear as a deeper reddish orange

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a heat-trapping greenhouse gas and is the main cause of rising temperatures on Earth. As CO2 builds up in the atmosphere, it warms our planet.

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During this period, the majority of emissions from China, the United States and South Asia came from power plants, industrial facilities and vehicles.

Meanwhile, in Africa and South America, most CO2 emissions came from fires, particularly those related to land management, controlled agricultural burning and deforestation, as well as the burning of fossil fuels like oil and coal.

Trees absorb and store CO2 from the air, so they release this gas in large quantities when they burn.

In the video, CO2 appears in “pulses,” which is largely due to polluting human activity that occurs primarily during the day.

For example, wildfires typically start during the day and burn out at night, while most vehicles (which emit CO2 through their exhausts) also travel during the day.

As the Earth rotates, the gas appears in fascinating “pulses” as day turns to night. Of course, CO2 is invisible, but experts at NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio have rendered it bright orange so you can see it clearly

Of course, CO2 is not the most powerful greenhouse gas – that’s methane (CH4), which comes from burning fossil fuels, decomposing landfill waste, etc.

Scientists say methane has a global warming potential 28 times greater than CO2, although fortunately it is not released in as large quantities as CO2.

However, scientists generally agree that the Earth is heading for climate catastrophe if humans fail to reduce their emissions sufficiently.

Eventually, the planet will become too hot because of the greenhouse effect, leading to widespread heat exhaustion and deaths, flooding of coastal cities from melting polar ice, and food shortages, they believe.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said we are “on the road to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”

What is the greenhouse effect?

The greenhouse effect is the reason why our planet is becoming too hot to live on.

CO2 released by human activity builds up like an “insulating blanket” around the Earth, trapping more of the sun’s heat in our atmosphere.

Without the natural greenhouse effect, heat would radiate from the Earth’s surface into space, making the planet too cold to live on. But emissions of gases like CO2 and methane enhance the greenhouse effect, acting like a blanket that traps heat.

CO2 – and other greenhouse gases – are emitted by actions such as burning fossil fuels like coal for energy, burning forests to make way for livestock, and

Fertilizers containing nitrogen produce emissions of nitric oxide, another greenhouse gas.

At the same time, fluorinated gases are emitted by equipment and products that use these gases.

These emissions have a very strong warming effect, up to 23,000 times greater than that of CO2.

Sources: European Commission/BGS/NASA