NASA Computer Model Provides a New Portrait of Carbon Dioxide - Video

An ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model has given scientists a stunning new look at how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere travels around the globe. 

Plumes of carbon dioxide in the simulation swirl and shift as winds disperse the greenhouse gas away from its sources.

Image courtesy NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/K. Sharghi.

An ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model has given scientists a stunning new look at how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere travels around the globe.

Plumes of carbon dioxide in the simulation swirl and shift as winds disperse the greenhouse gas away from its sources. The simulation also illustrates differences in carbon dioxide levels in the northern and southern hemispheres and distinct swings in global carbon dioxide concentrations as the growth cycle of plants and trees changes with the seasons.

Scientists have made ground-based measurements of carbon dioxide for decades and in July NASA launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite to make global, space-based carbon observations. But the simulation - the product of a new computer model that is among the highest-resolution ever created - is the first to show in such fine detail how carbon dioxide actually moves through the atmosphere.

"While the presence of carbon dioxide has dramatic global consequences, it's fascinating to see how local emission sources and weather systems produce gradients of its concentration on a very regional scale," said Bill Putman, lead scientist on the project from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

"Simulations like this, combined with data from observations, will help improve our understanding of both human emissions of carbon dioxide and natural fluxes across the globe."

The carbon dioxide visualization was produced by a computer model called GEOS-5, created by scientists at NASA Goddard's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office. In particular, the visualization is part of a simulation called a "Nature Run."

The Nature Run ingests real data on atmospheric conditions and the emission of greenhouse gases and both natural and man-made particulates.

The model is then is left to run on its own and simulate the natural behaviour of the Earth's atmosphere. This Nature Run simulates May 2005 to June 2007.

While Goddard scientists have been tweaking a "beta" version of the Nature Run internally for several years, they are now releasing this updated, improved version to the scientific community for the first time.

Scientists are presenting a first look at the Nature Run and the carbon dioxide visualization at the SC14 supercomputing conference this week in New Orleans.

"We're very excited to share this revolutionary dataset with the modeling and data assimilation community," Putman said, "and we hope the comprehensiveness of this product and its ground-breaking resolution will provide a platform for research and discovery throughout the Earth science community."

In the spring of 2014, for the first time in modern history, atmospheric carbon dioxide - the key driver of global warming - exceeded 400 parts per million across most of the northern hemisphere.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide concentrations were about 270 parts per million. Concentrations of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere continue to increase, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.

Despite carbon dioxide's significance, much remains unknown about the pathways it takes from emission source to the atmosphere or carbon reservoirs such as oceans and forests.

Combined with satellite observations such as those from NASA's recently launched OCO-2, computer models will help scientists better understand the processes that drive carbon dioxide concentrations.

NASA Spitzer Image: Dramatic new portrait helps define Milky Way's shape - Video

More than 200 million images like this one have been stitched together by Wisconsin astronomers to make a 360-degree portrait of the plane of our galaxy, the Milky Way. 

In this image, the billowing pink clouds are massive stellar nurseries. 

The stringy green filaments are the blown out remnants of a star that exploded in a supernova. 

Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech /University of Wisconsin-Madison

Using more than 2 million images collected by NASA's orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope, a team of Wisconsin University scientists has stitched together a dramatic 360 degree portrait of the Milky Way, providing new details of our galaxy's structure and contents.


The new composite picture, using infrared images gathered over the last decade, was unveiled today (March 20, 2014) at a TED conference in Vancouver.

The galactic portrait provides an unprecedented look at the plane of our galaxy, using the infrared imagers aboard Spitzer to cut through the interstellar dust that obscures the view in visible light.

Edward Churchwell

"For the first time, we can actually measure the large-scale structure of the galaxy using stars rather than gas," explains Edward Churchwell, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of astronomy whose group compiled the new picture, which looks at a thin slice of the galactic plane.

"We've established beyond the shadow of a doubt that our galaxy has a large bar structure that extends halfway out to the sun's orbit. We know more about where the Milky Way's spiral arms are."

Lofted into space in 2003, the Spitzer Space Telescope has far exceeded its planned two-and-a-half-year lifespan.

Although limited by the depletion of the liquid helium used to cool its cameras, the telescope remains in heliocentric orbit, gathering a trove of astrophysical data that promises to occupy a new generation of astronomers.

In addition to providing new revelations about galactic structure, the telescope and the images processed by the Wisconsin team have made possible the addition of more than 200 million new objects to the catalog of the Milky Way.

"This gives us some idea about the general distribution of stars in our galaxy, and stars, of course, make up a major component of the baryonic mass of the Milky Way," notes Churchwell, whose group has been collecting and analyzing Spitzer data for more than a decade in a project known as GLIMPSE (Galactic Legacy Infrared Midplane Survey Extraordinaire). "That's where the ballgame is."

Barb Whitney

The new infrared picture, known as GLIMPSE360, was compiled by a team led by UW-Madison astronomer Barb Whitney.

It is interactive and zoomable, giving users the ability to look through the plane of the galaxy and zero in on a variety of objects, including nebulae, bubbles, jets, bow shocks, the center of the galaxy and other exotic phenomena.

The image is being shown for the first time this morning on a large visualization wall installed by Microsoft at the TED conference.

The new GLIMPSE composite image will be made widely available to astronomers and planetaria.

The data is also the basis for a “citizen science” project, known as the Milky Way Project, where anyone can help scour GLIMPSE images to help identify and map the objects that populate our galaxy.