NASA operates two Orbiting Carbon Observatories, which can detect carbon dioxide, but neither can see methane-a version of carbon that, in the short term, has more warming potential than CO 2. But scientists see the carbon cycle less clearly than they need to. It would give scientists a detailed view of the carbon cycle-the process by which carbon circulates through the Earth’s forests, lakes, trees, oceans, ice, and other natural features.Īn off-kilter version of this cycle, altered by human activity, is warming the planet understanding its workings is vital for comprehending climate change. Once it was in space and mounted to a communications satellite, GeoCarb would scan land in the Western Hemisphere continuously in strips, taking meticulous measurements of three carbon-based gases: carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane. NASA had approved their proposal in 2016 it was now 2022, and GeoCarb was being built by Lockheed Martin, in Palo Alto, California. In Moore’s experience, bureaucrats never called after hours with good news.įor roughly six years, Moore and his colleagues had been working on a space-based scientific instrument called the Geostationary Carbon Cycle Observatory, or GeoCarb. He glanced down at the number and recognized it as NASA headquarters. When his phone rang, Berrien Moore III, the dean of the College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences at the University of Oklahoma, was fumbling with his bow tie, preparing for a formal ceremony honoring a colleague.

The annals of the world by james ussher