The increase in carbon dioxide in Earth's mid-troposphere from 2002 to 2013

On May 4, 2002, a Delta-2 rocket carrying NASA's Aqua satellite was launched into space from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Lompoc, California. Aboard the satellite was an instrument designed to deliver weather and climate information of Earth's atmosphere using a technique called infrared sounding. Now in orbit the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument, or AIRS for short, measures the infrared, or heat, energy emitted by Earth's surface and atmosphere. From this measurement the concentration of many of our planet's trace gases, including the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, are extracted.

Read More