Envisat makes first ever observation of regionally elevated CO2 from manmade emissions

Using data acquired from 2003-2005 by the SCIAMACHY instrument aboard ESA's Envisat environmental satellite, scientists have for the first time detected regionally elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide -- the most important... Click here for more information.

Using data from the SCIAMACHY instrument aboard ESA's Envisat environmental satellite, scientists have for the first time detected regionally elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide – the most important greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming – originating from manmade emissions.

More than 30 billion tonnes of extra carbon dioxide (CO₂) is released into the atmosphere annually by human activities, mainly through the burning of fossil fuels. According to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this increase is predicted to result in a warmer climate with rising sea levels and an increase of extreme weather conditions. Predicting future atmospheric CO₂ levels requires an increase in our understanding of carbon fluxes.

Dr Michael Buchwitz from the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen in Germany and his colleagues detected the relatively weak atmospheric CO₂ signal arising from regional ‘anthropogenic’, or manmade, CO₂ emissions over Europe by processing and analysing SCIAMACHY data from 2003 to 2005.

As illustrated in the image, the findings show an extended plume over Europe’s most populated area, the region from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to Frankfurt, Germany.

Carbon dioxide emissions occur naturally as well as being created through human activities, like the burning of fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) for power generation, industry and traffic.

"The natural CO₂ fluxes between the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface are typically much larger than the CO₂ fluxes arising from manmade CO₂ emissions, making the detection of regional anthropogenic CO₂ emission signals quite difficult," Buchwitz explained.