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Unprecedented 3D View into How Carbon Dioxide Moves Around the Globe

Carbon dioxide plays a significant role in trapping heat in Earth's atmosphere. The gas is released from human activities like burning fossil fuels, and the concentration of carbon dioxide moves and changes through the seasons. NASA scientists have tracked the rising concentration of heat-trapping carbon dioxide for decades using ground-based sensors. A high-resolution visualization of the new combined data product - generated by the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and using data from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite built and operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory – provides an entirely different perspective. The 3D visualization reveals in startling detail the complex patterns in which carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases, decreases and moves around the globe over the course of September 2014 to September 2015.