--- title: NASA: A Year in the Life of Earths CO2 | TIME description: 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. canonical: https://time.com/video/TPdLINk3/ og:title: NASA: A Year in the Life of Earths CO2 og:description: 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. og:url: https://time.com/video/TPdLINk3/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TPdLINk3/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: NASA: A Year in the Life of Earths CO2 twitter:description: 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. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TPdLINk3/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # NASA: A Year in the Life of Earths CO2 > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: NASA: A Year in the Life of Earths CO2 [Watch (HLS stream): NASA: A Year in the Life of Earths CO2](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TPdLINk3.m3u8) (3:10)  _Published 2016-03-09. 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._ --- Jul 27, 2023 7:44 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [See How the Earth Has Changed Over the Past 20 Years in This NASA Timelapse](/video/7zh7Symi/) ### See How the Earth Has Changed Over the Past 20 Years in This NASA Timelapse [The Level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Hasn't Been This High in 800,000 Years](/video/aWuzDvo2/) ### The Level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Hasn't Been This High in 800,000 Years [Scientists Accidentally Discover Method to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Ethanol](/video/WwXSIWkf/) ### Scientists Accidentally Discover Method to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Ethanol --- ## Transcript Hi, this is Bill Puttman. I'm a climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. What you're looking at is a super computer model of carbon dioxide levels in the earth's atmosphere. The visualization compresses one year of data into a few minutes. [ MUSIC ] Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas affected by human activity. About half of the carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuel combustion remains in the atmosphere while the other half is absorbed by natural land and ocean reservoirs. In the Northern Hemisphere, We see the highest concentrations are focused around major emissions sources over North America, Europe, and Asia. [ MUSIC ] Notice how the as doesn't stay in one place. The dispersion of carbon dioxide is controlled by the large scale weather patterns within the global circulation. [ MUSIC ] During spring and summer in the northern hemisphere, plants absorb a substantial amount of carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, thus removing some of the gas from the atmosphere. We see this change in the model and the red and purple colors start to fade. [ MUSIC ] Meanwhile, in the Southern Hemisphere, we see the release of another pollutant, carbon monoxide. This is a gas that's both harmful to the environment, and to humans. During the summer months, plumes of carbon monoxide stream from fires in Africa, South America, and Australia, contributing to high concentrations in the atmosphere. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Notice how these emissions are also transported by winds To other parts of the world. [ MUSIC ] As summer transitions to fall and plant photosynthesis decreases, carbon dioxide begins to accumulate in the atmosphere. Although this change is expected We're saying higher concentrations of carbon dioxide accumulate in the atmosphere each year. This is contributing to the long term trend of rising global temperatures. [ MUSIC ] The Orbiting Carbon Observatory- 2 or OCO- 2 will be the first NASA satellite mission. To provide a global view of carbon dioxide. OCO2 observations in atmospheric models, like GEOS5, will work closely together to better understand both human emissions and natural fluxes of carbon dioxide NASA. This will help guide climate models to our more reliable predictions of future conditions across the globe. [ MUSIC ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"NASA: A Year in the Life of Earths CO2","description":"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.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TPdLINk3/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-03-09T15:29:53.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TPdLINk3.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/TPdLINk3/","duration":"PT3M10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/TPdLINk3/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```