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NASA Satellite Measures Earth's Carbon Metabolism

Posted by michael on from the fat-burning-machine dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "To celebrate Earth Day, the NASA Earth Observatory recently revealed global measurements of the Earth's metabolism. 'Combining space-based measurements of a range of plant properties collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) with a suite of other satellite and surface-based measurements, NASA scientists produce composite maps of our world's 'net primary production' every 8 days. This new measurement is called net production because it indicates how much carbon dioxide is taken in by vegetation during photosynthesis minus how much is given off during respiration.' Check this column for a summary including the usefulness of such measurements. You'll also find maps showing the seasonal variation of Earth's net primary production."

7 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. The Earth's not fat... by gpinzone · · Score: 5, Funny

    It just has a low metabolism.

  2. Now show where carbon get produced! by Ja-Ja-Jamin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Show where it gets produced contrasted with where it gets consumed and show the rate of the difference. Combine that with charts showing how typical day to day activities contribute to either column. Now you'll have something that can help the average person make a difference! This is a good start!

    1. Re:Now show where carbon get produced! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nah, most people will probably just leave it for someone else to take care of, like their children. I mean, making a difference takes effort, and Joe Public is too lazy to put in effort that doesn't directly benefit himself.

  3. These kinds of studies... by Ratphace · · Score: 5, Interesting


    ...are really important IMHO. Studying the carbon dioxide levels of any system is important because with the talks about someday inhabiting other planets like Mars, one of our first objectives would be getting greenhouse gases into the planet's atmosphere and then waiting many years for the planet to warm up enough to be inhabitable, both from a temperature standpoint and melting the ice caps at the poles (speaking of Mars of course).

    I am glad to see some useful studies being done. Once a planet warms up enough with green house gases, we can get some plant life on the planet to assist in the creation of oxygen through this same cycle and eventually make a planet liveable. Though it's not something we'll see in our lifetimes, studies such as these benefit the species as a whole in the long run (i.e. big picture of time).

  4. Coniferous forests by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm surprised that the coniferous forests in far north North America and Eurasia are more productive than the deciduous forests of more temperate climates. I'm wondering if the results of this are skewed because the temperate regions produce more carbon dioxide in the form of combustion emissions.

  5. Interesting by Musashi+Miyamoto · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If I understand the pictures correctly, it's amazing to see how much carbon is converted in the northern hemisphere... in Canada and Russia. It counters the conventional wisdom of the Amazon as being the primary oxygen producing region.

    It will make me doubt all those "save the rain forest" tree-huggers.

    I wonder if they could do the same thing to show the amount of carbon being produced.

    1. Re:Interesting by robsimmon · · Score: 5, Informative

      Actually the Amazon takes up 10% of the carbon absorbed by the Earth's land surface with only 5% of the land area--so it's a major source of oxygen. But the Amazon's a pretty complicated place--these maps only show part of what's going on there. Read (shameless plug, but then again the original story is from my site, too) Escape from the Amazon for a few details on the other half of the process.