NASA launching OCO-2 (Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2) 1 July, 2014

Final launch countdown preparations continue on schedule today for the liftoff of the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket carrying NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.  At Space Launch Complex 2 this afternoon the RP-1 fuel, a highly refined kerosene, is to be loaded into the launch vehicle’s first stage. Then the mobile service tower, or the gantry, will be

rolled back from around the rocket.  This is targeted for about 4:10 p.m.Pacific time as soon as the launch vehicle preparations are complete. The countdown for launch will begin at 11:56 p.m.  After a weather briefing, cryogenic loading of liquid oxygen into the Delta II first stage will begin at 1:11 a.m.  Liftoff is targeted for the opening of a 30-second launch window that occurs at 2:56:44 a.m. Pacific time, 5:56 a.m. Eastern.

The weather forecast is essentially unchanged and calls for a 100 percent chance of acceptable conditions at launch time. At liftoff time the temperature will be near 52 degrees, winds from the Northwest at 5-8 knots and a visibility of 1 to 2 miles in coastal fog.

Five Things about OCO-2

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) is scheduled to launch July 1 from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. OCO-2 is NASA’s first mission dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide, the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth’s climate.
1. Humans release nearly 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually. The amount varies from nation to nation, but that averages about 5.5 tons per person. Earth’s land surface and ocean absorb about half of these emissions. OCO-2’s measurements will show scientists where this carbon dioxide comes from (the sources on Earth) and where it is absorbed out of the atmosphere and stored (the sinks).
2. OCO-2's field of view is only about one square mile (three square kilometers) -- smaller

than New York City's Central Park. Why so small? To dodge clouds. Clouds regularly cover about two-thirds of Earth, but even a tiny wisp of cloud in OCO-2's view compromises the measurement.
3. OCO-2 studies carbon dioxide by looking at the colors (or wavelengths) of sunlight that carbon dioxide absorbs. To identify very small changes in this absorption from one wavelength to the next, the OCO-2 instrument separates light into many narrow bands of wavelengths. In three wavelength regions, which represent only a small portion of the spectrum, it can measure more than 3,000 individual bands. A camera divides the same range of wavelengths into just three colors.
4. OCO-2 will collect 24 measurements every second, totaling about a million soundings every day. Of these, about 100,000 are expected to be sufficiently cloud free to provide highly useable carbon dioxide data. The best carbon dioxide-observing satellite currently in orbit takes 4 seconds to make one sounding and collects fewer than 20,000 pieces of data per day, with about 500 of those being highly useful.
5. The observatory has just a 30-second opportunity to launch. The timing has to be so precise because OCO-2 will join the A-Train, a constellation of five other international Earth observing satellites that fly very close together to make nearly simultaneous measurements of our planet. Launching a few seconds too early or late will prevent it from joining the right orbit track. If it misses its 30-second opportunity on July 1, it can launch during a similar 30-second window on a succeeding night.

NASA's OCO-2 Will Track Our Impact on Airborne Carbon

Every time we get in a car and drive, we burn gasoline, releasing carbon dioxide and other compounds into the air and disturbing Earth’s climate. Our use of fossil fuels continues to increase exponentially, with more than half of all fossil fuels ever used by humans being consumed in the last 20 years.

In comparison with the amount of carbon that enters the atmosphere from natural sources, our fossil fuel emissions are modest. "Carbon dioxide generated by human activities amounts to only a few percent of the total yearly atmospheric uptake or loss of carbon dioxide from plant life and geochemical processes on land and in the ocean," said Gregg Marland, a professor in the Geology Department of Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina. "This may not seem like much, but humans have essentially tipped the balance."

Scientists are able to accurately measure the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, both today and in the past, and the impact of our activities is apparent in those measurements. Before the Industrial Revolution, there were about 280 molecules of carbon dioxide out of every million molecules in the atmosphere, that is, 280 parts per million. By 2014, the concentration had risen to about 400 parts per million.

Although we know the concentration of carbon dioxide, much about the processes that govern the gas's atmospheric concentration remains a mystery. We still do not know precisely where all of the carbon dioxide comes from and where it is being stored when it leaves the air. That information is crucial for understanding the impact of human activities on climate and for evaluating options for mitigating or adapting to climate change.

Scientists expect to get some answers soon to these and other compelling carbon questions, thanks to the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, a new Earth-orbiting NASA satellite scheduled to launch on July 1. OCO-2 will allow scientists to record detailed daily measurements of carbon dioxide -- around 100,000 measurements of the gas around the world every day.

“Now that humans are acknowledging the environmental effects of our dependence on fossil fuels and other carbon dioxide-emitting activities, our goal is to analyze the sources and sinks of this carbon dioxide and to find better ways to manage it,” Marland said.

“If you visualize a column of air that stretches from Earth’s surface to the top of the atmosphere, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 will identify how much of that vertical column is carbon dioxide, with an understanding that most is emitted at the surface,” said Marland. “Simply, it will act like a plane observing the smoke from forest fires down below, with the task of assessing where the fires are and how big they are. Compare that aerial capability with sending a lot of people into the forest looking for fires. The observatory will use its vantage point from space to capture a picture of where the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide are, rather than our cobbling data together from multiple sources with less frequency, reliability and detail.”

Kevin Gurney, an associate professor at Arizona State University, Tempe, believes OCO-2 will complement a suite of NASA-funded efforts he is currently leading that quantify fossil fuel emissions by using statistics on fuel, activity of cars, etc., to pinpoint emissions on scales as small as an individual city building or street.

"This research and OCO-2 together will act like partners in closing the carbon budget, with my data products estimating movements from the bottom up and OCO-2 estimating sources from the top down," Gurney said. “By tackling the problem from both perspectives, we’ll stand to achieve an independent, mutually compatible view of the carbon cycle. And the insight gained by combining these top-down and bottom-up approaches might take on special significance in the near future as our policymakers consider options for regulating carbon dioxide across the entire globe.”

OCO-2 is the second of five NASA Earth science launches in 2014, the most in more than a decade. NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.

NASA Sets Media Events for OCO-2 Launch from California

Note: NASA has added a media and social media event to the activities at the OCO-2 launch site for Monday, June 30. From 12:30-2 p.m. EDT (9:30-11 a.m. PDT) in NASA Building 836 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, NASA will host a live broadcast featuring interactive discussions including an OCO-2 mission overview, launch details, and an engineering and science panel. The event will be broadcast live on NASA TV and streamed on NASA.gov. Following the event, registered media and social media will be given a tour showcasing launch preparations and facilities at Vandenberg.

The launch of NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission (OCO-2) at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, is scheduled for Tuesday, July 1. Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 2 aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket is targeted for 5:56 a.m. EDT (2:56 a.m. PDT) at the opening of a 30-second launch window.

OCO-2 is NASA’s first mission dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide, the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth’s climate. OCO-2 will provide a new tool for understanding the human and natural sources of carbon dioxide emissions and the natural “sinks” that absorb carbon dioxide and help control its buildup.

The OCO-2 and Delta II News Center at the NASA Vandenberg Resident Office will open Thursday, June 26. To speak with a NASA communications specialist, call 805-605-3051 beginning at that time. A recorded launch status report also will be available by dialing 805-734-2693.

Prelaunch and launch activities will take place June 29 through July 1. U.S. journalists should fax their accreditation requests on news organization letterhead to Tech Sgt. Vincent Mouzon, 30th Space Wing Public Affairs Office at Vandenberg, at
805-606-4571, or email vincent.mouzon@us.af.mil. Information required must include full legal name, date of birth and media affiliation. A legal photo identification will be required upon arrival at Vandenberg.
      
A prelaunch news conference and mission briefing will be held from 7-9 p.m. EDT (4-6 p.m. PDT) Sunday, June 29 in the NASA Vandenberg Resident Office. The briefings will be carried live on NASA Television and streamed on NASA.gov. Media also can post questions via Twitter by using the hashtag #AskNASA during the briefings. 

On launch day, NASA TV coverage and countdown commentary will begin at 3:45 a.m. EDT (12:45 a.m. PDT). Spacecraft separation from the rocket occurs 56 minutes 15 seconds after launch.  A post-launch news conference with OCO-2 mission officials will be held approximately two-and-a-half hours after launch.

Live countdown coverage also will be available online. Launch updates will begin on NASA’s launch blog at 3:45 a.m. EDT (12:45 a.m. PDT). Coverage features real-time updates of countdown milestones, as well as streaming video clips highlighting launch preparations and liftoff. To view the launch blog, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/oco2

For NASA TV downlink and schedule information and streaming video, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California is responsible for project management of OCO-2. Orbital Sciences Corp. built the OCO-2 spacecraft. NASA’s Launch Services Program at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida provides launch management. United Launch Alliance of Centennial, Colorado, is NASA’s launch service provider for the Delta II rocket.

New NASA Space Observatory to Study Carbon Conundrums

NASA’s first spacecraft dedicated to measuring carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere is in final preparations for a July 1 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission will provide a more complete, global picture of the human and natural sources of carbon dioxide, as well as their “sinks,” the natural ocean and land processes by which carbon dioxide is pulled out of Earth’s atmosphere and stored. Carbon dioxide, a critical component of Earth’s carbon cycle, is the leading human-produced greenhouse gas driving changes in Earth’s climate.
“Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere plays a critical role in our planet's energy balance and is a key factor in understanding how our climate is changing,” said Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division in Washington. “With the OCO-2 mission, NASA will be contributing an important new source of global observations to the scientific challenge of better understanding our Earth and its future."
OCO-2 will launch on a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket and maneuver into a 438-mile (705-kilometer) altitude, near-polar orbit. It will become the lead satellite in a constellation of five other international Earth monitoring satellites that circle Earth once every 99 minutes and cross the equator each day near 1:36 p.m. local time, making a wide range of nearly simultaneous Earth observations. OCO-2 is designed to operate for at least two years.
The spacecraft will sample the global geographic distribution of the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide and allow scientists to study their changes over time more completely than can be done with any existing data. Since 2009, Earth scientists have been preparing for OCO-2 by taking advantage of observations from the Japanese GOSAT satellite. OCO-2 replaces a nearly identical NASA spacecraft lost because of a rocket launch mishap in February 2009.
At approximately 400 parts per million, atmospheric carbon dioxide is now at its highest level  in at least the past 800,000 years. The burning of fossil fuels and other human activities are currently adding nearly 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year, producing an unprecedented buildup in this greenhouse gas.
Greenhouse gases trap the sun's heat within Earth's atmosphere, warming the planet’s surface and helping to maintain habitable temperatures from the poles to the equator. Scientists have concluded increased carbon dioxide from human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning and deforestation, has thrown Earth's natural carbon cycle off balance, increasing global surface temperatures and changing our planet's climate.
Currently, less than half the carbon dioxide emitted into Earth’s atmosphere by human activities stays there. Some of the remainder is absorbed by Earth’s ocean, but the location and identity of the natural land sinks believed to be absorbing the rest is not well understood. OCO-2 scientists hope to coax these sinks out of hiding and resolve a longstanding scientific puzzle.
“Knowing what parts of Earth are helping remove carbon from our atmosphere will help us understand whether they will keep doing so in the future,” said Michael Gunson, OCO-2 project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California. “Understanding the processes controlling carbon dioxide in our atmosphere will help us predict how fast it will build up in the future. Data from this mission will help scientists reduce uncertainties in forecasts of how much carbon dioxide will be in the atmosphere and improve the accuracy of global climate change predictions.”
OCO-2 measurements will be combined with data from ground stations, aircraft and other satellites to help answer questions about the processes that regulate atmospheric carbon dioxide and its role in Earth’s climate and carbon cycle. Mission data will also help assess the usefulness of space-based measurements of carbon dioxide for monitoring emissions.
The observatory's science instrument features three, high-resolution spectrometers that spread reflected sunlight into its component colors, then precisely measure the intensity of each color. Each spectrometer is optimized to record a different specific color absorbed by carbon dioxide and oxygen molecules in Earth’s atmosphere. The less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the more light the spectrometers detect. By analyzing the amount of light, scientists can estimate the relative concentrations of these chemicals.
The new observatory will dramatically increase the number of observations of carbon dioxide, collecting hundreds of thousands of measurements each day when the satellite flies over Earth’s sunlit hemisphere. High-precision, detailed, near-global observations are needed to characterize carbon dioxide's distribution because the concentration of carbon dioxide varies by only a few percent throughout the year on regional to continental scales. Scientists will analyze the OCO-2 data, using computer models similar to those used to predict the weather, to locate and understand the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide.
OCO-2 is a NASA Earth System Science Pathfinder Program mission managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Virginia, built the spacecraft bus and provides mission operations under JPL’s leadership. The science instrument was built by JPL, based on the instrument design co-developed for the original OCO mission by Hamilton Sundstrand in Pomona, California. NASA's Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for launch management. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
OCO-2 is the second of five NASA Earth science missions to be launched this year. NASA monitors Earth’s vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.

Source: NASA