May 30 2001
From The Space Library
For the first time, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency made available the data gathered by the Terra spacecraft, carrying the technologically advanced Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) experiment. The data, released at the American Geophysical Union meeting, revealed more clearly than any previous readings the presence of immense clouds of carbon monoxide over Africa and South America. The readings also charted dense air-pollution plumes over Southeast Asia. The MOPITT data pointed to natural factors such as forest fires, as well as human contributors such as industrial pollution, as causes of the increased carbon-monoxide readings. The scientific community greeted the release of the new data, and the promise of more to come, with excitement, because the MOPITT data would be vital in the quest to understand Earth’s changing climate. According to one researcher who was already mining the MOPITT data for an extensive study, the new data had the potential “to improve our understanding of the linkages between air pollution and global environment change.” (NASA, “NCAR NASA/CSA Monitor Provides Global Air Pollution View from Space,” news release 01-102, 30 May 2001.)
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