Environment

CO2 Map of the Earth

This past summer, NASA launched its first satellite devoted to measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas that is driving global warming.

Scientists with the space agency unveiled the first carbon maps obtained by the spacecraft, named the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, or OCO-2.

A map of the globe that uses about 600,000 data points taken by OCO-2 from Oct. 1 through Nov. 17 shows hotspots of carbon dioxide over northern Australia, southern Africa and eastern Brazil.