CO2 Monitoring Satellite

At dawn on December 22， 2016， Chinese scientists witnessed the launch of the country’s first carbon dioxide monitoring satellite， TanSat for short， from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China.

Over the last 150 years， increasing concentration of carbon dioxide， from 280ppm to 400ppm， has plagued the planet. The greenhouse effect caused by gases such as carbon dioxide has been identified as the chief culprit of global warming. Monitoring carbon dioxide with satellites has become a global competition in the most technologically advanced countries. In 2009， Japan launched GOSAT， the world’s first greenhouse gas observer， and in 2014 the United States sent its OCO-2 into space. China is the third country to develop such an observer.

According to specialists， the 620-kilogram TanSat maintains a sun-synchronous orbit 700 kilometers above the earth as it monitors the density， distribution and flow of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Its precision is greater than 4ppm. TanSat will begin formal operation after six months of in-orbit testing. It will test global carbon dioxide levels every 16 days and start comprehensively monitoring the globe after two to three months of data accumulation.

“TanSat will play a huge role in China’s efforts to address global climate change and it will improve the monitoring of carbon dioxide around the planet，” explains Li Jiahong， chief engineer of the National Remote Sensing Center of China under the Ministry of Science and Technology. TanSat will fill a technical gap in monitoring greenhouse gases in China with first-hand data acquired by observing carbon dioxide above the earth.