Japan monitors emissions from space

The Japanese space agency will launch a satellite later this month, which specializes in monitoring greenhouse gas emissions around the world and hopes that the data it gathers will support a global effort to combat climate change.

Smoke discharged from a cement plant in Hubei province, China.Photo: Reuters.

The Japan Space Exploration Bureau (JAXA) said the greenhouse gas observation satellite (GOSAT) leaving the launch pad on January 21 will allow scientists to calculate the level of carbon dioxide and methane gas at 56,000 sites. points on earth. This is the impressive ability of this project worth more than $ 370 million, when compared to the world only 282 points of greenhouse gas observation on the ground.

Director of GOSAT satellite project, Takashi Hamazaki, said: "To deal with climate change, we need to monitor greenhouse gas emissions in all regions of the world and consider their level of change. But now there are very few observation points on the ground and they are concentrated in certain areas. "

According to him, the world lacks greenhouse gas observation points in developing countries. While the GOSAT satellite, nicknamed Ibuki, will cover all of these countries as well as the atmosphere above the oceans. Satellite satellites equipped with two sensors to monitor infrared rays emitted from the earth, thereby calculating the level of two greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane.

GOSAT is expected to operate on orbit for a period of 5 years and collect data once a month. The first data provided by this satellite will be received by researchers in April or May. The launch of the device took place when Japan was under pressure to implement the goal of the Kyoto Protocol for the period of 2008-2012 on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Meanwhile, the US space agency (NASA) is also sponsoring the Carbon Observatory on its own orbit, scheduled to launch this year to collect data on carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. .