Carbon dioxide mapped from 2003-2005

This animation of carbon dioxide (CO2) shows how our planet ‘breathes’. Each year huge amounts of CO2 are taken up by the growing vegetation in spring and summer and are to a large extent released again during the following autumn and winter when part of the vegetation dies and decays. This is seen in the animations by the up and down of the measured CO2 once per year. By looking carefully at the animation, it is possible to see that the CO2 levels are rising by about 0.5-1 percent from year to year. Dr Michael Buchwitz and Oliver Schneising from the Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP) at the University of Bremen in Germany based produced this animation using Envisat SCIAMACHY observations from 2003 to 2005.