Carbon dioxide 2003–10

This animation of carbon dioxide derived from data acquired by Enivat’s Sciamachy instrument shows how our planet ‘breathes’. Each year, huge amounts of carbon dioxide is absorbed by the growing vegetation in spring and summer, and released again during the autumn and winter seasons when some of the vegetation dies and decays. This is seen in the animation by the up and down of the measured carbon dioxide each year. The animation also shows how carbon dioxide levels are rising by about 0.5–1% from year to year.