Reindeer taking a break

Researchers from the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s Arctic Space Centre recently launched a big white balloon to measure the amount of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. Part of ESA’s preparatory work for the new Copernicus Carbon Dioxide Monitoring satellite mission, the aim of the experiment is to evaluate the feasibility of measuring greenhouse gases over snow from space. Contrary to our everyday experience, snow is very dark at the wavelengths that greenhouse-gas measuring satellites observe. Reindeer are often found grazing around the research site near in Sodankylä.

Read full story: Snowy Lapland and the white balloon