Watch Earth's Yearly Carbon Cycle in Just Three Minutes
Image: ​NASA/YouTube​

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Watch Earth's Yearly Carbon Cycle in Just Three Minutes

Here’s what the greenhouse gas got up to in 2006.

NASA has been paying a lot more attention to the Earth's greenhouse gases, and ​for good re​ason. Among the many ne​w​ projects slated to help study humanity's ravaging effects on the planet is the GEOS-5 computer model, which was developed at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Global Modeling and Assi​milation Office (GMAO).

The GMAO ran a compute​r simulation called a "Nature Run" in which real atmospheric and emissions measurements are fed into the model to produce a visualization of Earth's CO2 cycle. The resulting video was made with data collected between January and December 2006, and provides a macro view of what the planet's carbon dioxide was up to in the same year that Pluto was kicked out of the planet clubItaly ​won the World Cup, and The Prestige starred David Bow​ie as Nikola Tesla.

The GMAO researchers used a beta version of this simulation for several years, before upgrading and releasing this vi​deo to the public yesterday. The chaotic ebbs and flows of the carbon dioxide over the months is mesmerizing to watch, and exposes the gas's relationship with the seasons and the hemispheres.

It will be interesting to see if GMAO will release similar simulations of other years, leading up to 2014. On the one hand, it would be pretty terrifying to see that global swirl of noxious emissions intensify over the years. On the other, any information about the rhythms of atmospheric CO2 is ammunition against the disastrous effects of climate change. And given how dire the situat​ion has become, every round of ammo is welcome.​