courtesy/copyright NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Rocket scientists of NASA will launch a carbon-spying satellite in seven days that’ll pinpoint the world’s emitters of carbon-dioxide for what is expected to be the long-term mapping of sources of sinks.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory, or OCO, will launch from Vandenberg Airforce Base in California on Feb. 24, 2009. It will settle down to a lowest orbit some 700-plus kilometres above the poles.

“The new observatory will dramatically improve global carbon dioxide data, collecting about eight million precise measurements every 16 days for at least two years,” a NASA statement said.

The United States is expected to eventually join Europe and the rest of the world in a worldwide trade in carbon. The “carbon-sniffing” OCO might one day be used as “proof” for “enforcement” of climate treaties like Kyoto’s descendants.

Detailed data on large sinks — large lakes, the seas and forests — could then complicate negotiations on climate policy, if “country data” changes to include, for example, greenbelts, polluting cities or busy shipping lanes.

But the satellite is expected to produce a better understanding of changes in carbon sinks and sources over time.