Posts Tagged ‘concentration’

Bottoming out – or where is the CO2 going?

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

What happens to the climate gases are hard to come by and also to understand. Water like the oceans take up CO2 as it is soluble in water, soil etc. take some, plants do photosynthesis. Too much CO2 may break the system, so that these even add CO2 to the atmosphere.

Everything changes and varies – by the year and by the decades – so it is difficult to see the grand picture in the short term.

Merchant ships have been used to measure the CO2 in the oceans. The aim is to determine the size of the ocean carbon sink and how it changes over time. Calculations of the overall picture can start if these numbers are known. Some researchers think the oceans are filled up with what it can take for now.

Ozone layer depletion and increased circulation is also causing changes, maybe bringing CO2-rich water to the surface. Deforestation is in the picture as well.

Climate modeling and necessary data  is becoming a big issue – with attention money follows (hopefully)! Measuring equipment is costly but increasingly needed!

CO2 is is found in the atmosphere in a concentration of 350 ppm, and is 22% of the climate gases by air volume. Water vapour is the main climate gas with 62% and 10000 ppm, and the third is ozone 7% and 1ppm.