NASA's U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center was unveiled on Monday, Dec. 4, during COP28 (United Nations Climate Conference). This is the latest initiative of NASA to tackle the worsening global warming.
However, the space organization is not alone on this one as it partners with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Here's why this new environmental effort of NASA is a big deal when it comes to tackling global warming and climate change.
NASA's US Greenhouse Gas Center Arrives!
Via its official press release, the aerospace union said that NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, EPA Administrator Michael Regan, and other U.S. governmental leaders confirmed the launch of the U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center.
"The U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center is another way the Biden-Harris Administration is working to make critical data available to more people," said Nelson.
The top NASA official said that the new initiative will help government officials in making climate policies, scientists running data analyses, and civilians who just want to understand how serious climate change really is.
"We're bringing space to Earth to benefit communities across the country," added Bill Nelson.
Specifically, the new U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center is designed to serve as a hub for collaborations between agencies—like NASA—the U.S. government, and private and non-profit partners.
This initiative will provide the needed computer models, information, and data from observations of various satellite and airborne missions, ground stations, and the International Space Station.
US GHG Center as Multi-Agency Effort
The NASA logo is displayed at the Earth Information Center exhibit, at NASA headquarters in Washington, DC, on June 21, 2023. NASA's Earth Information Center, which is part physical, part online, is an effort that blends science and visualizations to allow visitors to see how our planet is changing.
NASA said that the new US GHG Center is a multi-agency effort that includes catalog GHG datasets, as well as analysis tools that NOAA, EPA, and NIST helped curate.
The space organization said that this new initiative will help provide a better understanding of greenhouse gas fluxes and emissions from human-caused and natural sources.
NASA explained that during the first two-year demonstration phase of the new U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center, it will focus on three GHG areas, such as the following:
- Methane emission leaks from large events
- Human-caused GHG emissions
- Natural GHG sources and sinks, fluxes, and patterns
Since the new US GHG Center is a public initiative, anyone can use it to test the GHG data algorithms, data, and results. These are just some of the things you need to know about the new U.S. Greenhouse Gas Center.
To learn more about this NASA environmental effort, you can click this link.
Related Article: NASA's EMIT Successfully Maps World's Methane Emissions
