Most air quality experts attribute the decline to technological and regulatory innovations that mean vehicles and industries are polluting less than they once did. The decrease is particularly noticeable in the Northern Hemisphere. However, wildfires burning over large areas in North America, Russia and China also can be an important source.Īccording to MOPITT, carbon monoxide levels have declined since 2000.Īccording to MOPITT, carbon monoxide concentrations have declined since 2000. In the United States, Europe and eastern Asia, the highest carbon monoxide concentrations occur around urban areas and tend to be a result of vehicle and industrial emissions. Fires are also the dominant source of carbon monoxide pollution in South America and Australia. In Africa, for example, agricultural burning shifts north and south of the equator with the seasons, leading to seasonal shifts in carbon monoxide. To view month by month maps of carbon monoxide, visit the carbon monoxide page in Earth Observatory’s global maps section. As a result, MOPITT’s maps show significant geographic variability and seasonality. Since CO has a lifetime in the troposphere of about one month, it persists long enough to be transported long distances by winds, but not long enough to mix evenly throughout the atmosphere. With a swath width of 640 kilometers (400 miles), MOPITT scans the entire atmosphere of Earth every three days. Terra carries a sensor- Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT)-that can measure carbon monoxide in a consistent fashion on a global scale. Little was known about the global distribution of carbon monoxide until the launch of the Terra satellite in 1999. In addition, wildfires and volcanoes are natural sources of the gas. As a result, many human activities and inventions emit carbon monoxide, including the combustion engines in cars, trucks, planes, ships and other vehicles the fires lit by farmers to clear forests or fields and industrial processes that involve the combustion of fossil fuels. Carbon monoxide forms whenever carbon-based fuels-including coal, oil, natural gas and wood-are burned.
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