4 ms·

dumb question: say they take xxxx tons from somewhere in Switzerland. How long does it take for the air to mix with the rest so the co2 is averaged worldwide?

dumb question: say they take xxxx tons from somewhere in Switzerland. How long does it take for the air to mix with the rest so the co2 is averaged worldwide? This looks like a great thing. The state can tax emissions and force emitters to pay such carbon gathering companies to become carbon neutral. You release xxxxx tons a years, show that you sequestered at least the same or pay a tax. You could also have a Bill Gates type donate all his money to a such company. Or the government can fund them. If this works, it's just a matter of cash and we have it /can find it.

titojankowski 9y ago
How long does it take for air to mix worldwide? I visited NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii last month. It's one of the key global sites where carbon dioxide is monitored. The scientist giving the tour answered this, and I believe it was on the order of a few weeks for mixing to occur. Here's a visualization that starts to answer your question: https://amp.livescience.com/48798-carbon-dioxide-global-computer-model.html https://amp.livescience.com/48798-carbon-dioxide-global-comp... I would love a more detailed answer to this question as well. (I visited the Mauna Loa Ovservatory because of our open source project to track carbon dioxide worldwide: https://gitter.im/giving-a-fuck-about-climate-change/Lobby https://gitter.im/giving-a-fuck-about-climate-change/Lobby http://carbondoomsday.com http://carbondoomsday.com)
- mturmon 9y ago
  That is a nice link (showing global CO2 estimates in 2006). It illustrates how turbulence mixes the atmosphere at global scales. The video mentions that better measurements will result from the OCO-2 mission, which launched in the meantime and has been measuring CO2 in ~3km^2 footprints across the globe since 2014. A result is: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4514 https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4514 which shows vertically-resolved CO2. Both videos make it clear that CO2 is generally well-mixed both horizontally and vertically in the atmosphere, with the exception of Northern vs Southern hemisphere. I believe CO2 emissions from China, for example, take on the order of a week to propagate across the Pacific and reach the Western US.

titojankowski 9y ago

How long does it take for air to mix worldwide? I visited NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii last month. It's one of the key global sites where carbon dioxide is monitored. The scientist giving the tour answered this, and I believe it was on the order of a few weeks for mixing to occur. Here's a visualization that starts to answer your question: https://amp.livescience.com/48798-carbon-dioxide-global-computer-model.html https://amp.livescience.com/48798-carbon-dioxide-global-comp... I would love a more detailed answer to this question as well. (I visited the Mauna Loa Ovservatory because of our open source project to track carbon dioxide worldwide: https://gitter.im/giving-a-fuck-about-climate-change/Lobby https://gitter.im/giving-a-fuck-about-climate-change/Lobby http://carbondoomsday.com http://carbondoomsday.com)

mturmon 9y ago
That is a nice link (showing global CO2 estimates in 2006). It illustrates how turbulence mixes the atmosphere at global scales. The video mentions that better measurements will result from the OCO-2 mission, which launched in the meantime and has been measuring CO2 in ~3km^2 footprints across the globe since 2014. A result is: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4514 https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4514 which shows vertically-resolved CO2. Both videos make it clear that CO2 is generally well-mixed both horizontally and vertically in the atmosphere, with the exception of Northern vs Southern hemisphere. I believe CO2 emissions from China, for example, take on the order of a week to propagate across the Pacific and reach the Western US.