Satellite map reveals true extent of EU carbon emissions

Scientists in Germany have created a map that depicts the levels of carbon emissions across Europe’s regions.

The map was created by Envisat, a satellite owned by the European Space Agency. Data from the satellite was formatted to reveal the environmental impact of different regions in Europe. The resulting map gives credence to scientist’s estimates of carbon output in different regions.

Carbon emissions were found to be highest across the region between Amsterdam and Frankfurt, Europe’s most highly populated region.

Carbon emissions created by nature are separately depicted from carbon emissions created by humans.

Dr. Michael Buchwitz, from the Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen, said: “The natural CO2 fluxes between the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface are typically much larger than the CO2 fluxes arising from manmade CO2 emissions, making the detection of regional anthropogenic CO2 emission signals quite difficult.

“This does not mean, however, that the anthropogenic fluxes are of minor importance. In fact, the opposite is true because the human-made fluxes are only going in one direction whereas the natural fluxes operate in both directions, taking up atmospheric CO2 when plants grow, but releasing most or all of it again later when the plants decay.

“This results in higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations in the first half of a year followed by lower CO2 during the second half of a year with a minimum around August.”

The map also allows scientists to work out how much human-made carbon emissions are being absorbed by forests and oceans.

“It is possible that some of these [forests and oceans] will saturate or turn into a CO2 source in the future,” concluded Buchwitz. “With our satellite measurements we hope to be able to provide answers to questions like this in order to make reliable predictions.”