As seen in the image above, both figures are essentially identical, as he had expected.
"There are, however, tiny differences and this is the CO2 source/sink information we are interested in," Buchwitz said. "To see this we compute the CO2/O2 ratio which can be converted into a column averaged CO2 mixing ratio."
Dr Paul Monks from the University of Leicester is using SCIAMACHY data to measure how much CO2 is being taken up by plants. Using 20,000 individual measurements a month, he is monitoring CO2 drawn down over Siberia, North America and Northern Europe.
According to Monks, this view from space is providing the first evidence of the Earth breathing by allowing scientists to witness the biology drawing down CO2 during the growing season and then releasing some of it back.
"The exciting new area breaking from this sort of data is that we begin to be able to look at the tropics, which are the lungs of the atmospheric system," Monks said. "Using this data, we are going to be able to assess how efficient the tropics are at modulating carbon as well as how that is changing with time as climate change effects the tropical biosystem."
By comparing the satellite data to aircraft data and to remote-sensing sites on the surface, Monks learned the method he and his colleagues are using is approaching a precision of around 1%, giving them confidence in what they see from space.
By better understanding all of the parameters involved in the carbon cycle, scientists can better predict climate change as well as better monitor international treaties aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, such as the Kyoto Protocol which addresses the reduction of six greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide.