In honor of the Earth Day celebration, NASA scientists unveiled
the first consistent and continuous global measurements of
Earth’s “metabolism.” Data from the Terra and Aqua satellites
are helping scientists frequently update maps of the rate at
which plant life on Earth is absorbing carbon out of the
atmosphere. Combining space-based measurements of a range of
plant properties collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) with a suite of other satellite and
surface-based measurements, NASA scientists produce composite
maps of our world’s “net primary production” every 8 days. This
new measurement is called net production because it indicates
how much carbon dioxide is taken in by vegetation during
photosynthesis minus how much is given off during respiration.
Scientists expect this global measure of the biological
productivity of plants to yield new insights into how the
Earth’s carbon cycle works, a critical step toward solving the
climate change puzzle. The rate of carbon fixation