Pole-to-pole flight finds CO2 piling up over Arctic - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Pole-to-pole flight finds CO2 piling up over Arctic
Thu Jan 29, 2009 8:02pm EST

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Scientists who flew a modified
corporate jet from pole to pole to study how greenhouse
gases move found carbon dioxide piling up over the Arctic,
but also higher than expected levels of oxygen over the
Antarctic.

The three-week, $4.5 million mission this month in a
specially equipped Gulfstream V jet was the first of five
flights planned over the next three years by a Harvard
University-led project based in Colorado.

-snip-

Initial observations point to a carbon dioxide build up
over the Arctic, which may be due to industrial pollution
and burning of trees over the last few centuries,
scientists told reporters on Thursday in a teleconference
about the mission.

The slightly increased levels of oxygen over Antarctica
may result from increased growth of plants in the tropics
due to higher levels of carbon dioxide or higher
temperatures, said Britton Stephens of the Boulder,
Colorado-based National Center for Atmospheric Research.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE50T0AV20090130

[Barrett808]

1. Hope they look for methane, too

I'm even more worried about the methane hydrates bubbling up.