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	Coverage of this dataset spans April 2000 to February 2005.
	The animation features of the Earth Observatory are currently unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience. To view the full temporal span of this dataset, please view the Mopitt Carbon Monoxide monthly holdings.

Product description: Colorless, odorless, and poisonous, carbon monoxide is one of the six major air pollutants regulated in the United States and in many other nations around the world. When carbon-based fuels, such as coal, wood, and oil, burn incompletely or inefficiently, they produce carbon monoxide. The gas spreads throughout the lower atmosphere (called the troposphere) from the burning of fossil fuels and vegetation. The data sets above show monthly averages of global concentrations of tropospheric carbon monoxide at an altitude of about 12,000 feet. The data were collected by the MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere) sensor on NASA's Terra satellite. Concentrations of carbon monoxide are expressed in parts per billion by volume (ppbv). A concentration of 1 ppbv means that for every billion molecules of gas in the measured volume, one of them is a carbon monoxide molecule. In these maps, carbon monoxide concentrations are shown in different colors. Blue areas have little or no carbon monoxide, while progressively higher concentrations are show in green, yellow, orange, and red. The data series begins in April 2000. In different parts of the world and in different seasons, the amounts and sources of atmospheric carbon monoxide change. In Africa, for example, the seasonal shifts in carbon monoxide are tied to the widespread agricultural burning that shifts north and south of the equator with the seasons. Fires are an important source of carbon monoxide pollution in other regions of the Southern Hemisphere. In the United States Europe, and eastern Asia, on the other hand, the highest carbon monoxide concentrations occur around urban areas as a result of vehicle and industrial emissions. Fires burning over large areas in North America and Russia in some years can be an important source. The MOPITT observations often show that pollution emitted on one continent travels across oceans to have a big impact on air quality on other continents. Carbon monoxide is a trace gas in the atmosphere, and it does not have a direct effect on the global temperature, like methane and carbon dioxide do. However, carbon monoxide plays a major role in atmospheric chemistry, and affects the ability of the atmosphere to cleanse itself of many other polluting gases. In combination with other pollutants and sunshine, it also takes part in the formation of toxic, lower-atmospheric ozone and urban smog. The growing data series from MOPITT shows seasonal and annual variations in carbon monoxide, providing clues about how our planet may be changing.

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