In this episode, Sean leads us on a journey through the history of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory missions and the scientists whose work has utilized the data to find key insights about the natural and human-influenced carbon cycle.

This episode is being released due to the status of these missions being "on the chopping block" in the proposed NASA budget for 2026 by the Trump administration.

Keywords

carbon dioxide, climate change, Orbiting Carbon Observatory, NASA, greenhouse gases, carbon cycle, emissions measurement, Earth science, environmental monitoring, climate policy