Earth inhales and exhales carbon in mesmerizing animation
By Stephanie Pappas published about 1 hour ago
The animation shows plants taking up and releasing carbon as the seasons change.
Earth breathes in this cool animation by Markus Reichstein. (Image credit: Markus Reichstein /Creative Commons license)
The Earth seems to inhale and exhale in a new animation that shows how carbon is taken up and released as the seasons change.
The animated continents seem to deflate during summertimes, indicating times and places where vegetation is growing and plants are sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. When it's winter, the continents seem to inflate, indicating that vegetation is dying off and carbon is being released.
The changes are most striking at temperate latitudes like continental Europe and North America, where seasonal differences are more pronounced. Equatorial regions don't change as much throughout the year, while some desert regions, being sparsely vegetated, don't store or release much carbon at all.
The data for the animation comes from satellite observations and hundreds of carbon-monitoring stations worldwide, said Markus Reichstein, the director of the Biogeochemical Integration Department at the Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry in Germany, who posted the animation on Twitter on Jan. 6.
More:
https://www.livescience.com/carbon-sinks-globe-animation
