The OCO-3 Mission : Overview of Science Objectives and Status

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3) is a space instrument that will investigate important questions about the distribution of carbon dioxide on Earth as it relates to growing urban populations and changing patterns of fossil fuel combustion. OCO-3 will explore, for the first time, daily variations in the release and uptake of carbon dioxide by plants and trees in the major tropical rainforests of South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, the largest stores of aboveground carbon on our planet. NASA will develop and assemble the instrument using spare materials from OCO-2 and host the instrument on the International Space Station (ISS) (earliest launch readiness in early 2018.)