Carbon monoxide pollution experiment. I - A solution to the carbon monoxide sink anomaly.

The observed lack of a high rate of growth in global CO concentration implies that there is some sink mechanism for destroying the CO as rapidly as it is being produced. A program is described which is intended to develop both the experiment concept and the remote sensor required to measure atmospheric CO with sufficient accuracy to locate the sink, whether it be at the earth's surface or in the upper atmosphere. The program calls for the development of a remote sensor which can look for surface sinks by mapping the vertical CO burden in the atmosphere on a daily basis, and which can look for an upper atmospheric sink by means of measurements of total CO in a horizontal path through the limb of the earth's atmosphere, using the sun as the source.