Thanks, guys.
The thing to notice, is that it is a carbon monoxide(CO) spike, not carbon dioxide(CO2), and that the readings were from high altitude, not confirmed by ground level readings. This suggest the CO spike was caused by Nitrogen(N2) transmuted into CO at high altitude. Look in the
Mummified Dinosaurs / electric fossilization...? thread for a discussion of transmutation of Nitrogen to Carbon monoxide, and Oxygen to Sulphur.
Most people do not look for transmutation to occur in the atmosphere. So when they looked for terrestrial sources near ground level they got confused. They assumed that the CO and SO2 had to come from the earth in a "belch" of gas, and because they could not find a high CO reading from the ground instrumentation, they assumed it was just an anomalous reading. That's the clue here.
Since the spike occurred over a three hour period it seems more likely to be transmutation than the jet stream carrying a pulse of gas from somewhere else. Notice, the satellite did not follow a cloud of gas traveling along, it saw the spike that faded.
The CO and SO2 could be brand new gas made by a pulse of energy that may also trigger a quake later. This stuff is getting scary. HA!
Monitor Shows Carbon Monoxide Spikes to 40,000 Parts Per Billion over California on February 26 — What the Heck is Going On?
http://robertscribbler.com/2016/02/29/c ... -going-on/
On February 26, The Global Forecast System model recorded an (unconfirmed) intense and wide-ranging carbon monoxide (CO) spike over the US West Coast. A region stretching from British Columbia, through Washington and Oregon, and on over most of California experienced CO readings ranging from about 5,000 parts per billion over the mountains of Southwestern Canada to as high as 40,000 parts per billion over Southern California. Very high peak readings appear to have occurred from Northern California near Eureka and along a line south and eastward over much of Central California to an extreme peak zone just north and west of Los Angeles near Palmdale.
40000 ppbv
(Very large CO spike over Western North America near major geological features on February 26, 2016. Image source: Earth Nullschool.)
For reference, these (unconfirmed) readings in the Nullschool Monitor were between 25 and 200 times above typical background CO levels of about 200 parts per billion and up to twelve times higher than second highest peak readings over polluted regions of China during the same period.
Major Spike Appeared in Just 3 Hours Starting February 25th
Human-based carbon monoxide sources are not generally known to produce spike readings so high and so wide-ranging over such a short interval of time. It would typically take a considerable emission many days to build up under a stagnant air mass. And, to this point, we do have a couple of dome high pressure systems which have tended to form near the California region over recent days. That said, surface winds in the region at 5-15 mph over most areas could hardly be considered stagnant. In addition, the current spike appears over an interval of three hours in the Nullschool data — going from zero coverage to covering all of California and parts of Nevada, Oregon, Washington and BC over that single short interval. It’s a very brief period for such a large and wide-ranging peak reading to appear so soon. One that would require a rather extraordinary pulse of pollution to produce the readings indicated on February 25-26.
Wildfires could produce a longer-term emissions spike under stagnant air as well. However, the wildfires now reported for California are small and isolated. They have flared, off and on, under drought conditions, for weeks without resulting in any significant large fire outbreaks or related major pollution spikes. So it appears unlikely that they are the source of the current burst. Other events related to the ongoing California drought may have had an impact (apparently, burning of desiccated trees from California’s orchards is currently quite widespread due to ongoing drought conditions remaining in place since 2012). However, such instances would have to have been very sudden and wide-ranging to produce the spike we saw on the 25th and 26th. Canadian wildfires — of which there have been very small and low intensity hotspot events recently (noteworthy due to their anomalous appearance out of season, if not for their intensity) — were very far from peak readings in California and did not produce even a moderate level of emissions (undetectable from the visible MODIS sensor).
The Earthquake Precursor Hypothesis
A final suspect for this preliminary observation (which has gotten much hype in social media circles over recent days) is geological. As the apparent spike in the monitor occurs over large fault lines, volcanoes, and above other active geological features along the US and Canadian West, it appears that activity within these features might have produced a brief if intense burp of this gas. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) readings — another geological gas — were also elevated in the monitor, with peak readings again appearing in Southwestern California.
It’s worth noting that no major US or Canadian geological organization has yet made any report on this particularly large CO spike. However, a piece of scientific research in Nature Asia, by K. S. Jayaraman notes that major CO and SO2 spikes may be an indication that future earthquake activity is on the way. According to Nature this kind of intense CO spike occurred prior to a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that shook Gujara in 2001 killing 20,000 people:
Singh said that CO levels were taken by an instrument onboard NASA’s Terra satellite — launched in 2009 — circling the earth in a polar orbit at a height of 705 km. The instrument measures CO concentrations at different heights and also computes the total amount of the gas in a vertical column of air above the earth surface.
Analysis of the satellite data showed a large peak in CO concentrations during January 19 and 20 — a week before the main earthquake event. On January 19, the total CO in the vertical column was also higher than usual. After the 26 January earthquake the concentration of the gas dropped.
According to the scientists, CO gas is forced out of the earth due to the build up of stress prior to the earthquake “influencing the hydrological regime around the epicentre.”
But before we tilt too far into alarmism on this particular possibility, we should consider the fact that the above paper appears to have had no confirmation or further comment in the sciences at this time. So the predictive usefulness of large CO spikes prior to earthquakes remains quite uncertain. And, as noted above, no major geological information outlet has made any warning or comment on earthquake risk so far. Thus the apparent, current very large West Coast CO spike near major fault lines (and over regions suffering from what is now a very severe five-year drought) in this particular monitor remains a bit of a mystery.
Or is it all Just a Glitch?
Considering that all the wildfire and human potential sources for the CO pulse are unlikely to produce the spike in the Nullschool data, that we have no warning of potential impending geological activity from the major agencies, and that we have had no other reports from related agencies to confirm the spike, we should also consider that there may well be something wrong with the monitor. Artifacts can appear in the satellite sensors and it’s not unheard of to get a spike reading due to other signals impacting the sensor.
Carbon Monoxide Hourly Observations San Bernandino
(Hourly carbon monoxide observations in Central San Bernardino do not match high surface CO measures recorded by the GEO5 sensor. Similar lower atmospheric readings come from station observations throughout Southern and Central California. Image source: California AMQD.)
To this point, lack of confirmation at ground reporting stations for high CO readings appearing in the GEO5 monitor increase the likelihood that these high peak readings were a glitch or an artifact in the satellite data. A cursory view of local warnings shows no local CO air quality alerts for the areas indicated in the Nullschool data set (You can view a list of the local monitors here). Analysis of this data also shows much lower CO readings from these stations in the range of 400 to 1200 parts per billion — quite a bit lower than what the GEO5 monitor is showing.
This begs the question — was there some higher altitude plume that confused the GEO5 sensor? Or was there some other signal that tripped the sensor to show such a high reading? But to these points, a general lack of overall confirmation from ground sensors seems to point to the likelihood that such elevated readings in the GEO5 monitor were a glitch, an artifact, or a false reading for this atmospheric level.
UPDATED — Will continue to provide more information if the situation and current assessment changes.