Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere satellite to successfully achieve orbit in 2009. NASA's OCO-2 launched in 2014 was the second. Various other satellites missions to measure atmospheric X are planned. Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Carbon dioxide () is an important trace gas in Earth's atmosphere. It is an integral part of the carbon cycle, a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth's oceans, soil, rocks and the biosphere. Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis. Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of
Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide carbon monoxide (CO). In carbon fixation, plants convert carbon dioxide into sugars, from which many biosynthetic pathways originate. The catalyst responsible for this conversion, RuBisCo, is the most common protein on earth. Some anaerobic organisms employ enzymes to convert CO to carbon monoxide, from which fatty acids can be made. In industry, a few products are made from CO, including urea, salicylic acid, methanol, and certain inorganic and organic carbonates. In the laboratory, carbon dioxide is sometimes used to prepare carboxylic acids. No electrochemical process involving CO has been commercialized. The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to CO is usually