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
Carbon dioxide laser as 5,000° C, producing bright thermal radiation. The common plastic poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) absorbs IR light in the 2.8–25 µm wavelength band, so CO lasers have been used in recent years for fabricating microfluidic devices from it, with channel widths of a few hundred micrometers. Because the atmosphere is quite transparent to infrared light, CO lasers are also used for military rangefinding using LIDAR techniques. CO lasers are used in spectroscopy and the Silex process to enrich uranium. The Soviet Polyus was designed to use a megawatt carbon-dioxide laser as an in-orbit weapon to destroy SDI satellites. Carbon dioxide