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NASA's new Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) satellite is ready to launch after the previous version was lost in the Indian Ocean following the launch five years ago. 

The OCO-2 will monitor atmospheric carbon and its sources. According to reports, the observatory will take 100,000 measurements of the gas daily at different locations around the world. 

"If you visualize a column of air that stretches from Earth's surface to the top of the atmosphere, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 will identify how much of that vertical column is carbon dioxide, with an understanding that most is emitted at the surface. Simply, it will act like a plane observing the smoke from forest fires down below, with the task of assessing where the fires are and how big they are. Compare that aerial capability with sending a lot of people into the forest looking for fires. The observatory will use its vantage point from space to capture a picture of where the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide are, rather than our cobbling data together from multiple sources with less frequency, reliability and detail," said Gregg Marland, a professor in the Geology Department of Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina in a statement.

Although the satellite will not directly have an impact on improving the climate, it will help scientists to understand where atmospheric carbon is coming from. 

"Now that humans are acknowledging the environmental effects of our dependence on fossil fuels and other carbon dioxide-emitting activities, our goal is to analyze the sources and sinks of this carbon dioxide and to find better ways to manage it," added Marland.

The OCO-2 will launch on Tuesday, July 1 from Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) in California.