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The European Space Agency (ESA), in collaboration with the European Commission (EC) and EUMETSAT, is developing a space-borne observing system for quantification of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions. Forming part of the EC's Copernicus programme, the CO 2 monitoring (CO2M) mission will be implemented as a constellation of identical satellites, to be operated over a period of at least 7 years and measuring CO 2 concentration in terms of column-averaged mole fraction (denoted as XCO 2 ). Each satellite will continuously image XCO 2 along the satellite track on the sun-illuminated part of the orbit, with a swath width of >250 km. Observations will be provided at a spatial resolution of 2 x 2 km 2 , with high precision (<0.7 ppm) and accuracy (bias <0.5 ppm). To this end, the payload comprises a suite of instruments addressing the various aspects of the challenging observation requirements: A push-broom imaging spectrometer will perform co-located measurements of top-of-atmosphere radiances in the Near Infrared (NIR) and Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) at high to moderate spectral resolution

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Hypertension is often related to metabolic disorders, such as android obesity, glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia, and hyperinsulinism (X syndrome). Insulin resistance (IR), described as the common link among these disorders, could contribute to an increase in coronary risk. The euglycemic insulin clamp technique has been used to show that different classes of antihypertensive agents have different effects on IR. The purpose of this multicenter study was to compare the effects of captopril to those of nicardipine on insulin profile using the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), a routine-feasible test. After a 1-month single-blind placebo period, 154 patients with hypertension and android obesity were randomized to 3 months of double-blind therapy with either 50 mg captopril twice daily (n = 77) or 50 mg nicardipine twice daily n = 77). An OGTT with an assay of insulin was performed before and after active treatment. Lipid parameters, Factor VII (F VII), fibrinogen, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1), and insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) were measured at the same time. After 3 months of treatment, the changes from baseline in mean +/- SD values for the insulin area under the curve (AUC) were -24.8 +/- 107.4 microIU x h/mL (-15.2%) for captopril v 6.1 +/- 98.6 microIU x h/mL (4.8%) for nicardipine (P = .072). Changes in peak insulin values were -18.3 +/- 86.2 microIU/mL (-14%) for captopril v 6.7 +/- 79.4 microIU/mL (6.6%) for nicardipine (P = .070).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)