# How to convert mol m-2 s-1 CO2 emission to Megaton day-1 (MtCO2 per day)?

I am working on the global CO2 emission using a model dataset. The model provides the CO2 emission in mol m-2 s-1. How to convert mol m-2 s-1 CO2 emission to Megaton day-1 (Mt per day)?

Regards

• You don't have enough information. You have a flux rate, so without a defined area, you can't convert to daily emissions. You can easily convert moles to Mt, and seconds to days, but you still need an area defined. – farrenthorpe May 4 at 14:22
• Thank you sir, your answer solved the problem. There was a global dataset, and the area was 510.1 million km². – Farhan Mustafa May 4 at 14:52

Do the calculation for 1 mol of CO$$_2$$

1 mol of CO$$_2$$ weighs 49 grammes = 0.0049 kg

86400 seconds in a day, so 864000 * 0.0049 = 423.36 kg/day/m$$^2$$

The surface area of the globe is 5.1 x 10$$^{14}$$ m$$^2$$ - so 423.6 * 5.1 x 10$$^{14}$$ = 2.16 x 10$$^{17}$$ kg/day

Convert from kg to Megatons, 10$$^9$$ kg in a Megaton - so we get 1 mol CO$$_2$$/m$$^2$$/second = 2.16 x 10$$^8$$ Megatons/day

This assumes, as farrenthorpe commented, that the molar emission rate represents a rate evenly distributed over the globe - if, for instance it only represented terrestrial emissions, or emissions in a particular region the calculation would need to take that into account.

• Thank you sir for explaining in detail. It helped out. – Farhan Mustafa May 4 at 14:55
• Farhan - happy to help out. I just edited my answer as I had made an error in units that changed the answer. I missed conversion from square metres to square kilometres! – Andy M May 4 at 15:57