This paper presents a comparison of co-located and near simultaneous CO measurements from January to May, 2004 and from the Arctic to southern polar regions using the ACE-FTS, in solar occultation mode, and the Odin/SMR, which measures atmospheric emission. We find that there is excellent agreement between the two instruments at the locations investigated over 4 orders of magnitude from the lower stratosphere to the lower thermosphere. There is also good agreement with the CMAM model simulation from 20 km to 90 km in sub-tropical and tropical latitudes but poorer agreement in the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere in winter polar regions. For the Arctic in March 2004 this can be attributed, at least partly, to the unique dynamical processes in the stratosphere in the winter of 2003--2004. Clearly CO measurements from these instruments will provide a useful tool for testing model transport from the troposphere to the thermosphere.