Mauna Loa Observatory - Another CO2 Record

[tada]

Yes I think Mauna Kea much better location theoretically but protector activity must count more than volcanic activity.[:o)]

[Eric1600]

Haha. Yeah most of the structures on Mauna Loa are pretty basic in case the lava flows again. They built a large barrier to redirect it back in 1986. The longest leg is 670 m long. You can see the observatories and the barrier trench in this 2012 field trip notes:

http://hilo.hawaii.edu/~kenhon/HawaiiCha...hapman.pdf

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

September 2016.
The CO2 level in our atmosphere is now permanently over 400 ppm, probably for the rest of our lifetimes.

At Mauna Loa Observatory, the world’s marquee site for monitoring carbon dioxide... levels have remained above 400 ppm.

“Is it possible that October 2016 will yield a lower monthly value than September and dip below 400 ppm? Almost impossible,” Ralph Keeling, the scientist who runs the Scripps Institute for Oceanography’s carbon dioxide monitoring program, wrote in a blog post. “Brief excursions toward lower values are still possible, but it already seems safe to conclude that we won’t be seeing a monthly value below 400 ppm this year – or ever again for the indefinite future.”

We may get a day or two reprieve in the next month, similar to August when Tropical Storm Madeline blew by Hawaii and knocked carbon dioxide below 400 ppm for a day.

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/world...ntly-20738

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind. -Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616)

[terracore]

While I'm no scientist, the last two times I saw headlines about high CO2 at Mauna Loa they were during times the trade winds had died down. I'm sure it was just coincidence that the lack of winds and the CO2 censors being only a few miles from one of the largest (if not the largest) continuous CO2 vents in the world contributed to the higher readings.

"Our studies here at Kilauea show that the eruption discharges between 8,000 and 30,000 metric tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each day." I wonder how much Mauna Loa is venting.

http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/arch...02_15.html

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

high CO2 at Mauna Loa they were during times the trade winds had died down... the CO2 censors being only a few miles from one of the largest continuous CO2 vents in the world contributed to the higher readings.

Kilauea generally does not affect the readings at the observatory as Kilauea is about 9000 feet lower in elevation than the Mauna Loa Observatory:

Mauna Loa was originally chosen as a monitoring site because, located far from any continent, the air was sampled and is a good average for the central Pacific. Being high, it is above the inversion layer where most of the local effects are present and there was already a rough road to the summit built by the military. The contamination from local volcanic sources is sometimes detected at the observatory, and is then removed from the background data.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauna_Loa_Observatory

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind. -Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616)

[geochem]

quote:

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Originally posted by terracore

I'm sure it was just coincidence that the lack of winds and the CO2 censors being only a few miles from one of the largest (if not the largest) continuous CO2 vents in the world contributed to the higher readings.

"Our studies here at Kilauea show that the eruption discharges between 8,000 and 30,000 metric tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each day." I wonder how much Mauna Loa is venting.

http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/arch...02_15.html

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Mauna Loa monitors are located above the trade wind inversion to reduce the effects of local climate variability and local sources of CO2 below the inversion elevation. Kilauea's CO2 discharges can't get through the trade wind inversion elevation except under very rare conditions (and the guys that track the CO2 data are well aware of those effects).

They are also aware of the potential effects of outgassing from the summit of Mauna Loa - after Mauna Loa's 1975 eruption, word got back to the HVO staff that the Mauna Loa observatory's instruments had recorded a spike in CO2 levels prior to the onset of the eruption. It only occurred during the night time, when drainage winds were carrying the summit air down the mountain to the sensors (but it wasn't visible during daytime upslope air transport).

Bottom line: the guys doing the measurements are competent and the accuracy of the atmospheric CO2 levels/trends are about as accurate as we're going to get, or they need to be.

[PaulW]

There's science going on at Mauna Loa? Desecration! Why no protests, lack of a good road for the SUVs?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Why no protests

The observatory is older than the Protectors.

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind. -Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616)

[kalakoa]

The observatory is older than the Protectors.

One might say "that money has already been spent, so there's no way to get a cut".

[leilanidude]

Yeah most of the structures on Mauna Loa are pretty basic in case the lava flows again. They built a large barrier to redirect it back in 1986. The longest leg is 670 m long.
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WHAT? They are trying to divert lava? Where are the protestors?