{"id":170562,"date":"2022-12-16T09:37:16","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T19:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=170562"},"modified":"2022-12-16T10:17:22","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T20:17:22","slug":"uh-telescope-collect-climate-change-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2022\/12\/16\/uh-telescope-collect-climate-change-data\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> telescope to help collect essential climate change data"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"Scientific
NOAA<\/abbr> scientists recently installed an intake tube less than an inch in diameter atop Maunakea to help track critical atmospheric measurements<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> is partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA<\/abbr>) to collect critical atmospheric measurements on Maunakea that are vital to understanding how Earth\u2019s climate is changing. NOAA<\/abbr> scientists recently installed an intake tube less than an inch in diameter and 25 feet long on the UH<\/abbr> 88 inch observatory<\/a> to sample the summit air after data collection on Maunaloa* was abruptly disabled when lava from the Maunaloa eruption cut off staff access and power lines to NOAA<\/abbr>\u2019s Mauna Loa* Observatory<\/a> (MLO<\/abbr>). Atmospheric measurements have been taken on Maunaloa since 1958 providing more than six decades of data to track global climate change through CO<\/abbr>2<\/sub><\/span> measurements.<\/p>\n

\"U
UH<\/abbr> 88 inch observatory<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under an emergency agreement, NOAA<\/abbr> and UH<\/abbr> established a temporary measurement site at the UH<\/abbr> 88 inch to ensure the continuity of CO<\/abbr>2<\/sub><\/span> data collection and other atmospheric measurements taken at MLO<\/abbr>. The Department of Land and Natural Resource’s Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, also provided expedited site plan approval for this important project.<\/p>\n

“The data gathered over many decades in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> are essential to our understanding of climate change,” said Steve Thur, NOAA<\/abbr> assistant administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. “We are always grateful for the strong partnership with the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, but especially now when we need a way to ensure continuity in the measurement of CO<\/abbr>2<\/sub><\/span>. Being able to pull atmospheric samples from Maunakea while MLO<\/abbr> is down ensures that any disruption to this important long-term research will be minimal.”<\/p>\n

The NOAA<\/abbr> team will collect air samples in flasks to measure almost 60 gasses, including methane—the second most important greenhouse gas measurement after CO<\/abbr>2<\/sub><\/span>—at intervals similar to what was being done at MLO<\/abbr> before the eruption.<\/p>\n

“As conditions related to climate change worsen around the globe, it was critical for UH<\/abbr> to step in to assist NOAA<\/abbr> as scientists scrambled to get atmospheric data collection back up and running,” said Doug Simons<\/strong>, director at the UH<\/abbr> Institute for Astronomy<\/a>. “Maunakea plays an important role in research that extends beyond astronomy.”<\/p>\n

NOAA<\/abbr> plans to continue measurements on Maunakea for at least a year to compare data with the Maunaloa locations.<\/p>\n

The NOAA<\/abbr> team also worked with UH<\/abbr> scientists to install a separate small intake tube on the existing weather monitoring station on Maunakea for CO<\/abbr>2<\/sub><\/span> measurements by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography<\/a> at UC<\/abbr> San Diego. NOAA<\/abbr> and Scripps scientists make independent measurements of CO<\/abbr>2<\/sub><\/span> at Maunaloa. Along with measurements made at the MLO<\/abbr> site, NOAA<\/abbr> also ships air samples to NOAA<\/abbr>\u2019s Global Monitoring Laboratory<\/a> in Boulder, Colorado for further analysis.<\/p>\n

NOAA<\/abbr> staff continue to work with federal, state and private partners on plans to return to MLO<\/abbr> and get all of the instruments there back online quickly.<\/p>\n

(*The single word-spelling of Maunaloa is recognized by Ahahui ʻ\u014clelo Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>, which is a widely-recognized Hawaiian language resource.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The intake tube less than an inch in diameter and 25 feet long will provide vital data to track climate change through CO<\/abbr>2<\/sub><\/span> measurements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[34,745,93,35,659,1421,9],"class_list":["post-170562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-astronomy","tag-atmospheric-sciences","tag-climate-change","tag-institute-for-astronomy","tag-maunakea","tag-maunakea-observatories","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170562"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170581,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170562\/revisions\/170581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}