Why is the Keeling Curve in Mauna Loa?
Mauna Loa was chosen as a long-term monitoring site due to its remote location far from continents and its lack of vegetation. Keeling and his collaborators measured the incoming ocean breeze above the thermal inversion layer to minimize local contamination from volcanic vents.
Why is the Keeling Curve in Hawaii?
The Keeling Curve is a measurement of the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere made atop Hawaii’s Mauna Loa since 1958. In the first part of the 20th century it was suspected that the concentration of atmospheric CO2might be increasing in the atmosphere due to fossil fuel combustion.
What does the Keeling Curve measurements taken since 1960 at Mauna Loa Observatory show?
Scripps Keeling Curve. Graph depicting the Scripps carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory. The Keeling Curve is a graph that represents the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth’s atmosphere since 1958.
How is CO2 measured at Mauna Loa?
In April of 2019, a new CO2 analyzer was installed at Mauna Loa that uses a technique called Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS). (Prior to this date, an analyzer was used based on infrared absorption.)
Why does the Keeling Curve fluctuate?
These latitudinal differences in fluctuation are the result of photosynthetic activity by plants. As plants begin to photosynthesize in the spring and summer, they consume CO2 from the atmosphere and eventually use it as a carbon source for growth and reproduction.
What did Charles Keeling do?
Keeling, as a young researcher, became the first person in the world to develop an accurate technique for measuring carbon dioxide in the air, the amount he discovered was 310 parts per million. That means every million pints of air, for example, contained 310 pints of carbon dioxide.
What is the Keeling Curve and why does it zig zag up and down?
The zigzag on the curve represents the seasonal change in levels of CO2. Levels rise in the fall and winter when plants and leaves die off releasing CO2 into the atmosphere, causing a spike in the measurements, and levels fall during the spring and summer when plants draw CO2 from the atmosphere.
What is the Mauna Loa data?
The carbon dioxide data on Mauna Loa constitute the longest record of direct measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere. They were started by C. David Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in March of 1958 at a facility of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [Keeling, 1976].
What causes small peaks and dips sawtooth pattern in the Keeling Curve?
This shift between the fall and winter months to the spring and summer results in the sawtooth pattern of the Keeling Curve measurement of atmospheric CO2 such that every year there is a decline in CO2 during months of terrestrial plant photosynthesis and an increase in CO2 in months without large amounts of …
Which discoveries are attributed to Dr Keeling and are shown in the Keeling Curve?
Keeling and are shown in the Keeling Curve? Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising.