National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL)

The ESRL GMD Meteorology program measures ambient and dewpoint temperatures, relative humidity, precipitation (in inches), and wind speed and direction.

The dewpoint hygrothermometer measures ambient and dewpoint temperatures, from which relative humidity is calculated. Precipitation is continuously measured (in inches) with a tipping bucket.

A Mauna Loa PC based system utilizes RS-485 serial communications to collect data from the instruments. The data is recorded as one minute averages, except for precipitation. Precipitation is measured as a daily total accummulation.

In order to monitor the trends in meteorological parameters, and to assist in the interpretation of other parameters such as aerosols.

Day rose and night rose (below) show the wind direction at the observatory. Note that the night rose shows only the southerly component which is the desired downslope conditions.




MLO press and MLO temps (below) is the running record since 1977. There is a slightly increasing trend in the ambient temperature since 1977.

It allows us to see how changes in other atmospheric variables affect the meteorology of the station.