Collecting air samples in flasks at Barrow Observatory, Alaska
Water vapor balloon panorama. Credit: Patrick Cullis
Desert Rock SURFRAD site located near Las Vegas, Nevada.
Time lapse photo of ozonesonde launch at South Pole. Credit: Robert Schwarz, University of Minnesota
Annual Conference
2019 Global Monitoring Annual Conference
May 23, 2019
NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), Global Monitoring Division, held the 47th Global Monitoring Annual Conference on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 21rd and 22th, 2019, in Boulder, Colorado.
Read More...
GMD Team Member of the Quarter
Christy Schultz received the GMD Team Member of the Quarter Award in August 2019 for dedicating months of effort to lead GMD in the recent preparations for the July NECSAS safety inspection. Her hours of hard work, strong organizational skills, ability to work well with and inspire others, and positive,"can-do" attitude ensured the Division's compliance with safety standards and, thus, a successful audit. Christy's leadership in this and many efforts, and her ability to make things happen, demonstrates strong competence and professionalism. This is one example of many where Christy has made a positive difference in GMD. We are fortunate to have Christy on our GMD team!!
Observatories
![[Barrow]](/gmd/images/th_brw.jpg)
![[Mauna Loa]](/gmd/images/th_mlo.jpg)
![[American Samoa]](/gmd/images/th_smo.jpg)
![[South Pole]](/gmd/images/th_spo.jpg)
News and Highlights
Seminar: August 28, 2019
Atmospheric Observing with small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS): Recent results and upcoming adventures
Dr. Gijs de BoerSeminar: September 24, 2019
Approaching Two Decades of MOPITT - What have we learned from satellite carbon monoxide observations
Helen WordenSeminar: October 10, 2019
Cathy Martin and Bryan Begun
Airborne research shows East Coast cities emitting twice as much methane as estimated
July 22, 2019
A new NOAA and University of Michigan study using an instrumented airplane has found unexpectedly large emissions over five major cities along the East Coast - twice the total amount of methane and almost 10 times the amount estimated from natural gas.
Surprisingly large carbon uptake by North American biosphere during El Niños
June 5, 2019
New analysis of NOAA’s long-term air samples by NOAA and CIRES scientists finds that the North American terrestrial biosphere takes up unexpectedly large amounts of carbon in response to elevated carbon dioxide levels during El Niño years.
Carbon dioxide levels hit record peak in May
June 4, 2019
Atmospheric carbon dioxide continued its rapid rise in 2019, with the average for May peaking at 414.7 parts per million at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory, scientists from NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego announced today.
Rising emissions drive Greenhouse Gas Index increase
May 21, 2019
Record levels of greenhouse gas pollution continued to increase humanity’s impact on the atmosphere’s heat-trapping capacity during 2018, according to a yearly analysis released by NOAA scientists.
Former NOAA employee Christina Koch greets NOAA from the International Space Station
May 21, 2019
It's not every day you get a message from space. But on May 21, former NOAA employee Christina Koch greeted attendees at NOAA's 47th Global Monitoring Annual Conference from the International Space Station.
US methane emissions flat since 2006 despite increased oil and gas activity: study
May 15, 2019
Natural gas production in the United States has increased 46 percent since 2006, but there has been no significant increase of total US methane emissions and only a modest increase from oil and gas activity, according to a new NOAA study.
Global carbon dioxide growth in 2018 reached 4th highest on record
March 22, 2019
By the end of 2018, NOAA’s atmospheric observatory at Mauna Loa recorded the fourth-highest annual growth in the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in 60 years of record-keeping.
Research Groups
Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network
The GGGRN makes measurements of the spatial and temporal distributions of greenhouse gases and provides essential constraints to our understanding of the global carbon cycle.
Halocarbons and other Trace Species
The HATS group quantifies the distributions and magnitudes of the sources and sinks for important ozone-depleting and greenhouse gases.
Aerosols
The goals of this program are to characterize means, variability, and trends of climate-forcing properties of different types of aerosols.
Global Radiation
Activities involve empirical and theoretical research of the Earth's surface radiation budget.
Ozone and Water Vapor
Research on the nature and causes of the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer and the role of ozone and water vapor in forcing climate change.
