Atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa Observatory: 1. NOAA global monitoring for climatic change measurements with a nondispersive infrared analyzer, 1974–1985

Abstract

Atmospheric CO 2 measurements made with a nondispersive infrared analyzer during 1974–1985 at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, are described, with emphasis on the measurement methodology, calibrations, and data accuracy. Monthly mean CO 2 data, representative of global background conditions, are presented for the period of record. The monthly means were derived from an all‐data base of CO 2 hourly averages archived at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geophysical Monitoring for Climatic Change (GMCC) facility in Boulder, Colorado; at the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and in the microfiche version of this paper. Flags in the all‐data base identify CO 2 hourly averages that have been deemed unreliable because of sampling and analysis problems or that are unrepresentative of clean background air because of influences of the local environment, for example, CO 2 uptake by nearby vegetation or contamination and pollution effects. The select NOAA GMCC monthly mean data are compared with similar data obtained independently at Mauna Loa Observatory by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The average difference of corresponding monthly mean CO 2 values for the two data sets is 0.15±0.18 ppm, where the indicated variability is the standard deviation. Careful scrutiny of the NOAA GMCC measurement, calibration, and data processing procedures that might have caused the small bias in the data has revealed no unusual errors.