Special to the Star-Bulletin
This is an overview of the Mauna Loa Observatory, which kicks off its 40th birthday celebration today.
Mauna Loa detects
possible reduction
in ozone hole
A 1987 U.N. treaty has reportedly
By Helen Altonn
helped to improve the atmosphere
Star-BulletinMauna Loa Observatory measurements show the atmosphere's ozone holes may be on their way out. Observatory Director Russell Schnell reported the strong likelihood as the 11,400-foot-high research facility today begins celebrating its 40th anniversary.
He said the atmosphere is recovering because of a United Nations treaty to ban or phase-out ozone-depleting substances.
"It's a great story," Schnell said. "The atmosphere has been saved."
The 1987 Montreal Protocol, signed by more than 140 countries, aims to eliminate or reduce chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigerators, air conditioners, hair sprays, cosmetics and other products.
Observatory measurements show the upward trend in atmospheric chlorofluorocarbons began leveling off in the early 1990s and decreased last year.
One molecule will eat 100,000 ozone molecules, Schnell said. "It's got a real heavy appetite before it dies. So if you remove just a few of those molecules, you can see how it would help the atmosphere.""Those ozone holes are going to go away. xxx It's amazing," he said. "It makes you feel good when you can say it (the treaty) really is working."
The observatory began as a small meteorological station on the slope of the Big Island volcano and is now a world leader in air and solar measurements. It is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A new observatory building to be dedicated tomorrow will be one of only a few key world sites monitoring the ozone layer's recovery in the next century. Its name: "Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change."
Stressing the importance of the new station, Schnell likened the atmosphere to a patient given an antibiotic for infection. "We want to make sure the patient really recovers and no other infection gets in there."
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., headed by David Hoffman, will direct the new facility.
Hoffman noted that leading industrial nations will meet in Japan next month to consider limits on world production of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide. If they decide on regulatory controls, the Mauna Loa observatory will have a major role in monitoring the effects, he said.
Schnell, observatory director since 1991, also directs the Arctic Gas and Aerosol Sampling Program involving eight government agencies and 13 universities from six countries.
He said carbon dioxide measurements began at Mauna Loa and continued "when nobody thought it was worth anything. All of a sudden, it's become a very, very valuable piece of information."
Measurements of greenhouse gases were first collected in 1958 on Mauna Loa by Charles D. Keeling, a Scripps Institution of Oceanography professor. Scripps still is measuring carbon dioxide from Mauna Loa, so there are two systems checking each other, Schnell said.
Keeling was scheduled to talk at an anniversary event tonight at the Naniloa Hotel. At tomorrow's ceremonies, the original Mauna Loa Observatory building will be renamed the Charles D. Keeling Building to honor his pioneering research.
About 50 or 60 scientists who use and analyze observatory data will review recent findings Thursday at the hotel.
Schnell said about five agencies have facilities at the Mauna Loa site, maintained and calibrated by observatory personnel.
The observatory studies "everything you can think of concerning the sun and atmosphere ... about 280 different things in the air and what it does, at a minimum," he said.
