Story map: NOAA Boulder

From the foothills of the Rockies, NOAA’s pioneering science, life-saving products, and enduring contributions to America’s economy have enormous impact.

After a 20 Year hiatus, GMD scientists will return to sampling the stratosphere with the NASA ER-2 aircraft

An airborne project with NOAA and CIRES instrument investigators in the Global Monitoring Division was selected for five-year funding starting in 2020 through 2025 from the NASA Earth Venture Suborbital-3 program (EVS-3).

Stephen Montzka named AGU Fellow

GMD's Stephen Montzka was named an AGU Fellow for the Class of 2018. The American Geophysical Union will honor the Fellows at its fall meeting in Washington, D.C.

Another climate milestone on Mauna Loa

Carbon dioxide levels measured at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory averaged more than 410 parts per million in April and May, the highest monthly averages ever recorded, scientists from NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego announced today.

NOAA’s greenhouse gas index up 41 percent since 1990

NOAA’s Annual Greenhouse Gas Index, which tracks the warming influence of long-lived greenhouse gases, has increased by 41 percent from 1990 to 2017, up 1 percent from 2016 -- with most of that attributable to rising carbon dioxide levels.

Emissions of ozone-destroying chemical controlled by Montreal Protocol rising again, NOAA data shows

Emissions of one of the chemicals most responsible for the Antarctic ozone hole are on the rise, despite an international treaty that required an end to its production in 2010, a new NOAA study shows.
(View paper here).

New National Academies' report lays out path forward for methane research

A new National Academies of Sciences' report calls on several federal agencies to work together to improve techniques for measuring one of the most important greenhouse gases produced by humans - methane.

Featured photo: Last call at the South Pole, for now

As hints of spring appear across the United States, NOAA’s first all-women crew at the South Pole atmospheric observatory are half a world away, ready for Antarctica’s brutal, six-month polar night.

A climate science milestone on Colorado’s Continental Divide

On January 16, 1968, an air sample collected at Niwot Ridge was measured for carbon dioxide at a lab in Boulder, Colorado--the first measurement for NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network. In the 50 years since, more than 274,000 air samples have been collected at over 60 sites around the globe.

Move of Bondville, IL Aerosol System to New Facility

Aerosol measurements have been made by the NOAA/ESRL Global Monitoring Division (GMD) at the Bondville Environmental and Atmospheric Research Site (BEARS) since June of 1994. In late October of 2017, the GMD aerosol monitoring system was moved from the aging, uninsulated sea container to a new temperature-controlled building about 80 meters away.

Warm air helped make 2017 ozone hole smallest since 1988

Measurements from satellites this year showed the hole in Earth’s ozone layer that forms over Antarctica each September was the smallest observed since 1988, scientists from NASA and NOAA announced today.

South Pole sees first sunrise in 6 months with arrival of spring

The fall equinox signals the coming of winter for the Northern Hemisphere, but heralds the arrival of spring — and the first sunrise since March — for researchers at NOAA’s South Pole Atmospheric Baseline Observatory.

Ozone treaty taking a bite out of US greenhouse gas emissions

The Montreal Protocol, the international treaty adopted to restore Earth’s protective ozone layer, has significantly reduced emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals from the United States. In a twist, a new study by NOAA and CIRES scientists shows the 30-year old treaty has had a major side benefit - reducing climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S.

After 2000-era plateau, global methane levels hitting new highs

Following a plateau in the early 2000s, global concentrations of the powerful greenhouse gas methane have hit new highs in recent years. Chemical fingerprint tests seem to rule out a major role for fossil fuels. With more than half a dozen possible natural and human sources, how will scientists figure out where it's coming from?

NOAA’s Greenhouse Gas Index up 40 percent since 1990

NOAA’s Annual Greenhouse Gas Index, which tracks the warming influence of long-lived greenhouse gases, has increased by 40 percent from 1990 to 2016 — with most of that attributable to rising carbon dioxide levels, according to NOAA climate scientists.