From Watts Up With That?

By Anthony Watts

As many of you know, the Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) in Hawaii is slated for closure by the Trump Administration. Multiple reports indicate that the Trump administration’s proposed 2026 NOAA budget includes plans to defund the MLO. This would essentially lead to the closure of the observatory. The proposal also aims to shut down other atmospheric monitoring stations and eliminate a significant portion of climate research conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

In addition to being ground zero for global atmospheric CO2 measurements, it does many other things that are useful.

My friend, Forrest M. Mims III (One of the “50 best brains in science.” Discover magazine.) writes by email:

While I fully understand how the CO2 record begun there has led to the ongoing climate battle, MLO does far, far more than measure CO2. During my many stays at MLO (225 nights) I have never heard the long-time director, Darryl Kuniyuki, say a single word for, against, or about the CO2 record. He has far more responsibilities up there.

From my email to the Hilo Chamber of Commerce, which played a lead role in the establishment of MLO in the early 1950s, and which is stunned by the closure announcement:

The major factor in the closure of MLO is its pioneering role in measuring carbon dioxide since 1958 and the exaggerated publicity by climate change activists. This is unfortunate, for water vapor, not CO2, is the primary greenhouse gas. I have measured total column water vapor with instruments calibrated at MLO since 1990, and the trend is absolutely flat. (See A 30-Year Climatology (1990–2020) of Aerosol Optical Depth and Total Column Water Vapor and Ozone over Texas in: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Volume 103 Issue 1 (2022).

 Moreover, MLO does far more than measure CO2. For example:

 1.    MLO is the ultimate site to calibrate a wide range of instruments (including mine since 1993) that measure sunlight, ozone, water vapor, aerosols and various gases. Many organizations calibrate their instruments at MLO, including the Navy Research Lab, PREDE, Solar Light, MRI, NASA, PNNL, etc.

 2.    MLO data is invaluable for comparison with US, European, Japanese, and Indian satellite data, which drifts over time.

 3.  MLO’s remote location supports emergency communications during hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and other emergency events. (I know this well, for I was staying overnight at MLO when a hurricane arrived.)

 4. MLO supports a wide variety of Federal and State government communications (Army, Navy, Civil Air Patrol, FAA, Hawaii Civil Defense, post office, etc.).

 5. MLO provides an important site for seismometers and tiltmeters that monitor potential volcanic activity of Mauna Loa.

 6. MLO’s helicopter landing zone is used for a variety of scientific studies and emergencies.

 7. MLO is a base of operation to rescue hikers on Mauna Loa.

 8. MLO has been used as an overnight rest site for military teams that search for and recover the remains of US military veterans lost in high-altitude airplane crashes. (I was staying there overnight when two such teams arrived.)

 9. MLO is an important site for visits by scientists and students studying a wide range of topics from alpine vegetation to rare alpine fauna. (I am among the few persons to see a Hawaiian hoary bat flying upslope while I was staying at MLO.)

10. MLO has become a vitally important site for my ongoing development and calibration of twilight photometers that measure the altitude of aerosols blowing from China to the US, high-altitude water vapor above the height of weather balloons, and both meteor smoke (85-90 km) and cosmic dust (100 km and above). (My twilight research began at MLO in 2013 and was compared with the MLO lidar.)