Despite pandemic shutdowns, carbon dioxide and methane surged in 2020

Levels of the two most important anthropogenic greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane, continued their unrelenting rise in 2020 despite the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic response.

Women’s History Month: A conversation with NOAA Corps Officer LTJG Marisa about her 13 months “on the ice”

In honor of Women’s History Month, Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) is highlighting some of the great work done by our scientists. Today’s story expands on a previous one introducing a day in the life at the South Pole for NOAA Corps Officer Lieutenant Junior Grade Marisa Gedney, who served as a Station Officer at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica.

Measuring greenhouse gases in Africa - while working from home in Boulder

A profile of Kathryn McKain, a research scientist with CIRES and GML.

GML Employee of the Quarter

COVID-19 Lockdowns Reduced Ozone Pollution Over the Northern Hemisphere

During COVID-19 shutdowns last year, ozone levels in the lower atmosphere fell by seven percent across much of the Northern Hemisphere, according to a new study.

Emissions of a banned ozone-depleting gas are back on the decline

Five years after an unexpected spike in emissions of the banned ozone-depleting chemical chlorofluorocarbon CFC-11, emissions dropped sharply between 2018 and 2019, new analyses of global air measurements show.

GML Scientist elected AGU Fellow

Dr. Edward J. Dlugokencky, Global Monitoring Laboratory, was awarded as an AGU Fellow for the class of 2020.

GML Scientists win DOC Gold Medal

GML Scientists were part of a group that won a Department of Commerce Gold Medal Group Award for Scientific / Engineering Achievement

US Methane “Hotspot” is Snapshot of Local Pollution

A giant methane cloud caught by satellite in 2014 looming over the U.S. Southwest wasn’t a persistent hotspot, as first thought. Instead, the methane cloud was the nightly build-up of polluted air that trapped emissions of the potent greenhouse gas near the ground, according to a new CIRES- and NOAA-led study.

Large, deep Antarctic ozone hole to persist into November

Persistent cold temperatures and strong circumpolar winds supported the formation of a large and deep Antarctic ozone hole that will persist into November, NOAA and NASA scientists reported today.

Lawns provide surprising contribution to L.A. Basin’s carbon emissions

The Los Angeles Basin is often thought of as a dry, smoggy, overdeveloped landscape. But a new study led by NOAA and the University of Colorado, Boulder shows that the manicured lawns, emerald golf courses and trees of America’s second-largest city have a surprisingly large influence on the city’s carbon emissions.

August wildfire smoke impacts Boulder aerosol measurements

Rise of carbon dioxide unabated

Seasonal peak reaches 417 parts per million at Mauna Loa observatory

Tracking fossil fuel emissions with carbon-14

Researchers from NOAA and the University of Colorado Boulder have devised a breakthrough method for estimating national emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels using ambient air samples and a well-known isotope of carbon that scientists have relied on for decades to date archaeological sites.

Warming influence of greenhouse gases continues to rise, NOAA finds

Record high levels of greenhouse gas pollution continued to increase the heat trapped in the atmosphere in 2019, according to an annual analysis released by NOAA scientists.