More than two years after road access and electrical power to the Mauna Loa Observatory was cut off by lava flows, NOAA staff continue to make critical measurements of the atmosphere and other environmental variables at the remote site.
In 2023, observatory staff installed solar panels at the site and resumed some measurements, including the independent carbon dioxide monitoring programs run by the Global Monitoring Laboratory and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, as well as other atmospheric measurements.
Construction of a temporary road to access the observatory site is anticipated to begin in summer 2025.
Media can contact: Theo Stein (303) 819-7409 (theo.stein@noaa.gov)
Mauna Loa Historical publications from GML.
Click on a document icon to download the report. These documents are in PDF 
format.
Life and Times at the Mauna Loa Observatory in the Late Seventies, John Miller (2007)
Mauna Loa 40th Anniversary Book (1997)
Judy Pereira Memorabilia Mauna Loa
Mauna Loa 20th Anniversary Book (1978)
Howard Ellis Memorabilia Mauna Loa
Ralph Stair Report Mauna Loa
Mauna Loa's White Dog
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According to Hawaiian Legend, Pele, the fiery goddess of the volcanoes in Hawaii, would send her white dog as a messenger to alert the people when an eruption was imminent. A white dog was first noticed by the observatory staff during the latter part of 1959 about 1/2 km below the observatory. At that time, the staff lived at the site for up to a week on rotating shifts. Because of this housekeeping, a rubbish dump soon developed to the west of the observatory. The contention of the staff was that a stray dog had discovered the dump and foraged there for food. Attempts to befriend or capture this mysterious dog, no matter how persistent, failed. The dog for some reason would have nothing to do with the observatory staff. In December 1959, Kilauea Iki erupted and the dog disappeared. The dog reappeared at the observatory several months later and again was spotted periodically for a month or so and then disappeared again. This pattern of appearances and disappearances continued until 1966. Since then, no one has seen this mysterious white dog.