An important scientific milestone was reached on a windswept point at the bottom of the North Island this week.
NIWA atmospheric researchers run a Clean Air Monitoring Station at Baring Head, about 15 minutes’ drive from Wainuiomata, and have been closely watching the carbon dioxide readings as they edged towards a significant threshold.
The Baring Head station, which overlooks Cook Strait, has been operating since 1972 and the data collected there makes significant contributions to our global understanding of greenhouse gases. It boasts the longest running continuous carbon dioxide record in the Southern Hemisphere.
This week the carbon dioxide readings officially passed 400 parts per million (ppm) – a level last reached over three million years ago.
Carbon Dioxide readings for Baring Head Clean Air Monitoring Station. [NIWA]
The Mauna Loa station in Hawaii passed 400ppm in November, while the Australian monitoring station at Cape Grim, Tasmania reached it in the middle of last month. However, enough gas has now mixed through the atmosphere and reached the high latitude Southern Hemisphere stations to push the level over 400ppm.
Baring Head is particularly significant because the air arriving at this site during steady interval conditions originating far to the south of the site, away from human activities.
Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas contributing to warming of the atmosphere. Long-serving NIWA staff recall the level once being a steady 345ppm.
Extracted from an article by Dr Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher, NIWA: https://www.niwa.co.nz/news/new-zealand-reaches-climate-change-milestone – 7 June 2016