Carbon Dioxide On Niwot Ridge

Niwot Ridge is home to the world’s second-longest record of atmospheric carbon dioxide (C02). Researchers began monitoring CO2 on the ridge in the 1967, and monitoring continues to this day. The longest continuous record of atmospheric C02 began in 1958 and is from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.

Long-term Trends in Carbon Dioxide

The figure below, generated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), visualizes long-term CO2 data collected from Niwot Ridge. Circles indicate data thought to be “regionally representative of a remote, well-mixed troposphere,” green crosses indicate data that are likely “not indicative of background conditions, and represent poorly mixed air masses influenced by local or regional anthropogenic sources or strong local biospheric sources or sinks,” and orange data are preliminary.

 
 
 

To read more from NOAA about how this data is collected and processed, click here. To download the data used to create this figure from the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, click here. To further explore data visualizations of CO2 on Niwot Ridge, click here.

 

Contact Us

If you have questions about the data presented on this page, please email the Niwot Ridge LTER. To learn more about research, education, and outreach conducted by the Niwot Ridge LTER, please visit our website.