| NSF Org: |
AGS Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | September 24, 2010 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | February 2, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1036399 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Sylvia Edgerton
sedgerto@nsf.gov (703)292-8522 AGS Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2010 |
| End Date: | March 31, 2016 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $574,556.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $679,179.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2014 = $104,623.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
8622 DISCOVERY WAY # 116 LA JOLLA CA US 92093-1500 (858)534-1293 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
8622 DISCOVERY WAY # 116 LA JOLLA CA US 92093-1500 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): |
Atmospheric Chemistry, AGS-ATM & Geospace Sciences |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001415DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
|
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
This project will support an effort to recover and make available to posterity a larger number of data assets that are part of the iconic Keeling carbon dioxide (CO2) record. The first measurements of atmospheric CO2 to be made with methods of sufficient quality to document changes were those of the late Charles D. Keeling, who initiated a program in the late 1950s at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. This program has continued under the current principal investigator to the present, sustaining the world's longest time series of the ocean and atmosphere, including the well-known Mauna Loa record as well as records from a flask sampling program from an array of stations distributed from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
A major component of the study of global climate change is to document changes in the cycling of carbon in the Earth system. This task requires not just ongoing measurements but also careful comparison to records made in the past. Results from this program have been made available through scientific publications, submissions to databases (e.g., CDIAC, the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center) as well as more recently through a dedicated webpage, http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu. The publicly available data, however, comprise only a fraction of the total body of measurements made by the program. For example, flask CO2 data from extensive ship, airborne, and land-based surveys from the 1950s to 1980s are unavailable in a form amenable to analysis. In addition, these early data can now be interpreted in the context of reanalysis of observed atmospheric wind fields extending back to the 1950s. Many other valuable resources generated at Scripps are also not available in convenient or "final" form. Multi-decadal records from Barrow, Alaska and at La Jolla itself, comprise overlapping measurements from two or more programs or instruments that have not been suitably merged and reconciled. This project will focus on recovering and posting these data in modern digital formats.
Potentially valuable meteorological data remains on hand-recorded log sheets, strip charts, magnetic tapes, computer punch cards, or old computer printouts. The key to unlocking these resources is in the minds of senior personnel who are within a few years of the end of their careers. Corrections to the Scripps manometric scale that result from recently-resolved slow deformation of glass volumes with time remain to be finalized. This project will support a concerted effort to develop readily available datasets from these resources, including recovering raw data, reprocessing as needed, merging with other datasets, addressing issues of calibration, presenting data on the group webpage, and archiving at CDIAC.
These activities could enable diverse investigations into the distant future. The work is of very broad importance to society in the context of global climate change. The work will further sustain elements of the Scripps CO2 program which is widely considered as the "true beginning" for stories covering the topic of rising CO2 and global warming.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
Note:
When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external
site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a
charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from
this site.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This project supported the recovery of historic measurements by the Scripps CO2 Program, originally led by Charles D. Keeling in the late 1950s. The early data from this program were created without knowledge of how the data might be used in a modern context. The main products of interest at the time were averaged or derived products, such as monthly or daily averages. The fine-grained information in the data was thus not fully disseminated or in some cases even worked up.
This data legacy project has enabled critical fine-grained data to be identified, worked up, and made publically available. Important newly created datasets from this effort include versions of the iconic Mauna Loa CO2 record with 10-minute resolution and daily resolution, a dataset of CO2 concentrations at La Jolla from 1957-1962 with 30-minute resolution, daily CO2 records from Barrow Alaska from the mid 60’s made in a collaboration with John Kelley of U. Alaska, results of a large-scale airborne survey of atmospheric CO2 from 1958-1961, and records of the isotopic composition of atmospheric CO2 made in collaboration with Wim Mook of Gronigen, Netherlands starting in the 1970s. The creation of these datasets typically required working from paper documents archived at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography or from legacy computer files and programs.
It is expected that these datasets can serve as benchmarks for documenting changes in the global environment relating to CO2 and carbon cycle. In this context, this project has already enabled two high-profile publications: Welp et al (Nature, 2011) showed that a property of CO2 involving the oxygen isotopes varies in concert with El Nino phenomenon and these variations can be used to establish rates of photosynthesis globally. Graven et al (Science, 2013) compared the early airborne CO2 data with data from a more recent NSF-funded campaign called “HIPPO” to show that a ~50% increase occurred from 1960 to 2010 in the seasonal cycle in atmospheric CO2 at high northern latitudes. This cycle is caused primarily by the “breathing” of the vast forests and grasslands at middle and high latitudes in the northern hemisphere. Why such a large increase should have occurred remains an important unsolved puzzle, but one that likely holds the clues as to how these systems may change in the future.
Last Modified: 08/04/2016
Modified by: Ralph F Keeling
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
