The Observatory

"We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide. Increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate. To convert this heaven, our only home in the Cosmos, into a kind of hell."

‒ Carl Sagan, from the Cosmos series

At the top of Mauna Loa on the Big Island of Hawaii, an observatory quietly monitors the invisible drivers of climate change: greenhouse gases. This station collects and shares critical data on gases like methane (CH₄), carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrous oxide (N₂O), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆). Of all these, the CO₂ record is especially significant ‒ it's the longest continuous direct measurement of atmospheric carbon dioxide anywhere on Earth.