The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has its Global Monitoring Laboratory on Mauna Loa. This lab, among other activities, is where the carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration is continuously measured and reported. The CO2 measurements go back to the late 1950s, when Charles Keeling first confirmed the rising CO2 concentration from the burning of fossil fuels.
However, the Global Monitoring Laboratory is currently shut down because of the volcano.
The website has the following message:
As of the morning of November 29, lava from the eruption of the Mauna Loa volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island has been confirmed to have crossed the access road to NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory and taken out power lines to the site. These circumstances have resulted in a pause in data being collected at the observatory.
All NOAA staff from the Mauna Loa Observatory are safe.
At this point the facility is not accessible.
NOAA will continue to provide updates as the situation develops.
- Pete