Carbon Dioxide and Global Warming

The dotted black line shows carbon dioxide increasing.

Breathe in; now breathe out.

When you exhale, your breath has more carbon dioxide in it than the air you breathed in.  That's because your body makes carbon dioxide as it burns the food you eat to operate your body.  Carbon dioxide is a waste product.  Your body gets rid of it with each outgoing breath.

Carbon dioxide is building up in the Earth's air.  Although some of it comes from your breathing, most of it comes from the burning of fossil fuels, like gasoline in cars and oil in electric power stations.  Carbon dioxide is the most important gas causing the problem of global warming.

This map shows the places where NOAA collects air samples.  

FOAM's July 25 post entitled "Is the Sea Level Rising?" talked about global warming.  The Earth is predicted to warm to the point where lots of ice in glaciers and ice fields will melt, causing the sea level to rise.  If the sea level rises enough, it could flood coastal cities, like Honolulu, New York, San Franciso, and many others around the world!  We need to stop global warming!  To do that we need to know how much carbon dioxide is in the air.

What does all this have to do with Midway Atoll?  The Atoll is on this map; it's the red dot in the center of the North Pacific Ocean.  Midway is part of a world-wide network to measure how much carbon dioxide is in the Earth's air.  Every week US Fish and Wildlife Biological Technician Greg Schubert takes a sample of Midway's air.  Then he sends it to the federal government agency called NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and they measure the carbon dioxide (and methane and other gases) in Midway's air sample.

Greg is setting up the equipment on Midway Atoll.  The air will go in the opening of the white tube at the top of the pole.  Then it will be pumped through both of the blue tanks. 

During collection, Greg is far away because he doesn't want the carbon dioxide he's exhaling to go into the blue tanks.  (The albatross doesn't put out much carbon dioxide!)

When he's done with the field collection, Greg writes down the information, such as pressure and flow rate, in his field notebook.  Later he transfers the information to the official NOAA data sheet that he will mail with the blue tanks.  Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is helping to solve the problem of global warming!

Is the Sea Level Rising?

Our planet Earth is getting warmer, causing the environmental problem we call Global Warming. As Earth warms, the ice fields and glaciers melt, sending water into the oceans, causing the sea level to rise.  How much is the sea level rising?  Let's find out by using advanced laser and computer technology from a plane!  
As with many difficult questions, it takes teamwork to get the answer.  In this case, the team is made up of 2 private companies in Hawai`i and 3 departments of the federal government.  The government team members are: United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), US Geological Survey (USGS), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA.)

The picture above shows the private companies' side of the team, from left to right -- Robert Szabo, owner of Szabo Aerospace from O`ahu, Thomas Pattison, owner of Aerial Surveying, Inc. from Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawai`i,  and his son Kiel.  Rob will fly his plane over Midway Atoll and nearby islands while Tom and Kiel take pictures using a technology called LiDAR.  LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging.  Let's get a look at the equipment while the plane is being fueled.

Kiel is welcoming us aboard Rob's Beechcraft Queen Air plane, nicknamed "Makalani," Hawaiian language for "eyes of the skies."

Inside the plane Kiel shows us the LiDAR equipment.  Tom's company has modified the typical LiDAR rig, which weighs about 150 pounds and would be TOO much weight for the plane.  Next to Kiel's left foot, the 3 silver-colored items are used to send out the laser from the plane.  The laser reflects, or bounces, off the ground, returns to the plane, and that distance between the plane and ground is measured.  Near Kiel's right foot is the black computer.  The computer takes the laser data and calculates how high above sea level Midway's ground is.  The computer also matches up the exact GPS location for each elevation measurement.  And it will be correct to within 6 inches!!

The LiDAR data that Kiel, Tom and Rob are collecting will help answer the question, "Is the Sea Level Rising?"  They can compare the maps they make today with maps from years ago to see how much the sea level has already come up.   In the years ahead LiDAR can be used again to get new data.  Having accurate knowledge about sea level will help all the people on Earth work together to solve the Global Warming problem.

Before we leave the plane, do you notice something blue on the plane's flight deck?  When the hula doll dances, that tells Rob his plane's propeller engines are vibrating too much, and it's time to re-balance them.  The pretty hula dancer has a job to do; she's part of the LiDAR team!