ACOM Continues Essential Observations From Foothills Lab

UCAR ‘essential’ personnel Ivan Ortega of ACOM continues to make observations from Foothills Laboratory FL-0. The data streams, which began in 2010, produce scientifically important trends in atmospheric key constituents and capture spurious/interesting events. These data are in the process of becoming part of the global NDACC network for which a continuous record is an essential attribute and criterion. The plot shows total columns as indicators for traffic and oil and natural gas activities, respectively, for 2020 in red versus means from the previous years in black. The decrease in acetylene can be explained by the reduction in traffic during the COVID-19 related lockdown, whereas there is less impact seen in ethane. The IRWG group also operates two NDACC remote sites at Mauna Loa, HI & Thule, Greenland.