CMDL Research Headquarters

The Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in Boulder, Colorado, conducts research related to atmospheric constituents that are capable of forcing change in the climate of the Earth or that may deplete the ozone layer. CMDL monitors greenhouse gases, aerosols, ozone, ozone-depleting gases and solar and terrestrial radiation at global sites including four Baseline Observatories. Each paragraph below describes a research group within CMDL.

Aerosol measurements began at the CMDL baseline observatories in the mid-1970's as part of the Geophysical Monitoring for Climate Change (GMCC) program. Since the inception of the program, scientific understanding of the behavior of atmospheric aerosols has improved considerably. One lesson learned is that human activities primarily influence aerosols on regional/continental scales rather than global scales. The goals of this regional-scale monitoring program are to characterize means, variability, and trends of climate-forcing properties of different types of aerosols, and to understand the factors that control these properties. CMDL's measurements also provide ground-truth for satellite measurements and global models, as well as key aerosol parameters for global-scale models.

The NOAA CMDL Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases group makes ongoing discrete measurements from land and sea surface sites and aircraft, and continuous measurements from baseline observatories and tall towers. These measurements document the spatial and temporal distributions of carbon-cycle gases and provide essential constraints to our understanding of the global carbon cycle. CCGG maintains compressed air standard reference gas for CO2, CH4, CO trace gasses.

The general mission of the Halocarbons and other Atmospheric Trace Species group is to quantify the distributions and magnitudes of the sources and sinks for atmospheric nitrous oxide (N₂O) and halogen containing compounds. HATS utilizes numerous types of platforms, including ground-based stations, towers, ocean vessels, aircraft, and balloons, to accomplish its mission.

The Observatory Operations group operates staffed atmospheric baseline observatories at Barrow, Alaska; Mauna Loa, Hawaii; Samoa; and the South Pole from which numerous in situ and remote atmospheric and solar measurements are conducted. The overall scientific programs and administrative functions of the four observatories are handled from Boulder with on-site station chiefs caring for day-to-day station activities. The meteorological data from each observatory is monitored, processed and put on the Internet on a daily basis by the Observatory Observations Group.

The Ozone and Water Vapor Group conducts research on the nature and causes of the depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer and the role of stratospheric and tropospheric ozone and water vapor in forcing climate change and in modifying the chemical cleansing capacity of the atmosphere. This mission is accomplished through long-term observations and intensive field programs that measure total column ozone, ozone vertical profiles (ozonesondes and umkehrs), ground level ozone, and water vapor vertical profiles in the upper troposphere and stratosphere and through transport modeling isentropic trajectories.

The Solar and Thermal Atmospheric Radiation group is a subdivision of the NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory. The STAR group's activities involve empirical and theoretical research of the Earth's surface radiation budget. The group specializes in the investigation of climatically significant variations in long-term radiation and meteorological measurements made primarily at a globally diverse network of surface sites. Our research interests are in the extent and cause of observed variations, and in collaborating with other research groups making satellite observations and climate model calculations. In addition, we make some relative observations of spectral solar radiation for the purpose of remote sensing of certain atmospheric constituents. A relatively new program in the group is the absolute measurement of spectral solar UV for the investigation of the interaction of ozone and solar radiation.