New High-Altitude Climate Observatory in Mexico Announced
by Eliza Barclay, Nomad on 09.24.07
Today the Climate Institute announced a new observatory called the High Altitude Climate Observatory in Pico De Orizaba National Park, which is the first high-altitude climate observatory in Mexico and the highest of its kind in the world. The project was announced in conjuction with a speech on vulnerability and climate change by Sir Crispin Tickell, the president emeritus of the Climate Institute and the author of Climatic Change and World Affairs, one of the first books to highlight the dangers of human-induced global climate change, first published in 1977.
"This new center will watch over the greater number of parameters that make up the vital signs of the planet, including the stratospheric ozone layer, suspended particulates, greenhouse gases and ultraviolet solar radiation," said Tickell.
The data gathered at the observatory, which will commence in 2008, will contribute to the Global Atmospheric Watch and the Global Earth Observing Systems. The observatory is located 4,581 meters above sea level on the mountaintop of the inactive Sierra Negra volcano and is on the same latitude as the climate observatory at Mauna Koa in Hawaii.
There are currently 21 climate monitoring centers around the world, with three in the Americas located in Argentina, Brazil and Alaska.
