Scientists with NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory will evaluate the optimal placement of greenhouse-gas sampling inlets on a Boeing 737 flying testbed owned by Alaska Air during Boeing's 2021 ecoDemonstrator technology development program.
The annual analysis of samples collected by NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network provides an updated measure of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gas pollution.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa Observatory reached a seasonal peak of 417.1 parts per million for 2020 in May, the highest monthly reading ever recorded. Monthly CO2 values at Mauna Loa first breached the 400 ppm threshold in 2014, and are now at levels not experienced by the atmosphere in several million years.