The Observatory contributes more data for climate change studies
4 April 2011
In support of the Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) programme of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to study climate change and other atmospheric subjects, the Observatory has been providing ozone data recorded at its King's Park Meteorological Station to WMO since January 1996.
With the rapid increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in recent decades, there is a growing concern of their impact on the global climate. Since May 2009, the Observatory further supported the GAW programme by starting measurement of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration at King's Park, a relatively exposed location on a hill near the city centre of Kowloon. In October 2010, the Observatory in collaboration with the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) started CO2 measurement at PolyU's Background Air Monitoring Station at Hok Tsui, a background GAW station located at a remote, exposed coastal site about 12 km southeast of the city centre.
Preliminary analyses of the CO2 data measured at King's Park and Hok Tsui have been carried out. In general, the levels at the city station at King's Park are roughly about 10 ppm (parts per million) higher than those at the background station at Hok Tsui. CO2 levels recorded at Hok Tsuiare generally compatible with those measured elsewhere in the world. A paper on the results can be found in the following link:
http://www.weather.gov.hk/en/publica/reprint/files/r952.pdf (Chinese only).
The Observatory's contribution to the GAW endeavour is already reflected in the annual WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin (here). Daily CO2 data recorded at King's Park and Hok Tsui are displayed in the website of the World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) of GAW (King's Park, Hok Tsui). Explanatory notes on the data plot posted on the aforementioned website are given in the sample plot shown below. Details about the King's Park station (station ID: HKO) and Hok Tsui station (station ID: HKG) are provided in the GAW Station Information System (GAWSIS) website.
