Image:Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide.png
From Global Warming Art
Description
This figure shows the history of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations as directly measured at Mauna Loa, Hawaii. This curve is known as the Keeling curve, and is an essential piece of evidence of the man-made increases in greenhouse gases that are believed to be the cause of global warming. The longest such record exists at Mauna Loa, but these measurements have been independently confirmed at many other sites around the world [1].
The annual fluctuation in carbon dioxide is caused by seasonal variations in carbon dioxide uptake by land plants. Since many more forests are concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern Hemisphere, more carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere during Northern Hemisphere summer than during Southern Hemisphere summer. This annual cycle is shown in the inset figure by taking the average concentration for each month across all measured years. This cycle is sometimes referred to as the "breathing" of the Earth.
The red curve shows the average monthly concentrations, and blue curve is a moving 12 month average.
Copyright
This figure was created by Robert A. Rohde from published data.
This image is an original work created for Global Warming Art by Robert A. Rohde.
It is intended to be widely used, but the terms of use vary
depending on the application.
Please select the category below that best matches your intended
use.
It is also requested, but not required, that authors send Global Warming Art a copy of any significant publications that include the use of this image. Those interested in commercial and/or higher quality reproduction may also wish to refer to the information for professional republishers.
Images and pages linking to this file
- Carbon Dioxide Gallery
- Image:Carbon History and Flux Rev.png
- List of all images
- Thumbnail gallery of all images
- What's New/Archive 1
- Image:Carbon Dioxide Molecule VdW.png
- List of greenhouse gas images
- List of carbon dioxide images
- What's New
File upload and version history
Click on date to see the file uploaded on that date.
- 03:52, 4 February 2009 . . 800×549 (35,978 bytes)
- 03:50, 4 February 2009 . . 800×549 (36,050 bytes)
- 05:22, 2 April 2007 . . 800×547 (34,415 bytes) (spelling)
- 09:02, 2 July 2006 . . 600×410 (25,040 bytes)

