Ala Wai

In collaboration with University of Hawaii Oceanographers Eric Heinen De Carlo and Fred Mackenzie, PMEL has installed a moored buoy array around Oahu, Hawaii. Two moorings on the South Shore, Ala Wai and Kilo Nalu are part of the PacIOOS water quality monitoring program. Another mooring, CRIMP2, is located in Kaneohe Bay as part of the CRIMP program. Each mooring has mounted sensors which provide high resolution time-series measurements of the partial pressure of atmospheric boundary layer CO₂ and surface water CO₂ as well as surface water dissolved oxygen, temperature, and salinity. The University of Hawaii has mounted instruments on the moorings that measure sea surface chlorophyll a, turbidity, temperature, salinity, depth, pH, dissolved oxygen, and nitrate. These data are used to evaluate the temporal variability in air-sea CO₂ fluxes and to assist in examining the mechanisms controlling CO₂ fluxes. To see data collected on these moorings in near-real time, click on the site name on the map.

For more information about the mooring and meteorological sensors please visit the PacIOOS Water Quality Buoys site.

Finalized Data availability: submitted to Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC).

Plots of surface water and atmospheric CO₂: