National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
United States Department of Commerce

Carbon Dioxide Sensor Measures Emissions from the Seattle Space Needle

July 13, 2010

In an effort to promote the public’s understanding of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) in an urban setting, scientists from PMEL's Carbon Group partnered with the Pacific Science Center (PSC) and Seattle’s Space Needle to install an atmospheric CO2 sensor on top of the Space Needle. Measurements are made every 5 minutes and streams the information to PMEL where the data are processed in real time, posted to the web and sent to a monitoring station at the PSC.

The web site and PSC display allow the public to examine the latest data showing the patterns of CO2 variations in Seattle on time scales ranging from minutes to months.

PMEL Project: