Carbon Detectives Are Tracking Gases in Colorado

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BOULDER, Colo. — As she squeezed herself into a telephone-booth-size elevator to ascend a 984-foot tower in Colorado’s eastern plains, Arlyn Andrews said with a grin, “This makes me want to go rock climbing.”

It’s a good thing she loves climbing tall structures. Dr. Andrews, an atmospheric scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, climbs the tower periodically to make sure the narrow tubes running from the tower to analyzers nearby are properly taking continuous samples of carbon dioxide, methane and a cocktail of other greenhouse gases.

The elevator grumbled to a halt about five minutes later at an 820-foot perch, where the tower’s slender shadow stretched into a neighboring sunflower field in the early morning sunlight. “We’re able to detect the whole mix of emissions here — what comes from automobile traffic, from industry, from residential development and from agriculture,” Dr. Andrews said.

She is one of many carbon sleuths, scientists who track and analyze where greenhouse gases come from and where they go over time. Think of it like personal finances. To plan for a sound financial future, it helps to create a budget and keep track of how one is spending money. Similarly, atmospheric scientists need to develop a “budget” for greenhouse gases.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/science/earth/02carb.html?th&emc=th