Keeling curve

Atmospheric CO2 measured at Mauna Loa. This is a famous graph called the Keeling Curve (courtesy NASA)... 

Fig. 2.68 The Keeling-curve. 1959-2008 atmospheric CO2 values (ppm) derived from in situ air samples collected at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, USA data from R. F. Keeling, S. C. Piper, A. F. Bollenbacher and S. J. Walker. Carbon Dioxide Research Group, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), University of California, La Jolla, California USA 92093-0444. The line represents a linear regression fit between 1970 and 2000.

The Keeling curve is a relatively simple depiction that provoked the collection of measurements at other global sites. The influence of such depictions of data is increasingly being... 

Figure 11.29 The Keeling curve the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (measured at Mauna Loa,Hawaii)... 

Superimposed on the C02 concentration measurements in Fig. 14.12 are the concentrations expected if 55.9% of the cumulative C02 emissions from fossil fuel combustion and cement production remained in the atmosphere (Keeling et al., 1995). This percentage was chosen to match the atmospheric observations for the 20-year period between January 1, 1959, and January 1, 1979 the match between the two curves shows that... 

Fig. 2. Graph of plume material thickness v. distance (normalized) from plume s centre for several lithospheric geometries. For linear flow (e.g. along a channel at the LAB below a pre-existing rift zone) and radial flow (e.g. plume arising beneath a flat-keeled craton) material from the plume head is relatively uniform in thickness, except at its edges where viscosity increases associated with cooling retard flow. The shape of the radial curve is similar for topography of limited (small craton) or infinite extent (large craton). Unlike the top two cases, the flow from the plume tail thins more rapidly with distance from the centre (continuous line).

Fig. 11-18 Industrial CO2 production for various assumed patterns of fossil fuel consumption. The figures at the different curves indicate the initial (1975) percentage increase of the annual consumption. Adapted from Keeling and Bacastow (1977) with the permission of the National Academy Press.

Fig. 1-2. Secular rise of C02 mixing ratios in the atmosphere. Dots represent monthly mean values in ppmv as observed with a continuously recording nondispersive infrared analyzer. The smooth curve represents a fit of data to a fourth harmonic annual cycle, which increases linearly with time, and a spline fit of the interannual component of variation. Top Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii bottom South Pole. [From C. D. Keeling el al. (1982) and unpublished data courtesy C. D. Keeling.]...

Studying published anthropogenic CO2 emissions as well as trends in atmospheric CO2 levels allows the development of the FAC Model that can be used to project future atmospheric CO2 levels. Figure 3 shows ice core CO2 data back to 1743 (Keeling et al, 1989) and atmospheric CO2 concentration data from Mauna Loa, Hawaii measured by Keeling and Whorf from 1958 through 2001 (available at http //cdiac.oml.gov). The Mauna Loa data for only January of each year are used to smooth the curve and see the recent increase. 

---