This buoy (mapco2_kauai) is located approximately 850 meters offshore of the south coast of the island of Kauaʻi near Poʻipū in the State of Hawaiʻi. It is moored in waters 55 feet (16.8 m) deep. Data are recorded every 3 hours and transmitted daily. This Moored Autonomous Partial Pressure of Carbon Dioxide (MAPCO₂™) buoy was primarily established to monitor ocean acidification within a tropical coral reef ecosystem in the Central Pacific, complementing a national array of moored carbon dioxide buoys across the Pacific, Atlantic, and Caribbean. Other important physical parameters are also monitored to help provide early indications of run-off from land-based waterways such as streams and other outflows that lead directly into the ocean.

Instrument site. Credit: UH/Lucie Knor.

The buoy is funded as part of a gift from Dr. Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg to the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) to improve Hawaiʻi’s ocean health. Owned and maintained by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) under the supervision of Chris Sabine. Data are managed by PMEL at the NOAA Western Regional Center in Seattle, Washington. PMEL enables data streaming into the PacIOOS website and PacIOOS Voyager for visualization purposes only. These near real-time data have not been post-calibrated or quality controlled and are therefore not of the climate quality that PMEL is required to achieve. Only post-calibrated and quality-controlled data should be used for scientific publications and are available for download separately at the NOAA Ocean Carbon Data System (OCADS) website in a delayed-mode capacity.