For rent: meteorological observatory, fully equipped, panoramic views by Peter Gibbs
The Japanese Meteorological Agency is looking for tenants for its observatory perched on the 3776 metre summit of Japan’s sacred mountain, Mount Fuji. The station has been unmanned since October last year, when the last four observers were withdrawn. The station has been measuring weather and volcanic activity since 1932, but modern technology means that the data can now be collected automatically.
Even without on-site staff, the facility is still expensive to maintain on such an exposed site and that is why the Meteorological Agency is looking for other researchers to help shoulder the cost.
So why is a mountain-top site so important? Because it allows scientists to sample air that has been well mixed and is not tainted by localised sources of air pollution on the ground below. In effect, it provides a kind of average sample which can be used to detect long term trends.
The American observatory high on the Hawaiian volcano Mauna Loa has been key in detecting the rapid rise in carbon dioxide levels since the 1950s. It was these figures that started the concern over global warming.
The Atlantic seaboard of the USA is home to the Mount Washington observatory. The highest point in New Hampshire at 1917m, it holds the record for the highest windspeed ever recorded on the earth’s surface, when a gust reached 231mph on April 12th 1934.
Mount Washington still has hardy weather-watchers staffing the summit, but with increasing automation perhaps the position of mountain observer will follow the lighthouse keepers into history.
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