This buoy (mapco2_kilonalu) operated between June 7, 2008 and January 24, 2021 and was located at the Kilo Nalu Nearshore Reef Observatory approximately 1200 feet (365 m) offshore of Kakaʻako Waterfront Park near Ala Moana Beach Park on the South Shore of Oʻahu in the State of Hawaiʻi. It was moored in waters 30 feet (9 m) deep. Data were 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 were also monitored, including water quality conditions to help provide early indications of potentially polluted run-off from storm drainage, sewage spills, and soil erosion from land-based waterways such as streams and other outflows that lead directly into the ocean.

Instrument site. Credit: PMEL.

The buoy was primarily funded by NOAA’s Ocean Acidification Program. Owned and maintained by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laborary (PMEL) under the supervision of Drs. Eric De Carlo and 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.