On 1 July 2025, NIWA merged with GNS Science to become Earth Sciences New Zealand.

Atmosphere

World class research contributing to our understanding of greenhouse gases, ozone depletion, and urban air pollution.

MethaneSAT

Detecting and quantifying methane emissions by satellite. The core mission of this unique satellite is to support reductions in methane emissions around the world, primarily by reducing leaks from oil and gas production. NIWA's Dr Sara Mikaloff Fletcher is leading a science programme to develop capability to map agricultural emissions and determine the best places for the satellite to look for methane emissions around the world.

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    Blog: Plankton blooms and clouds - what's the link? - 11 March

    11 March 2018 Today we found NIWA’s Andrew Marriner hard at work in the Ocean-Atmosphere Container Lab and asked him to explain his work onboard.
    Antarctica
    Atmosphere
    Plankton

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    Blog: atmospheric research - 5 March

    5 March 2018Sean Hartery, a PhD student from Canterbury University based at NIWA, is collecting samples and data for two main areas of atmospheric research while he is out here in the Ross Sea: ice nuclei and aerosols.
    Air quality
    Antarctica

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    Blog: atmospheric gas measurements - 21 February

    21 February 2018John McGregor from NIWA checks on the instruments that measure atmospheric gases throughout our voyage.
    Air quality
    Antarctica
    Climate change

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    Monitoring air quality in your neighbourhood

    Air quality

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    Profile: Wills Dobson - small town, huge horizons

    Feature story
    05 October 2017
    If it wasn't for a damaged shoulder, Wills Dobson wouldn't be launching weather balloons or fixing high-precision atmospheric measuring instruments.
    Air quality
    Atmosphere

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    Tiny air bubbles reveal new information about greenhouse gas emissions

    Media release
    24 August 2017
    Sitting at the surface of Taylor Glacier in Antarctica, are layers of ice more than 10,000 years old. And trapped inside those layers are bubbles of ancient air – like tiny time capsules - able to tell scientists a story about what the world used to be like and how humans have changed it.
    Atmosphere
    Climate change

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    Smart Rain Intensity Gauge - NIWA SRIG

    Coasts
    Oceans
    Data loggers

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    What do 'carbon neutral' and 'carbon footprint' mean?

    A carbon neutral activity is one that has a carbon footprint of zero.

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    What are greenhouse gases?

    Greenhouse gases are atmospheric gases that intercept long-wave (mainly infrared) radiation emitted from the Earth's surface.

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    What are ppm and ppb?

    PPM and PPB are units used in atmospheric chemistry to describe the concentration of gases.

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    Ocean banner

    What is ocean acidification?

    Education Resource
    Ocean acidification is the name given to the lowering of pH of the oceans as a result of increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.
    Greenhouse and trace gases
    Climate change
    Coasts

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    NOAA Satellite data

    Like the GMS satellite, the NOAA Series of polar orbiting satellites (operated by NOAA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) are a component of the World Weather Watch meteorological satellite network.
    Atmosphere