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421 e p i l o g u e “We Must Preserve This Progress” O n November 10, 1957, Dr. Robert Simpson visited for the first time the new concrete block building high on the north slope of Mauna Loa that sprang from his meeting with Ralph Stair at Sunspot, New Mexico, in June 1955. Some of the International Geophysical Year instruments were in operation, including the Regener surface ozone project inside the building and the sun tracking Eppley pyrheliometer mounted on a post in the lava. Simpson was primarily interested in the newly arrived Dobson spectrophotometer, for measuring the ozone layer was his main reason for helping Ralph Stair restart an observatory on Mauna Loa after the summit station was closed. The Dobson had arrived and was awaiting a power supply so ozone layer measurements could be initiated by Jack Pales and his team. Dave Keeling’s carbon dioxide system that motivated Harry Wexler to approve the observatory project would be installed the following March. After seeing that his dream for Mauna Loa was about to be fulfilled, Simpson signed the Visitors book and wrote, “A long step ahead. We must preserve this progress.” The progress he saw was only the beginning of much more to come. And all the research projects that were underway— or soon would be—when Simpson visited the little observatory on Mauna Loa more than half a century ago remain in operation today, a fact that greatly pleases him. After he left Hawai‘i to manage the fledgling National Hurricane Research Project that provided the funds to build the slope building, now the Keeling Building, Simpson visited MLO again on April 18, 1963, and November 10, 1979. But his formal collaboration had ended long before, and his role as the observatory’s founder was nearly forgotten. That changed on July 2, 2008, when Simpson received NOAA’s 2008 Environmental Hero Lifetime Achievement Award for founding the Mauna Loa Observatory and his pioneering hurricane research (Plate 105). The award was presented by Dr. Richard Spinrad, assistant administrator of NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. “Where It All Began” On a metal shelf in the Keeling Building at the Mauna Loa Observatory is a stack of self-adhesive address stickers designed by Russell Schnell. The stickers depict the famous carbon dioxide curve, and “Where It All Began” is printed in blue letters over the graph. The scientists and staff at MLO are well aware of the observatory’s role in triggering the climate change research taking place around the world and from space. They are also aware of the implications of their work, yet they rarely discuss them. Instead, they 422 Epilogue continue to do what they and their predecessors have done best for the past fifty years by routinely and precisely measuring the key parameters of the atmosphere, including the concentrations of greenhouse gases, the clarity of the sky, the total ozone and water vapor over the observatory, and a host of other observations. When the crew drives to and from the mountain, the conversation is likely to be about the weather and the condition of the road. The busy schedule on the mountain doesn’t leave much time to ponder the implications of the data being meticulously collected there day after day. This suggests another meaning for those “Where It All Began” stickers, for many scientists have built their careers on data they personally acquired or that was acquired on their behalf at the Mauna Loa Observatory. Perhaps Bernard Mendonca (video interview with author, Boulder, Colorado, April 27, 2007) says it best when he reflects back on his years working on the lonely mountain in Hawai‘i: To me the highlight [of my career] was I got to be a scientist at Mauna Loa. I learned and matured, I did my first publications there. It was a growth period for me. I never forgot that. It was where I realized I could do [science]. . . . And the other thing was knowing that we were breaking ground. I knew that. I think most of the people who were working up there really knew this hadn’t been done before, and [knew] that we really were breaking ground. We were the ones providing the first information. At times we weren’t sure where it was going, especially in the very early years, how this would end up. But, as the years passed, this confidence built up that we, hey, we’re the guys now. They...

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