The Mace Head station is located on the west coast of Ireland. Its exposure to the North Atlantic Ocean make it an ideal location to study both natural and man-made trace constituents in marine and continental air masses.
The Mace Head, Ireland station is a baseline station in the WMO network of Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) stations. GAGE/AGAGE operations began here in 1987 (from 1978 to 1983, ALE operated at Adrigole at 52ºN, 10ºW). Measurements of atmospheric CFC-11, CFC-12, CH3CCl3, CCl4, and N2O started in 1978. Measurements of CFC-113, CHCl3 and CH4 started in 1987, and of CO and H2 began in 1995. The first AGAGE automated gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS), based on a Finnigan Magnum Ion Trap coupled to a custom-built (University of Bristol) adsorption-desorption system (ADS GC-MS), was installed at the Mace Head, Ireland AGAGE station in October 1994. It was replaced by the Agilent 5973 MS in 1998 and this was later retired in December 2004, after a new state of the art Medusa GC-MS system was installed and started operation in November 2003. The AGAGE GC-MS systems measure a wide range of CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs, PFC, halons, and halocarbons.
The AGAGE scientific program at Mace Head is supervised by the University of Bristol.
See real-time and archived data from the Mace Head research station:
Mace Head Real-time Data.
Mace Head Atmospheric Research Station
| Latitude: | 53° N |
| Longitude: | 10° W |
| Time Zone: | Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) |
| Air intake elevation: | 25 m (10 m away from shoreline) |
| Station PI/Contact: | Prof. Simon O’Doherty (s.odoherty@bristol.ac.uk) |
| Station Co-PI: | Prof Peter Simmonds (petergsimmonds@aol.com) |
| Station Manager: | Mr. Gerry Spain (gerard.spain@nuig.ie) |
| Postal address: | |
| Related Links: | Mace Head Station Website The Met Office - Atmospheric Trends |
Station Funding
The Mace Head Station is funded by the UK Department for Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and NASA.
