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Mace Head

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The Mace Head station is located on the west coast of Ireland. Its exposure to 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 also a baseline station in the WMO network of Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) station. GAGE/AGAGE operations began here in 1987 (from 1978 to 1983 ALE operated at Adrigole at 520N, 100W). 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 Iron Trap coupled to a custom-built (Bristol University) 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 in 1998 and later retired in December 2004, after a new state of the art Medusa GC-MS system was installed and started operation in November 2003. 

 

 

Station Information (Mace Head, Ireland)

Latitude:

530 N

Longitude:

100 W

Time Zone:

GMT

air sample Intake:

25 m above sea level, 10 m away from the shoreline

Station PIs:

Peter Simmonds, PETERGSIMMONDS@aol.com

Simon O'Doherty, s.odoherty@bristol.ac.uk

Station manager:

Gerard Spain, gerry@macehead.ie

 

   
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AGAGE project official: Ron Prinn, curator: Ray H.J. Wang

 Last update: May 2008