Promoting climate, ocean and data literacy by hosting a CO2 buoy from NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab at the Exploratorium

The Exploratorium’s new museum site on the San Francisco waterfront is a unique location for place-based learning about climate impacts on the ocean. With access to the Bay and surrounding environment, and strong partnerships with a national network of NOAA scientists and local researchers, the museum can serve as an educational node for a variety of atmosphere and ocean observing networks.

The most visible and iconic instrument at the museum’s Pier 15 location is a CO₂ buoy from NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab in Seattle. Part of an international network of real-time ocean acidification sensors, the NOAA buoy streams temperature, salinity, atmospheric and surface water CO₂ data from the Exploratorium location to NOAA. Near real-time and archived ocean and atmosphere carbon data are then shared with and displayed in the museum’s Bay Observatory along with other water quality, weather, and air quality conditions. Displaying both the instruments and the data they provide gives the public a better understanding of where climate data comes from, how scientists make meaning from time series data, and the value of long-term observation in understanding climate change and the ways that humans impact the environment. However, creating interactive exhibits from environmental data presents many challenges, including interpreting complex earth systems and biological and human interactions. What is the impact of the adjacent urban center and the estuary on the Bay’s carbon content? How do we tease out long-term trends from the local variability? How do we connect the place-based learning to global processes and impacts? We’ll address some of these challenges in the presentation and include the importance of collaborative partnerships between informal education institutions and researchers in place-based education about climate and environmental change.