WORLD'S HIGHEST ALTITUDE CLIMATE OBSERVATORY SLATED FOR MEXICO AT SITE OF SUPER TELESCOPE
[en Español]
Back when Europe was mired in the Dark Ages Mayan astronomers had developed a calendar as accurate as the Gregorian calendar used today throughout the world. The Mayans' observations of the stars, planets and sun enabled them to translate this information to practical use in building a highly complex agriculturally based civilization, well aware of the interdependence of human development with weather and climate. Today Mexico, the home of many descendants of the early Olmecs, Toltecs and Mayans, appears about to resume leadership in viewing and tracking celestial bodies. The Astrophysics Optics and Electronics Institute of Mexico is building a science park to house what may ultimately be the world's most important telescope. This radio telescope, costing about $121 million dollars, will be able to peer out 13 billion light years. Starting in 2008, the Sierra Negra Telescope is likely to be humanity's best window to the time of the formation of the first stars.
In September 2006, just as the Washington Summit on Climate Stabilization was underway, Dr. Jose Guichard, Director General of Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica Optica y Electronica, (INAOE) wrote to Climate Institute President John Topping inviting the Climate Institute and its partners to build a High Altitude Climate Observatory in Pico De Orizaba National Park near the Large Millimeter Telescope of INAOE, enhancing the Global Atmospheric Watch and the Global Earth Observing Systems. The Observatory and Telescope would both be located about 4,500 meters above sea level on the mountaintop of the inactive volcano, Sierra Negra. Dr. Guichard stated: "This collaborative effort will contribute towards the integration of a world-class High Altitude Science and Technology Cluster in Mexico."
Luis Roberto Acosta speaking at the University of Santo Domingo
Spearheading the effort the past few years to build support for the Observatory has been a brilliant young Mexican scientist, Luis Roberto Acosta, Director of Latin American Regional Affairs of the Climate Institute and Director of a pioneering Mexican environmental group, SIMA (Sistema Internacional de Monitoreo Ambiental). Then in his mid twenties, Acosta, trained in monitoring at Canada's Trent University, with the participation of Monterrey Institute of Technology ITESM and Televisa, arranged in 1993 to develop the first UV-B monitoring network in Mexico, and daily UV index reports to the public, to prevent skin damage, as part of the first Comprehensive Climate Change Awareness Media Campaign on National T.V. and in the press. In 1995 he achieved free public access on the Internet to Mexico City semi real time air quality data. Acosta managed to develop for Mexico City the most comprehensive system of any major metropolitan area in the world for accessing on line near real time data on air pollution and ultraviolet radiation. His group developed the technology to share and integrate environmental data from Mexican cities on a common telecommunications platform. This was recognized in the first contest "Mexico on the Internet", by SUN Microsystems, and Acosta was cited as "Latin American Internet Leader" by CNN, for his pioneering work integrating the environment and the new Internet based technologies, to educate and provide the public with tools to increase access to the data and to increase their participation in emissions control and environmental actions.
After conducting atmospheric samples with SIMA since 1993, in remote sites such as American Samoa, Smithers, Newfoundland, Hudson Bay, or the coast and top of the Mexican volcanoes, Acosta about five years ago discovered an even more pressing need with implications for Mexico and the entire Western Hemisphere. There was a gaping hole in the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) with no station for observing global greenhouse gases, stratospheric ozone or aerosols in the broad mid-section of the Americas. This included Mexico, The South of the United States, Central America and the Caribbean, an area affected greatly in recent hurricane seasons, especially in the record season of 2005. Not only was this a critical gap in the Greenhouse Concentration Observation Network set up over the years to broaden the coverage past the initial station on Hawaii's inactive volcano of Mauna Loa, the absence of aerosol data meant we were nearly flying blind in the region, in understanding the complex interactions of climate related variables. These variables include solar UV radiation, water vapor, greenhouse gases, ozone, and especially aerosols, suspended particles or dust , that fly across the Atlantic, coming from Africa, and reaching the Americas, passing through the Caribbean, and have a definite effect on environmental conditions, heat distribution and Atlantic hurricane formation.
A High Altitude Observatory situated on the side of Mexico near the Atlantic, would measure background concentrations, representative of thousands of square kilometers. It would measure dust particles, many of which would have emanated from dust storms in Saharan desert and then have been transported across the Atlantic. Not only would this prove helpful in defining regional climate, it might also be of value in assessing risks of hurricanes originating in the Atlantic. One of the strange features of our global climate system is that a large transport of dust from Africa is likely to result in a reduced risk of Atlantic hurricane formation. This may have been a factor in the relatively mild 2006 Atlantic hurricane season, in contrast to the record breaking 2005 season.
With Climate Institute help, Acosta recruited a bright Dartmouth College graduate, Oliver Bernstein, former director of the Dartmouth College Environmental Student Organization, to work with him for nearly a year as he scoped out plans for the Global Climate Observatory.
Sensing a synergy with the ambitious plans of the Astrophysics Institute, and with another visionary Dr. Alfonso Serrano Perez-Grovas, and the diligent observatory team, Acosta met with Dr. José Guichard and worked out a collaborative strategy. The Sierra Negra site had several great advantages - high altitude infrastructure support for the Science Park and security for the instruments, a concern shared by the specialists that participate in the project. Dr. Guichard, a visionary like Acosta, saw that the addition of the High Altitude Climate Observatory to Sierra Negra would, for the next generation, enable Mexico's National Park Pico de Orizaba to be both the site of the world's most far-reaching telescope and its highest and perhaps the most important Global Climate Observatory. Mesoamerica seems to be returning to its ancient traditional global leadership in the sciences, astronomy and environmental observations. There is a seemingly cosmic irony to this: scholars are beginning to link the collapse of Mayan civilization between 750 and 950 A.D. to a combination of environmental degradation, especially agricultural mono cropping, and climate change. Had Mayan climatology matched their astronomy, perhaps cities such as Chichen Itza might have survived. In Pico de Orizaba National Park, Sierra Negra, Mexico, a country wealthy in resources, believed to be one of the most vulnerable nations to climate change, may be focusing its scientific prowess both to unlock secrets of the formation of the universe and to ensure that it does not experience a repeat of the climate and civilization crisis a dozen centuries before.
Dr. Michael MacCracken, the Climate Institute's Chief Scientist and President of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences, has worked with Acosta to link with many leading scientists. Sir Crispin Tickell, the Climate Institute's Chairman Emeritus and still an active Board member, has worked to line up funding, as has Institute President, John Topping. Architectural renderings made by prestigious Architect Enrique Murillo, have been prepared for a platform to house the instruments and construction can be completed 
within two or three months of the Climate Institute's raising the $250,000 required. Discussions are now underway with potential sponsors in Mexico, the US and Canada. In February Topping and Acosta worked together in Mexico City to make the arrangements to complete construction and prepare for beginning operations as early as fall 2007. Already Mexico's Meteorological Agency has played a crucial role in this effort as its Director, Michel Rosengaus, has realized that this initiative can vault Mexico into the front rank in climate science.
Sierra Negra Orizaba
The Climate Institute and SIMA have lined up instrumentation and received international designations for two Stations in Mexico: one the High Altitude Observatory now planned for Sierra Negra in the State of Puebla near its border with Veracruz, and a validation station at sea level at about the same latitude, likely in a bioreserve in the State of Quintana Roo. Acosta envisions a dual purpose of the Observatories-both to fill a large gap in the Global Change Observing System and to galvanize Mexican national interest in leading both in climate science and in climate solutions. Already the City of Cancun and the surrounding State of Quintana Roo have asked Acosta for help in designing effective clean energy programs. Ultimately it is anticipated once the Climate Observatories are fully functioning that a national climate awareness effort will be launched and that the Climate Institute and SIMA will facilitate Comprehensive Climate Protection efforts in States such as Veracruz, Puebla and Quintana Roo. Acosta's goal is to vault Mexico into the forefront in imaginative responses to climate change. President Grimsson's speech at the Washington Summit on Climate Stabilization, pointing out how his nation leveraged its clean energy transformation to move to the first rank economically, drew wide attention on national television in Mexico. Noting Mexico's abundance of creative architects, transportation planners and engineers, Acosta sees his nation using the challenge of large-scale climate change to move into a leadership position much as President Grimsson and his countrymen and women have.
Dra. Aurora Elena Ramos, a leader within SIMA and the Climate Institute division for Mexico and Latin America and a patron of the group, Art and Indigenous Communities, has stated: "The Laws that rule Life and Humans are not found in Books, or Legislation, but can only be seen through Vision of the Soul in the Open Book of Nature with the Silence of our Heart." Acosta has that Vision of the Soul and a determination possessed by few visionaries. This combination may enable Mexico to leapfrog to the front of the climate protection battle.
1/29/07
rev. 5/15/07
