On the windswept tip of north-western Tasmania, at a place long known to the Palawa people as Kennaook, sits one of the world’s most important scientific time capsules. Since 1978, the Cape Grim Air Archive (CGAA) has been collecting and preserving some of the cleanest air on Earth. Today, this “library of atmospheres” offers an unparalleled record of how our planet’s atmosphere has changed over the past five decades.
Cape Grim is no ordinary sampling site. Perched above the Southern Ocean, it lies directly in the path of the powerful “Roaring Forties” winds. These westerlies sweep across thousands of kilometers of open sea before reaching Tasmania’s cliffs, carrying with them air that has been largely untouched by human activity. That purity makes Cape Grim one of the best places in the world to monitor baseline atmospheric conditions.
Cylinders containing air samples in storage at the Atmospheric Research facility in Aspendale, Victoria. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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