OMECCA Advances Climate Science, Space Infrastructure in Mexico

The Atmospheric Composition Observatory (OMECCA) will begin operations this month, in response to the growing need for systematic data to understand the impacts of climate change. The project will focus on the scientific understanding of the climate change phenomenon through the measurement of carbon dioxide and other pollutants. 

Through a press release, the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications, and Transport (SICT), via the Mexican Space Agency (AEM), announced that OMECCA, located in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, in the state of Campeche, will begin operations in November 2023. OMECCA is a joint initiative between AEM, the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate Change (ICACC) at UNAM, and the National Institute of Ecology and Climate Change (INECC). Being the first of its kind in Latin America, the project aims to advance the scientific understanding of climate change and to bolster the country's space infrastructure.

The observatory will be integrated into the University Network of Atmospheric Observatories (RUOA). Moreover, it will exchange information with other global networks and receive validation data from international satellites such as OCO-2 and OCO-3, GOSAT, and Sentinel-5P from the American (NASA), Japanese (JAXA), and European (ESA) space agencies, among others. 

Michel Grutter de la Mora, Spectroscopy and Remote Sensing Director, ICACC, explained that this cutting-edge technology will enable precise and detailed measurements of carbon and water vapor flows from the southeastern region of Mexico. "This project, supported by AEM, will serve as a validation point for satellite observations. Currently, much of our understanding of the atmosphere's composition is derived from studying its interaction with solar radiation," said de la Mora. 

Adán Salazar, General Coordinator of Scientific Research and Technological Development, AEM, explained that comparing Earth observation data from satellite platforms with surface measurements will provide more insight into the effects of climate change. OMECCA will analyze molecular lines at various wavelengths, extending up to the radiation level. The goal is to quantify greenhouse gas concentrations, providing systematic data on atmospheric chemistry and its changes, Salazar stated. 

The scientific community warns that climate change increases the likelihood of an unusually rapid intensification of phenomena, such as hurricanes. Likewise, ocean warming could lead to increasingly unpredictable storms, just as it happened with Hurricane Otis, which struck the Mexican Southwest Pacific coast on Oct. 25, 2023, causing great damage to Acapulco and the nearby communities along the Costa Grande region of Guerrero, as reported by MBN. 

Hurricane Otis has been described as the most powerful Pacific storm to make landfall on Mexican territory in the last 30 years. The unusual power of the hurricane has attracted the attention of the scientific community, which links its devastating power with water temperature fluctuations in the Pacific. “There is a hypothesis that it could be related to the rise in ocean temperature. Cyclones tend to accelerate their formation by taking on more energy under these conditions,” underscored Claudia Rojas, Researcher in the Department of Process Engineering and Hydraulics, Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM).

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