World's Highest Climate Observatory to be Named for Sir Crispin Tickell

On September 24, 2007 the Climate Institute announced that it is naming for Sir Crispin Tickell a new High Altitude Climate Observatory in Pico De Orizaba National Park. The Tickell Climate Center will be the first high-altitude climate observatory in Mexico and the highest of its kind in the world. The project was announced in conjunction with a speech on vulnerability and climate change by Sir Crispin Tickell, the Chairman Emeritus of the Climate Institute and the author of Climatic Change and World Affairs, one of the first books to highlight the dangers of human induced global climate change, first published in 1977.

Although Sir Crispin had been instrumental in building support for the observatory, he was unaware that it would be named for him until a few minutes before delivering the prestigious Miguel Aleman Lecture at the Miguel Aleman Foundation in Mexico City. Soon after learning from Luis Roberto Acosta, Director of Mexico and Latin American Regional Affairs of the Climate Institute and driving force behind the climate center, that the observatory would be named in his honor, Sir Crispin indicated his great delight. He noted that this was the third thing to be named in his honor: the first an Amazonian moth, and the second an asteroid. What he found most appealing about the observatory was that the data it gathered would be of great value to humanity and other living things.

"This new center will watch over the greater number of parameters that make up the vital signs of the planet, including the stratospheric ozone layer, suspended particulates, greenhouse gases and ultraviolet solar radiation", said Sir Crispin.

The data gathered at the observatory, which will commence in 2008, will contribute to the Global Atmospheric Watch and the Global Earth Observing Systems. The observatory will be located about 4,581 meters above sea level (about 15,000 feet) on the mountaintop of the inactive Sierra Negra volcano and on about the same latitude as the climate observatory at Mauna Koa in Hawaii. There are currently 21 climate monitoring centers around the world, with two others in Latin America, one in Argentina and another in Brazil.

Instruments for the observatory are being provided by the US's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA, and its National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and by Sun Microsystems. Three Mexican government agencies have played a key role in the launch of the High Altitude Climate Center:

• The National Institute for Astrophysics, Electronics and Optics (INAOE), has made space available in a high altitude science park near the world's most powerful radio telescope that it will operate; INAOE will also provide electricity, security and infrastructure support for the Climate Center.
• Mexico's Meteorological Service is already helping to calibrate instruments and will help link data from the Climate Observatory and meteorological stations in Mexico to online systems the Climate Institute is seeking to have available both for computer users and in museums.
• The National Protected Areas Commission that has responsibility for National Parks is planning to build a visitors center to service both the radio telescope and the climate center.

Funding for construction of the Tickell Climate Center has been provided by La Fundación Pedro y Elena Hernández, A.C., the leading private funder of restoration of historic sites in Mexico and one of Mexico's leading funders of environmental conservation. Instrumental in the support of the observatory was Barbara Hernandez, President of the Hernandez Foundation.

In part because of its location beside what will be the world's most powerful radio telescope the soon-to-be built Tickell Climate Center not only will fill a significant gap in the Global Climate Observing System, it already has stimulated much greater interest in climate protection. Luis Roberto Acosta has pointed out that the Mayans were advanced in astronomy and when the telescope is operational Mexico will move into the forefront again in this field.

With the opening of the High Altitude Climate Observatory Mexico will jump to the fore in climate science. Several major museums have already asked the Climate Institute to set up links to computers that will enable visitors to access data from the observatory. The Institute is also working closely with CICEANA, Mexico's leading environmental awareness group, to design and implement a national campaign to generate awareness of climate challenges and solutions. The national pride generated by the Tickell Observatory and High Altitude Science Park has helped greatly to jump start this effort.