National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research - Research Facilities

Research Facilities

Included among NIWA’s wide-ranging research facilities are a gas laboratory which uses gas chromatography and mass spectrometry to assess the composition of gases and their isotopes in samples of air and water, and isotope analysis of solid material; an ecotoxicology laboratory for assessing the effects of contaminants – such as heavy metals, pesticides, and wastes – on aquatic organisms; and aquaculture research facilities at Bream Bay in Northland and Mahanga Bay, Wellington.

NIWA’s atmospheric climate research station at Lauder, in Central Otago, is the only fully instrumented Southern Hemisphere mid-latitude site in the global Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change, providing vital information on ozone depletion and climate change. It operates one of only four instruments in the world capable of measuring all the molecules of carbon dioxide (CO2) in an entire air ‘column’, from the ground to the top of the atmosphere.

NIWA also runs a Cray supercomputer for environmental forecasting, climate modelling, ocean circulation modelling, and fisheries modelling.

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