Langmuir Laboratory was built in 1963 near the summit of 10,783-ft South Baldy Peak to provide a base for the study of cloud processes that produce lightning, hail, and rain. The need for the laboratory arose following the pioneering research into thunderstorms over New Mexico by E. J. Workman that began in the 1930s. During his tenure as President of New Mexico School of Mines (now New Mexico Tech) he was joined by other scientists including Nobel Laureate Dr. Irving Langmuir, in 1947, in whose honor the laboratory is named. These and other early studies in the Plains of San Agustin and the San Mateo Mountains led to the building of Langmuir Lab in the Magdalena Mountains.
The Magdalena Mountains offer favorable conditions for the study of storms because many occur there during the summer, and often the storms are isolated, stationary, and relatively small.
Langmuir Laboratory is operated under a Special Use Permit issued by the U.S. Forest Service and an annual Operation and Maintenance Plan prepared jointly by the Magdalena District Ranger and Langmuir Laboratory. Public Law 96-550, passed by Congress in 1980, established 31,000 acres within the Cibola National Forest as the Langmuir Research Site in order to encourage scientific studies in atmospheric processes and astronomic events.
Atmospheric physics studies at the laboratory include atmospheric radioactivity, initiation and growth of cumulus convection, relationships between lightning and rainfall, formation of hail, location and distribution of lightning and of charges in thunderclouds, fine structure of lightning, effects of point discharge on cloud electrification, and electrical budgets of thunderstorms.
Research in atmospheric chemistry includes measuring concentrations of various chemical species, Including N2O and O3 (generated by corona discharges), certain organic compounds, and mercury.
The New Mexico Tech Remote Observatory, located nearby, is designed so students and faculty can study astronomical objects at their home institutions during winter months when the road up the mountain is impassable.
There is a growing interest in environmental and ecological exploration within the Langmuir Research Site. A University of New Mexico (UNM) Long-Term Ecological Research project is examining tree populations, litter fall, arthropods, small mammals and climate dynamics.
With the National Park Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, UNM also is studying long-term effects of environmental change, using data collected in the Langmuir Site and the Rio Grande flood plain.