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A multi-year record of airborne CO 2 observations in the US Southern Great Plains

S. Biraud,M. Torn,J. Smith,C. Sweeney,W. Riley,P. Tans

Published 2012 in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques

ABSTRACT

Abstract. We report on 10 yr of airborne measurements of atmospheric CO2 mole fraction from continuous and flask systems, collected between 2002 and 2012 over the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Climate Research Facility in the US Southern Great Plains (SGP). These observations were designed to quantify trends and variability in atmospheric mole fraction of CO2 and other greenhouse gases with the precision and accuracy needed to evaluate ground-based and satellite-based column CO2 estimates, test forward and inverse models, and help with the interpretation of ground-based CO2 mole-fraction measurements. During flights, we measured CO2 and meteorological data continuously and collected flasks for a rich suite of additional gases: CO2, CO, CH4, N2O, 13CO2, carbonyl sulfide (COS), and trace hydrocarbon species. These measurements were collected approximately twice per week by small aircraft (Cessna 172 initially, then Cessna 206) on a series of horizontal legs ranging in altitude from 460 m to 5500 m a.m.s.l. Since the beginning of the program, more than 400 continuous CO2 vertical profiles have been collected (2007–2012), along with about 330 profiles from NOAA/ESRL 12-flask (2006–2012) and 284 from NOAA/ESRL 2-flask (2002–2006) packages for carbon cycle gases and isotopes. Averaged over the entire record, there were no systematic differences between the continuous and flask CO2 observations when they were sampling the same air, i.e., over the one-minute flask-sampling time. Using multiple technologies (a flask sampler and two continuous analyzers), we documented a mean difference of

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2012

  • Venue

    Atmospheric Measurement Techniques

  • Publication date

    2012-09-25

  • Fields of study

    Geology, Environmental Science

  • Identifiers
    DOI 10.5194/AMT-6-751-2013
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar

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