Continuous greenhouse gas monitoring on

South Atlantic Islands

Dave Lowry1, Rebecca Fisher1, Mathias Lanoisellé1, Euan Nisbet1, Ed Dlugokencky2, Andrew Manning3

1 Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom

2 NOAA ESRL, Boulder, CO, USA3 School of Environmental Sciences, Univ. East Anglia, Norwich, UK

Presented on 2 Dec 2011 at:GEOmon Final Meeting, Brussels

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The Project to Date

Project originally designed to answer the question “Is the uptake of CO2 by the Southern / South Atlantic Ocean reducing” and funded 2008-2012 by NERC-UK

•Locations of measurements and installations

•Design of automated inlet and software

•Ascension Island

•Atlantic ship transect 51°N to 51°S

•Falkland Islands (Malvinas)

•Preliminary findings

Ascension Island Installation

• Installed June 2010

• Has an automated inlet and software for running calibration routines and creating results files

Calibration and Target Gas DataCO2 - MPI-Jena calibration, CH4 - RHUL calibration using 7 NOAA cylinders

-0.20

-0.16

-0.12

-0.08

-0.04

0.00

0.04

0.08

0.12

0.16

0.20

20-Jun-10 18-Jul-10 15-Aug-10 12-Sep-10 10-Oct-10 7-Nov-10 5-Dec-10 2-Jan-11

CO

2 in

calibrati

on

gases (

ppm

) -

Devia

tion

from

kn

ow

n v

alu

e

IMECC TA-RHU-2009-1 (409.15 ppm)

IMECC TA-RHU-2009-2 (377.52 ppm)

IMECC TA-RHU-2009-3 (391.53 ppm)

-0.0020

-0.0016

-0.0012

-0.0008

-0.0004

0.0000

0.0004

0.0008

0.0012

0.0016

0.0020

20-Jun-10 18-Jul-10 15-Aug-10 12-Sep-10 10-Oct-10 7-Nov-10 5-Dec-10 2-Jan-11

CH

4 in

calibrati

on

gases (

ppm

) -

Devia

tion

from

kn

ow

n v

alu

e

IMECC TA-RHU-2009-1 (1.80665 ppm)

IMECC TA-RHU-2009-2 (1.84155 ppm)

IMECC TA-RHU-2009-3 (1.88743 ppm)

-0.0024

-0.0020

-0.0016

-0.0012

-0.0008

-0.0004

0.0000

0.0004

0.0008

0.0012

0.0016

20-Jun-10 18-Jul-10 15-Aug-10 12-Sep-10 10-Oct-10 7-Nov-10 5-Dec-10 2-Jan-11

CH

4 T

arget

(ppm

) D

evia

tion

from

kn

ow

n v

alu

e

-0.240

-0.200

-0.160

-0.120

-0.080

-0.040

0.000

0.040

0.080

0.120

0.160

CO

2 T

arget

(ppm

) D

evia

tion

from

kn

ow

n v

alu

e

Raw CH4, TGT offset from known

Raw CO2, TGT offset from known

-0.0020

-0.0016

-0.0012

-0.0008

-0.0004

0.0000

0.0004

0.0008

0.0012

0.0016

0.0020

20-Jun-10 18-Jul-10 15-Aug-10 12-Sep-10 10-Oct-10 7-Nov-10 5-Dec-10 2-Jan-11

CH

4 T

arget

(ppm

) D

evia

tion

from

kn

ow

n v

alu

e

-0.200

-0.160

-0.120

-0.080

-0.040

0.000

0.040

0.080

0.120

0.160

0.200

CO

2 T

arget

(ppm

) D

evia

tion

from

kn

ow

n v

alu

e

Calibrated CH4, TGT offset from known

Calibrated CO2, TGT offset from known

CO2 380.794 ± 0.036 ppm (Averaged calibration run precision ± 0.025 ppm)

CH4 1.81908 ± 0.00020 ppm (Averaged calibration run precision ± 0.00022 ppm)

Ascension - Daily Record (Deliverable 1.1.8)

385

390

395

400

405

410

415

420

425

00:00:00 02:00:00 04:00:00 06:00:00 08:00:00 10:00:00 12:00:00 14:00:00 16:00:00 18:00:00 20:00:00 22:00:00 00:00:00

CO

2 (

pp

m)

Flight arrival from the Falkland Islands

(Malvinas)

Filtering out peaks reduces monthly average by less than 0.03 ppm

Monthly One-Minute Averaged DataPicarro CRDS delivers one line of data to a second computer via the

serial port approximately every 10 seconds

385

390

395

400

405

410

415

420

425

1/8/10 00:00 6/8/10 00:00 11/8/10 00:00 16/8/10 00:00 21/8/10 00:00 26/8/10 00:00 31/8/10 00:00

CO

2 (

ppm

)

Filtered Peaks (2.3%)

1-min SD >0.2 ppm

Background CO2

1-min SD <0.2 ppm

NOAA flasks

Background range of 2.5 ppm

1.76

1.765

1.77

1.775

1.78

1.785

1.79

1.795

1.8

1/8/10 0:00 6/8/10 0:00 11/8/10 0:00 16/8/10 0:00 21/8/10 0:00 26/8/10 0:00 31/8/10 0:00

CH

4 (

pp

m)

Background CH4

1-min SD <1 ppb

Filtered Peaks (0.1%)

1-min SD >1 ppb

NOAA Flasks

Monthly CH4 Record of 1-min Averages

Background range of 15 ppb

Ascension CH4 sources / sinks?

1.756

1.758

1.76

1.762

1.764

1.766

1.768

1.77

1.772

1.774

1.776

1.778

1.78

1.782

1.784

26/11/10 00:00 27/11/10 00:00 28/11/10 00:00 29/11/10 00:00 30/11/10 00:00 1/12/10 00:00

CH

4 (ppm

)

1.756

1.758

1.76

1.762

1.764

1.766

1.768

1.77

1.772

1.774

00:00:00 04:00:00 08:00:00 12:00:00 16:00:00 20:00:00 00:00:00

CH

4 (ppm

)

Long-term gas

Calibration and zero gases

Target gas

387.5

388

388.5

389

389.5

390

390.5

391

8/8/10 00:00 8/8/10 08:00 8/8/10 16:00 9/8/10 00:00 9/8/10 08:00 9/8/10 16:00 10/8/10 00:00

CO

2 (

ppm

)

1.762

1.764

1.766

1.768

1.77

1.772

1.774

1.776

1.778

1.78

1.782

8/8/10 00:00 8/8/10 08:00 8/8/10 16:00 9/8/10 00:00 9/8/10 08:00 9/8/10 16:00 10/8/10 00:00

CH

4 (

ppm

)Rain Shower�

Significant Rainfall

Methane only peaks CO2 and CH4 co-vary

Comparison with NOAA

flask samples

• Background CO2

range of 2.5 ppm

• Background CH4

range of 15 ppb

• Both CO2 and CH4

tend toward co-variation during winter

• Shifts between one end of the range and the other can occur in as little as 6 hours

387.0

387.5

388.0

388.5

389.0

389.5

390.0

390.5

391.0

18/6/10 2/7/10 16/7/10 30/7/10 13/8/10 27/8/10 10/9/10 24/9/10 8/10/10 22/10/10 5/11/10 19/11/10 3/12/10 17/12/10 31/12/10

CO

2

CO2 00:00-06:00

CO2 Daily Mean

CO2 Daily Minimum

CO2 Daily Median

NOAA flasks - averaged

1.751

1.754

1.757

1.760

1.763

1.766

1.769

1.772

1.775

1.778

1.781

18/6/10 2/7/10 16/7/10 30/7/10 13/8/10 27/8/10 10/9/10 24/9/10 8/10/10 22/10/10 5/11/10 19/11/10 3/12/10 17/12/10 31/12/10

CH

4

CH4 00:00-06:00

CH4 Daily Mean

CH4 Daily Minimum

CH4 Daily Median

NOAA flasks - averaged

Six months of Daily Means

CO2 and CH4 showed co-variation until the end of October (mid-Spring)

Since then CH4 has declined rapidly but CO2 continues to rise

1.753

1.755

1.757

1.759

1.761

1.763

1.765

1.767

1.769

1.771

1.773

1.775

1.777

18/6/10 2/7/10 16/7/10 30/7/10 13/8/10 27/8/10 10/9/10 24/9/10 8/10/10 22/10/10 5/11/10 19/11/10 3/12/10 17/12/10 31/12/10

CH

4

386.2

386.6

387.0

387.4

387.8

388.2

388.6

389.0

389.4

389.8

390.2

390.6

CO

2

CH4 Daily Mean

CO2 Daily Mean

Ascension Island - 13C of Methane• Both sets of data still to be validated for last 12 months

• Small seasonality of 0.3‰ only distinguished by high precision analysis

-47.6

-47.5

-47.4

-47.3

-47.2

-47.1

-47

-46.9

-46.8

-46.7

-46.6

4/1/00 3/1/01 3/1/02 3/1/03 3/1/04 2/1/05 2/1/06 2/1/07 2/1/08 1/1/09 1/1/10

1

3C

of

meth

an

e

NOAA INSTAAR Background only (filtered)

RHUL - 60 litres duplicates (All)

RHUL - 100 ml triplicates (All)

RRS James Clark Ross Cruise (Deliverable 1.1.9)

• Equipment installed 17-18 Sept 2010

• Ship sailed from Immingham, UK (53°N) to Port Stanley, Falkland Islands (51°S) between Sept 28 and Oct 24

The North Atlantic Transect (2-13 Oct)• CO2 and CH4 of similar trend from

23 to 8°N (SE Trades)

• Methane sources from 37-50°N -Canadian wetland or European methane dome?

NOAA HYSPLIT 120 hr back trajectories arriving at 500 masl

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

382 386 390 394 398 402CO2

Latit

ude

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1.76 1.78 1.8 1.82 1.84 1.86 1.88CH4

The South Atlantic Transect (13-24 Oct)

• CO2 and CH4 of similar trend only from 0 to 15°S (SE Trades)

• Spring in South America - sink of CO2, source of CH4?

NOAA HYSPLIT 120 hr back trajectories arriving at 500 masl

-50

-45

-40

-35

-30

-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

20

382 386 390 394 398 402CO2 (ppm)

La

tit

ud

e

-50

-45

-40

-35

-30

-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

5

10

15

20

1.76 1.78 1.8 1.82 1.84 1.86 1.88CH4 (ppm)

Twice Daily Bag sampling for 13CCH4Fossil Fuel / Biomass Burning source (25°N) - NW Africa / CanariesBiogenic Source (25°S) - Brazil

13C - mean precision on triplicates ±0.036 ‰

13C source -67 ±10 ‰

Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Installation

• Installed at the top of Sapper Hill, 2.5 km SW of Port Stanley, 25-29 Oct 2010

• Inlet at top of 12m communications mast

• WiFi link to the coast

• Gusts in excess of 15 m/s common during the installation and throughout the year

382

384

386

388

390

392

394

396

398

400

27/10/10 06/11/10 16/11/10 26/11/10 06/12/10 16/12/10 26/12/10

CO

2 (

pp

m)

ASC CO2

FLK CO2

Ascension - Falklands Hourly-Averaged CO2 Comparison (The first 2 months)

388.87 ± 0.38 ppm

387.32 ± 1.47 ppm

Very strong

Northerly

winds on

Falklands

Strong

Southerly

winds on

Falklands

1.745

1.75

1.755

1.76

1.765

1.77

1.775

1.78

1.785

27/10/10 06/11/10 16/11/10 26/11/10 06/12/10 16/12/10 26/12/10

CH

4 (

pp

m)

ASC CH4

FLK CH4

Ascension - Falklands Hourly-Averaged CH4 Comparison (The first 2 months)

1.7627 ± 0.0043 ppm

1.7596 ± 0.0045 ppm

Summary / Questions Raised?

• Ascension system can flip between 2 greenhouse gas levels (2.5 ppm CO2, 15 ppb CH4) without any apparent change in wind direction or known source

• CH4 peaks detected on cruise from expected biogenic source regions of South America (see SCIAMACHY / GOSAT data for example)

• Why are there such significant wind-direction infuenced diurnal cycles of CO2 (6-7 ppm) on the Falkland Islands?

Acknowledgements• UEA - Alex Etchells and Dave Blomfield for software and power

supply development respectively. Andy Macdonald for cylinder valving and filling

• Ascension Island - Vicky Huntly, Karl Shepherdson and their teams at the Met Office Hut for sample collection and data transfer

• BAS - Kath Nicholson and team for logistics of getting our equipment onto the James Clark Ross

• Falkland Islands (Malvinas) - Mario Zuvic for hut, electricity and wireless network, Louise Taylor for sample collection

• MPI Jena - Armin Jordan, Burt Steinberg - tank filling and calibration