Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions
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2009
10.5194/amtd-2-2587-2009
http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/2/2587/2009/
http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/2/2587/2009/amtd-2-2587-2009.html
http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/2/2587/2009/amtd-2-2587-2009.pdf
2587
2637
2009-10-14
Measurements of greenhouse gases and related tracers at Bialystok tall tower station in Poland
M. E. Popa
popa@ecn.nl
M. Gloor
A. C. Manning
A. Jordan
U. Schultz
F. Haensel
T. Seifert
M. Heimann
Max-Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
Energy research Centre of the Netherlands, Petten, The Netherlands
School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
Quasi-continuous, in-situ measurements of atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub>,
O<sub>2</sub>/N<sub>2</sub>, CH<sub>4</sub>, CO, N<sub>2</sub>O, and SF<sub>6</sub> have been performed
since August 2005 at the tall tower station near Bialystok, in Eastern
Poland, from five heights up to 300 m. Besides the in-situ measurements,
flask samples are filled approximately weekly and measured at Max-Planck
Institute for Biogeochemistry for the same species and, in addition, for
H<sub>2</sub>, Ar/N<sub>2</sub> and the stable isotopes <sup>13</sup>C and <sup>18</sup>O in
CO<sub>2</sub>. The in-situ measurement system was build based on commercially
available analysers: a LiCor 7000 for CO<sub>2</sub>, a Sable Systems "Oxzilla"
FC-2 for O<sub>2</sub>, and an Agilent 6890 gas chromatograph for CH<sub>4</sub>, CO,
N<sub>2</sub>O and SF<sub>6</sub>. The system was optimized to run continuously with
very little maintenance and to fulfill the precision requirements of the
CHIOTTO project. The O<sub>2</sub> measurements in particular required special
attention in terms of technical setup and quality assurance. The evaluation
of the performance after more than three years of operation gave overall
satisfactory results, proving that this setup is suitable for long term
remote operation with little maintenance. The precision achieved for all
species is within or close to the project requirements. The comparison
between the in-situ and flask sample results, used to verify the accuracy of
the in-situ measurements, showed no significant difference for CO<sub>2</sub>,
O<sub>2</sub>/N<sub>2</sub>, CH<sub>4</sub> and N<sub>2</sub>O, and a very small difference for
SF<sub>6</sub>. The same comparison however revealed a statistically significant
difference for CO, of about 6.5 ppb, for which the cause could not be fully
explained at the moment.
<br></br>
From more than three years of data, the main features at Bialystok have been
characterized in terms of variability, trends, and seasonal and diurnal
variations. CO<sub>2</sub> and O<sub>2</sub>/N<sub>2</sub> show large short term variability,
and large diurnal signals during the warm seasons, which attenuate with the
increase of sampling height. The trends calculated from this dataset, over
the period August 2005 to December 2008, are 2.02±0.46 ppm/year for
CO<sub>2</sub> and −23.2±2.5 per meg/year for O<sub>2</sub>/N<sub>2</sub>. CH<sub>4</sub>,
CO and N<sub>2</sub>O show also higher variability at the lower sampling levels,
which in the case of CO is strongly seasonal. Diurnal variations in
CH<sub>4</sub>, CO and N<sub>2</sub>O mole fractions can be observed during the warm
season, due to the periodicity of vertical mixing combined with the diurnal
cycle of anthropogenic emissions. We calculated increase rates of 10.1±4.4 ppb/year
for CH<sub>4</sub>, (−8.3)±5.3 ppb/year for CO and 0.67±0.08 ppb/year
for N<sub>2</sub>O. SF<sub>6</sub> shows only few events,
and generally no vertical gradients, which suggests that there are no
significant local sources. A weak SF<sub>6</sub> seasonal cycle has been detected,
which most probably is due to the seasonality of atmospheric circulation.
SF<sub>6</sub> increased during the time of our measurement at an average rate of
0.29±0.01 ppt/year.
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