1. Carbon Cycle Observations and Instrumentation
Britton Stephens, EOL and TIIMES

2. Carbon Cycle Observations and Instrumentation
Measurements:
Carbon in the Mountains Experiment (CME ’04-’08)
Airborne Carbon in the Mountains Experiment (ACME ’04)
NACP Mid-continent Intensive (ACME-MINT ’07)
Regional Atmospheric Continuous CO2 Network (RACCOON)
HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO ’08)
Instrument Developments:
Autonomous Inexpensive Robust CO2 Analyzer (AIRCOA)
Difference Frequency Generation 13C Instrument
Community Airborne Oxygen Instrument
Britton Stephens, EOL and TIIMES

3. Background CO2 measurements define global trends and loosely constrain continental-scale fluxes
TransCom 3 Study Fluxes 2 1 -1 -2 60 30
-30
-60
Expected from fossil
fuel emissions
Billion $
Pg C / yr

4. Uncertainty in Regional to Continental-scale estimates:
Scaling up from local measurements and scaling down from global constraints
Lack of CO2 observations over the continents
Atmospheric transport model limitations and errors
Approaches:
Improving bottom-up methods
Improving top-down constraints
Multiple tracer techniques
Intensive campaigns
Retrieved flux versus model “rectifier”

5. Half or more of US NEE may be in mountainous regions%
NPP = Net Primary Production (photosynthesis)
NEE = Net Ecosystem Exchange (photosynthesis – respiration)

6. Airborne Carbon in the Mountains Experiment (ACME-04)
All flights:
Transport Predictions and CO2 Profiles for July 29, 2004
First-Order Regional CO2 Flux Estimates

7. [J. Sun and S. Burns, MMM]

8. Autonomous, Inexpensive, Robust CO2 Analyzer (AIRCOA)
0.1 ppm precision and 0.1 ppm reproducibility on a 2.5 min. measurement
$10K in parts and operates autonomously for months at a time

9. CO2 Concentration in the Outer Damon Room, NCAR Mesa Lab, 2/7 – 2/9/06
CCSM Climate Working Group
Board of Trustees Reception
National Science Board Breakfast
ASP Reviews

10. Regional Atmospheric Continuous CO2 Network in the Rocky Mountains (Rocky RACCOON)
Existing and Planned NACP CO2 Sites
Existing () and Planned (O) Sites
Potential Future Sites (O)
(courtesy S. Denning)

12. Additional AIRCOA and Related Deployments
North America
Rocky RACCOON, 6 sites (NCAR, CU, USFS, DRI, U. Utah)
Mid-West, 6 sites (Penn State)
Oregon, 1-2 sites (OSU)
California, 1-2 sites (LBNL, DRI)
Oklahoma, 1 site (Stanford)
Europe
France, 2 sites (CNRS, NCAR)
Portugal , 1 site (IST, NCAR)
Germany (U. Bonn, NCAR)
Netherlands , 1 site (Alterra, NCAR)
Africa
South Africa (CU, CSU, Stanford, NCAR)

14. A Community Airborne Oxygen Instrument
O2 versus CO2 measured during one month at Harvard Forest
Precision equivalent to detecting removal of 1 O2 molecule from 2.5 million molecules of air in 4 s

15. HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations of Atmospheric Tracers
HIPPO ’08 (PIs: Harvard, NCAR, Scripps, and NOAA): A global and seasonal survey of CO2, O2, CH4, CO, N2O, H2, SF6, COS, CFCs, HCFCs, O3, H2O, and hydrocarbons
Fossil fuel CO2 gradients over the Pacific

16. NCAR CO2 and O2/N2 Calibration Facility