First regional vertical profiles of CO2: Can we verify reported emissions?
Abstract
CO2 is known as the most important greenhouse gas (GHG), its rising levels in the Earth's atmosphere resulting in global warming. Both atmospheric CO2 and climate change are accelerating, urging scientists to find solutions to stabilize CO2 and other GHGs. Power plants are the largest contributors to the manmade CO2 emissions. Remote observations of CO2 provide a method to verify CO2 emissions for an enforceable climate treaty. Column CO2 measurements are made routinely by the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) and satellites. The column CO2 signals of power plants are typically small 1-10 ppm that are much smaller than the signals in the boundary layer (20-100 ppm). We resolve the vertical profile of CO2 in a power plant dominated area for the first time. We directly interrogate the power plant plume and see large signals in the lower troposphere. We demonstrate that in addition to the total columns, CO2 vertical profiles determined from ground-based Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra can be used to detect the enhancement of CO2 in the boundary layer. Measurements were made at the Four Corners site, in the San Juan Basin, an arid region with two large coal-fired power plants that emit approximately 30 Mton CO2/year. We used the PROFFIT profile retrieval software to show that the power plants' signatures are visible in our CO2 profiles. We also compare the results with the World Research and Forecasting-Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model driven with real time emissions monitored in the stack of the power plants. The measured profiles indicate the presence of the power plant plume within the first 7 km, and are in good agreement with the modeled profiles. We show that the model simulations are found to be within 4% of the measurements, demonstrating that we can verify emissions to better than 5%. Results from a preliminary exploration of the compact low-resolution mini FTS will be also presented. This new robust off-the shelf instrument permits the study of local emissions, and has the advantage to provide a better coverage through its mobility.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFM.A11I..06L
- Keywords:
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- 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 0322 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE Constituent sources and sinks;
- 0345 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE Pollution: urban and regional