Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Strong Point Sources Measured by CHARM-F During the CoMet Mission
Abstract
The emissions of CO2 and CH4 from strong point sources such as large power plants and coal mines have a serious impact on global warming. Remote sensing instruments like CHARM-F are regarded as appropriate tools to independently cross-check the reported emission rates from individual point sources. CHARM-F is an airborne Integrated Path Differential Absorption IPDA-lidar system for the measurement of the GHG column abundance beneath the aircraft at a sampling rate of 50 Hz using the lidar signals from topographic target or cloud top. The instrument consists of two spectrally narrow-band, pulsed IPDA-lidar systems for the simultaneous measurement of CO2 and CH4, but by separate systems. Both sub-systems are spectrally controlled by a sophisticated frequency stabilization scheme that incorporates a multi-pass absorption cell filled with CO2 and CH4 molecules at low pressure, as a key element. Careful selection of the sounding frequencies for both systems guaranties high measurement accuracy and negligible cross-talk to other gases notably water vapor. The GHG column enhancement measured by CHARM-F can finally be used to infer the emission rate using Gaussian plume or mass budget approaches. In this presentation CHARM-F measurements of CO2 and CH4 plumes during the CoMet campaign are reported where the instrument was flown on the High Altitude LOng Range research aircraft HALO. In order to simulate a scanning system or to increase the representativeness, respectively, we crossed the CO2 plumes from large power plants several times at different distances down-wind to the source. The differences found in the emission rates are attributed to atmospheric turbulence in conjunction with low horizontal wind speeds.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.A31P3153E
- Keywords:
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- 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0394 Instruments and techniques;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 3311 Clouds and aerosols;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 3360 Remote sensing;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES