Articles | Volume 15, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5841-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5841-2022
Research article
 | 
14 Oct 2022
Research article |  | 14 Oct 2022

Comparing airborne algorithms for greenhouse gas flux measurements over the Alberta oil sands

Broghan M. Erland, Cristen Adams, Andrea Darlington, Mackenzie L. Smith, Andrew K. Thorpe, Gregory R. Wentworth, Steve Conley, John Liggio, Shao-Meng Li, Charles E. Miller, and John A. Gamon

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Cited articles

Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP), NOAA, Scientific Aviation, and UC Irvine: AEP-NOAA Greenhouse Gas Measurement Flights, Oil Sands Monitoring and Alberta Environment and Parks (OSM) and AEP [data set], http://ckandata01.canadacentral.cloudapp.azure.com/dataset/aep-noaa-greenhouse-gas-measurement-flights, last access: 4 December 2021. 
Alfieri, S., Amato, U., Carfora, M. F., Esposito, M., and Magliulo, V.: Quantifying trace gas emissions from composite landscapes: A mass-budget approach with aircraft measurements, Atmos. Environ., 44, 1866–1876, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2010.02.026, 2010. 
Allen, D. T.: Methane emissions from natural gas production and use: reconciling bottom-up and top-down measurements, Curr. Opin. Chem. Eng., 5, 78–83, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coche.2014.05.004, 2014. 
Atherton, E., Risk, D., Fougère, C., Lavoie, M., Marshall, A., Werring, J., Williams, J. P., and Minions, C.: Mobile measurement of methane emissions from natural gas developments in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 12405–12420, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12405-2017, 2017. 
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Accurately estimating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is essential to reaching net-zero goals to combat the climate crisis. Airborne box-flights are ideal for assessing regional GHG emissions, as they can attain small error. We compare two box-flight algorithms and found they produce similar results, but daily variability must be considered when deriving emissions inventories. Increasing the consistency and agreement between airborne methods moves us closer to achieving more accurate estimates.