Articles | Volume 17, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2991-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2991-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
17 May 2024
Research article |
| 17 May 2024
| 17 May 2024
Mobile air quality monitoring and comparison to fixed monitoring sites for instrument performance assessment
Andrew R. Whitehill
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
Melissa Lunden
Aclima, Inc., San Leandro, CA 24577, USA
Brian LaFranchi
Aclima, Inc., San Leandro, CA 24577, USA
Surender Kaushik
Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling, Office of Research and Development, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711, USA
Paul A. Solomon
Aclima, Inc., San Leandro, CA 24577, USA
formerly at: Office of Research and Development, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Las Vegas, NV 89919, USA
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T. Nash Skipper, Emma L. D'Ambro, Forwood C. Wiser, V. Faye McNeill, Rebecca H. Schwantes, Barron H. Henderson, Ivan R. Piletic, Colleen B. Baublitz, Jesse O. Bash, Andrew R. Whitehill, Lukas C. Valin, Asher P. Mouat, Jennifer Kaiser, Glenn M. Wolfe, Jason M. St. Clair, Thomas F. Hanisco, Alan Fried, Bryan K. Place, and Havala O.T. Pye
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We develop the Community Regional Atmospheric Chemistry Multiphase Mechanism (CRACMM) version 2 to improve predictions of formaldehyde in ambient air compared to satellite-, aircraft-, and ground-based observations. With the updated chemistry, we estimate the cancer risk from inhalation exposure to ambient formaldehyde across the contiguous USA and predict that 40 % of this risk is controllable through reductions in anthropogenic emissions of nitrogen oxides and reactive organic carbon.
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The Pandonia Global Network (PGN) consists of Pandora spectrometers that observe trace gases at high time resolution to validate satellite observations and understand local air quality. To aid users, PGN assigns quality flags which assure scientifically valid data, but eliminate large amounts of data appropriate for scientific applications. A new method based on contemporaneous data in two independent observation modes is proven using complementary ground-based and airborne observations.
Heather Simon, Christian Hogrefe, Andrew Whitehill, Kristen M. Foley, Jennifer Liljegren, Norm Possiel, Benjamin Wells, Barron H. Henderson, Lukas C. Valin, Gail Tonnesen, K. Wyat Appel, and Shannon Koplitz
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We assess observed and modeled ozone weekend–weekday differences in the USA from 2002–2019. A subset of urban areas that were NOx-saturated at the beginning of the period transitioned to NOx-limited conditions. Multiple rural areas of California were NOx-limited for the entire period but become less influenced by local day-of-week emission patterns in more recent years. The model produces more NOx-saturated conditions than the observations but captures trends in weekend–weekday ozone patterns.
Russell W. Long, Andrew Whitehill, Andrew Habel, Shawn Urbanski, Hannah Halliday, Maribel Colón, Surender Kaushik, and Matthew S. Landis
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Elena Spinei, Martin Tiefengraber, Moritz Müller, Manuel Gebetsberger, Alexander Cede, Luke Valin, James Szykman, Andrew Whitehill, Alexander Kotsakis, Fernando Santos, Nader Abbuhasan, Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Sum Chi Lee, and Robert Swap
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 647–663, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-647-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-647-2021, 2021
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Plastics are widely used in everyday life and scientific equipment. This paper presents Delrin plastic off-gassing as a function of temperature on the atmospheric measurements of formaldehyde by Pandora spectroscopic instruments. The sealed telescope assembly containing Delrin components emitted large amounts of formaldehyde at 30–45 °C, interfering with the Pandora measurements. These results have a broader implication since electronic products often experience the same temperature.
Elena Spinei, Andrew Whitehill, Alan Fried, Martin Tiefengraber, Travis N. Knepp, Scott Herndon, Jay R. Herman, Moritz Müller, Nader Abuhassan, Alexander Cede, Dirk Richter, James Walega, James Crawford, James Szykman, Lukas Valin, David J. Williams, Russell Long, Robert J. Swap, Youngjae Lee, Nabil Nowak, and Brett Poche
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4943–4961, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4943-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4943-2018, 2018
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Formaldehyde is toxic to humans and is formed in the atmosphere in the presence of air pollution, but the measurements are sparse. Pandonia Global Network instruments measure total formaldehyde column from the surface to the top of troposphere and will be widely available. This study compared formaldehyde Pandora columns with the surface and aircraft-integrated columns near Seoul, South Korea. Relatively good agreement was observed between the three datasets with some overestimation by Pandora.
T. Nash Skipper, Emma L. D'Ambro, Forwood C. Wiser, V. Faye McNeill, Rebecca H. Schwantes, Barron H. Henderson, Ivan R. Piletic, Colleen B. Baublitz, Jesse O. Bash, Andrew R. Whitehill, Lukas C. Valin, Asher P. Mouat, Jennifer Kaiser, Glenn M. Wolfe, Jason M. St. Clair, Thomas F. Hanisco, Alan Fried, Bryan K. Place, and Havala O.T. Pye
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12903–12924, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12903-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12903-2024, 2024
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We develop the Community Regional Atmospheric Chemistry Multiphase Mechanism (CRACMM) version 2 to improve predictions of formaldehyde in ambient air compared to satellite-, aircraft-, and ground-based observations. With the updated chemistry, we estimate the cancer risk from inhalation exposure to ambient formaldehyde across the contiguous USA and predict that 40 % of this risk is controllable through reductions in anthropogenic emissions of nitrogen oxides and reactive organic carbon.
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The Pandonia Global Network (PGN) consists of Pandora spectrometers that observe trace gases at high time resolution to validate satellite observations and understand local air quality. To aid users, PGN assigns quality flags which assure scientifically valid data, but eliminate large amounts of data appropriate for scientific applications. A new method based on contemporaneous data in two independent observation modes is proven using complementary ground-based and airborne observations.
Heather Simon, Christian Hogrefe, Andrew Whitehill, Kristen M. Foley, Jennifer Liljegren, Norm Possiel, Benjamin Wells, Barron H. Henderson, Lukas C. Valin, Gail Tonnesen, K. Wyat Appel, and Shannon Koplitz
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We assess observed and modeled ozone weekend–weekday differences in the USA from 2002–2019. A subset of urban areas that were NOx-saturated at the beginning of the period transitioned to NOx-limited conditions. Multiple rural areas of California were NOx-limited for the entire period but become less influenced by local day-of-week emission patterns in more recent years. The model produces more NOx-saturated conditions than the observations but captures trends in weekend–weekday ozone patterns.
Russell W. Long, Andrew Whitehill, Andrew Habel, Shawn Urbanski, Hannah Halliday, Maribel Colón, Surender Kaushik, and Matthew S. Landis
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1783–1800, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1783-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1783-2021, 2021
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This manuscript details field and laboratory-based evaluations of ozone monitoring methods in smoke. UV photometry, the most widely used measurement method for ozone in ambient air, was shown to suffer from a severe positive interference when operated in the presence of smoke, while chemiluminescence-based methods were shown to be free of interferences. The results detailed in this paper will provide monitoring agencies with the tools needed to address smoke-related ozone measurement challenges.
Elena Spinei, Martin Tiefengraber, Moritz Müller, Manuel Gebetsberger, Alexander Cede, Luke Valin, James Szykman, Andrew Whitehill, Alexander Kotsakis, Fernando Santos, Nader Abbuhasan, Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Sum Chi Lee, and Robert Swap
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Plastics are widely used in everyday life and scientific equipment. This paper presents Delrin plastic off-gassing as a function of temperature on the atmospheric measurements of formaldehyde by Pandora spectroscopic instruments. The sealed telescope assembly containing Delrin components emitted large amounts of formaldehyde at 30–45 °C, interfering with the Pandora measurements. These results have a broader implication since electronic products often experience the same temperature.
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Analyzing street-level air pollutants (2016–2017), this assessment indicates that mobile measurement is precise and accurate (5 % to 25 % bias) relative to regulatory sites, with higher spatial resolution. Collocated sensor measurements in California showed differences less than 20 %, suggesting that greater differences represent spatial variability. Mobile data confirm regulatory-site spatial representation and that pollutant levels can also be 6 to 8 times higher just blocks apart.
Elena Spinei, Andrew Whitehill, Alan Fried, Martin Tiefengraber, Travis N. Knepp, Scott Herndon, Jay R. Herman, Moritz Müller, Nader Abuhassan, Alexander Cede, Dirk Richter, James Walega, James Crawford, James Szykman, Lukas Valin, David J. Williams, Russell Long, Robert J. Swap, Youngjae Lee, Nabil Nowak, and Brett Poche
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4943–4961, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4943-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4943-2018, 2018
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Formaldehyde is toxic to humans and is formed in the atmosphere in the presence of air pollution, but the measurements are sparse. Pandonia Global Network instruments measure total formaldehyde column from the surface to the top of troposphere and will be widely available. This study compared formaldehyde Pandora columns with the surface and aircraft-integrated columns near Seoul, South Korea. Relatively good agreement was observed between the three datasets with some overestimation by Pandora.
Related subject area
Subject: Gases | Technique: In Situ Measurement | Topic: Validation and Intercomparisons
Alternate materials for the capture and quantification of gaseous oxidized mercury in the atmosphere
Lower-cost eddy covariance for CO2 and H2O fluxes over grassland and agroforestry
Towards a high quality in-situ observation network for oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) in Europe: transferring traceability to the International System of Units (SI) to the field
Evaluation of optimized flux chamber design for measurement of ammonia emission after field application of slurry with full-scale farm machinery
Methodology and uncertainty estimation for measurements of methane leakage in a manufactured house
Preparation of low-concentration H2 test gas mixtures in ambient air for calibration of H2 sensors
Pico-Light H2O: intercomparison of in situ water vapour measurements during the AsA 2022 campaign
Validation of formaldehyde products from three satellite retrievals (OMI SAO, OMPS-NPP SAO, and OMI BIRA) in the marine atmosphere with four seasons of ATom aircraft observations
Intercomparison of eddy-covariance software for urban tall-tower sites
Assessment of current methane emission quantification techniques for natural gas midstream applications
Performance assessment of state-of-the-art and novel methods for remote compliance monitoring of sulfur emissions from shipping
Intercomparison of detection and quantification methods for methane emissions from the natural gas distribution network in Hamburg, Germany
Comparison of photoacoustic spectroscopy and cavity ring-down spectroscopy for ambient methane monitoring at Hohenpeißenberg
Comparison of atmospheric CO, CO2 and CH4 measurements at the Schneefernerhaus and the mountain ridge at Zugspitze
Intercomparison of commercial analyzers for atmospheric ethane and methane observations
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Long-term behavior and stability of calibration models for NO and NO2 low-cost sensors
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Livia Lown, Sarrah M. Dunham-Cheatham, Seth N. Lyman, and Mae S. Gustin
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New sorbent materials are needed to preconcentrate atmospheric oxidized mercury for analysis by developing mass spectrometry methods. Chitosan, α-Al2O3, and γ-Al2O3 were tested for quantitative gaseous oxidized mercury sorption in ambient air under laboratory and field conditions. Although these materials sorbed gaseous oxidized mercury without sorbing elemental mercury in the laboratory, less oxidized mercury was recovered from these materials compared to cation exchange membranes in the field.
Justus G. V. van Ramshorst, Alexander Knohl, José Ángel Callejas-Rodelas, Robert Clement, Timothy C. Hill, Lukas Siebicke, and Christian Markwitz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6047–6071, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6047-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6047-2024, 2024
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In this work we present experimental field results of a lower-cost eddy covariance (LC-EC) system, which can measure the ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide and water vapour with the atmosphere. During three field campaigns on a grassland and agroforestry grassland, we compared the LC-EC with a conventional eddy covariance (CON-EC) system. Our results show that LC-EC has the potential to measure EC fluxes at only approximately 25 % of the cost of a CON-EC system.
Maitane Iturrate-Garcia, Thérèse Salameh, Paul Schlauri, Annarita Baldan, Martin K. Vollmer, Evdokia Stratigou, Sebastian Dusanter, Jianrong Li, Stefan Persijn, Anja Claude, Rupert Holzinger, Christophe Sutour, Tatiana Macé, Yasin Elshorbany, Andreas Ackermann, Céline Pascale, and Stefan Reimann
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Accurate and comparable measurements of oxygenated organic compounds (OVOCs) are crucial to assess tropospheric ozone burdens and trends. However, monitoring of many OVOCs remains challenging because of their low atmospheric abundance and lack of stable and traceable calibration standards. This research describes the calibration standards developed for selected OVOCs at low amount of substance fractions (<100 nmol mol-1) to transfer traceability to the international system of units to the field.
Johanna Pedersen, Sasha D. Hafner, Andreas Pacholski, Valthor I. Karlsson, Li Rong, Rodrigo Labouriau, and Jesper N. Kamp
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4493–4505, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4493-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4493-2024, 2024
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Field-applied animal slurry is a significant source of NH3 emission. A new system of dynamic flux chambers for NH3 measurements was developed and validated using three field trials in order to assess the variability after application with a trailing hose at different scales: manual (handheld) application, a 3 m slurry boom, and a 30 m slurry boom. The system facilitates NH3 emission measurement with replication after both manual and farm-scale slurry application with relatively high precision.
Anna Karion, Michael F. Link, Rileigh Robertson, Tyler Boyle, and Dustin Poppendieck
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2129, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2129, 2024
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Methane leaks into houses that use natural gas, from appliances and from pipes and fittings. We measured methane emitted from a manufactured house under different ventilation conditions using indoor and outdoor concentration measurements. We injected methane at prescribed rates into the house and then measured the emissions using our method. We report the error in the calculation based on these tests. We also describe the method and provide guidance on conducting this type of experiment.
Niklas Karbach, Lisa Höhler, Peter Hoor, Heiko Bozem, Nicole Bobrowski, and Thorsten Hoffmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4081–4086, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4081-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4081-2024, 2024
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The system presented here can accurately generate and reproduce a stable flow of gas mixtures of known concentrations over several days using ambient air as a dilution medium. In combination with the small size and low weight of the system, this enables the calibration of hydrogen sensors in the field, reducing the influence of matrix effects on the accuracy of the sensor. The system is inexpensive to assemble and easy to maintain, which is the key to reliable measurement results.
Mélanie Ghysels, Georges Durry, Nadir Amarouche, Dale Hurst, Emrys Hall, Kensy Xiong, Jean-Charles Dupont, Jean-Christophe Samake, Fabien Frérot, Raghed Bejjani, and Emmanuel D. Riviere
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3495–3513, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3495-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3495-2024, 2024
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A tunable diode laser hygrometer, “Pico-Light H2O”, is presented and its performances are evaluated during the AsA 2022 balloon-borne intercomparison campaign from Aire-sur-l'Adour (France) in September 2022. A total of 15 balloons were launched within the framework of the EU-funded HEMERA project. Pico-Light H2O has been compared in situ with the NOAA Frost Point Hygrometer in the upper troposphere and stratosphere, as well as with meteorological sondes (iMet-4 and M20) in the troposphere.
Jin Liao, Glenn M. Wolfe, Alex E. Kotsakis, Julie M. Nicely, Jason M. St. Clair, Thomas F. Hanisco, Gonzalo Gonzalez Abad, Caroline R. Nowlan, Zolal Ayazpour, Isabelle De Smedt, Eric C. Apel, and Rebecca S. Hornbrook
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-72, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-72, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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Validation of satellite HCHO over the remote marine regions is relatively few and modeled HCHO in these regions is usually added as a global satellite HCHO background. This paper intercompares three satellite HCHO retrievals and validates them against in situ observations from the NASA ATom mission. All retrievals are correlated with ATom integrated columns over remote oceans, with OMI SAO (v004) showing the best agreement. A persistent low bias is found in all retrievals at high latitudes.
Changxing Lan, Matthias Mauder, Stavros Stagakis, Benjamin Loubet, Claudio D'Onofrio, Stefan Metzger, David Durden, and Pedro-Henrique Herig-Coimbra
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2649–2669, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2649-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2649-2024, 2024
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Using eddy-covariance systems deployed in three cities, we aimed to elucidate the sources of discrepancies in flux estimations from different software packages. One crucial finding is the impact of low-frequency spectral loss corrections on tall-tower flux estimations. Our findings emphasize the significance of a standardized measurement setup and consistent postprocessing configurations in minimizing the systematic flux uncertainty resulting from the usage of different software packages.
Yunsong Liu, Jean-Daniel Paris, Gregoire Broquet, Violeta Bescós Roy, Tania Meixus Fernandez, Rasmus Andersen, Andrés Russu Berlanga, Emil Christensen, Yann Courtois, Sebastian Dominok, Corentin Dussenne, Travis Eckert, Andrew Finlayson, Aurora Fernández de la Fuente, Catlin Gunn, Ram Hashmonay, Juliano Grigoleto Hayashi, Jonathan Helmore, Soeren Honsel, Fabrizio Innocenti, Matti Irjala, Torgrim Log, Cristina Lopez, Francisco Cortés Martínez, Jonathan Martinez, Adrien Massardier, Helle Gottschalk Nygaard, Paula Agregan Reboredo, Elodie Rousset, Axel Scherello, Matthias Ulbricht, Damien Weidmann, Oliver Williams, Nigel Yarrow, Murès Zarea, Robert Ziegler, Jean Sciare, Mihalis Vrekoussis, and Philippe Bousquet
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1633–1649, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1633-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1633-2024, 2024
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We investigated the performance of 10 methane emission quantification techniques in a blind controlled-release experiment at an inerted natural gas compressor station. We reported their respective strengths, weaknesses, and potential complementarity depending on the emission rates and atmospheric conditions. Additionally, we assess the dependence of emission quantification performance on key parameters such as wind speed, deployment constraints, and measurement duration.
Jörg Beecken, Andreas Weigelt, Simone Griesel, Johan Mellqvist, Alexander V. Conde Jacobo, Daniëlle van Dinther, Jan Duyzer, Jon Knudsen, Bettina Knudsen, and Leonidas Ntziachristos
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5883–5895, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5883-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5883-2023, 2023
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Air pollution from shipping is a debated topic in science and politics. We compare different monitoring systems currently used in different European countries for the enforcement of emission limits regarding air pollution from ships according to regulation. The system performances were individually assessed in the field by comparison with true values. Non-compliant vessels with actual fuel sulfur contents > 0.15–0.19 % Sm/m can be detected by the compared systems with 95 % confidence.
Hossein Maazallahi, Antonio Delre, Charlotte Scheutz, Anders M. Fredenslund, Stefan Schwietzke, Hugo Denier van der Gon, and Thomas Röckmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5051–5073, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5051-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5051-2023, 2023
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Measurement methods are increasingly deployed to verify reported methane emissions of gas leaks. This study describes unique advantages and limitations of three methods. Two methods are rapidly deployed, but uncertainties and biases exist for some leak locations. In contrast, the suction method could accurately determine leak rates in principle. However, this method, which provides data for the German emission inventory, creates an overall low bias in our study due to non-random site selection.
Max Müller, Stefan Weigl, Jennifer Müller-Williams, Matthias Lindauer, Thomas Rück, Simon Jobst, Rudolf Bierl, and Frank-Michael Matysik
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4263–4270, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4263-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4263-2023, 2023
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Over a period of 5 d, a photoacoustic methane sensor was compared with a Picarro cavity ring-down (G2301) spectrometer. Both devices measured the ambient methane concentration at the meteorological observatory Hohenpeißenberg. Cross-sensitivities on the photoacoustic signal, due to fluctuating ambient humidity, were compensated by applying the CoNRad algorithm. The results show that photoacoustic sensors have the potential for accurate and precise greenhouse gas monitoring.
Antje Hoheisel, Cedric Couret, Bryan Hellack, and Martina Schmidt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2399–2413, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2399-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2399-2023, 2023
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High-precision CO2, CH4 and CO measurements have been carried out at Zugspitze for decades. New technologies make it possible to analyse these gases with high temporal resolution. This allows the detection of local pollution. To this end, measurements have been performed on the mountain ridge (ZGR) and are compared to routine measurements at the Schneefernerhaus (ZSF). Careful manual flagging of pollution events in the ZSF data leads to consistency with the little influenced ZGR time series.
Róisín Commane, Andrew Hallward-Driemeier, and Lee T. Murray
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1431–1441, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1431-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1431-2023, 2023
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Methane / ethane ratios can be used to identify and partition the different sources of methane, especially in areas with natural gas mixed with biogenic methane emissions, such as cities. We tested three commercially available laser-based analyzers for sensitivity, precision, size, power requirement, ease of use on mobile platforms, and expertise needed to operate the instrument, and we make recommendations for use in various situations.
Yarong Peng, Hongli Wang, Yaqin Gao, Shengao Jing, Shuhui Zhu, Dandan Huang, Peizhi Hao, Shengrong Lou, Tiantao Cheng, Cheng Huang, and Xuan Zhang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 15–28, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-15-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-15-2023, 2023
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This work examined the phase partitioning behaviors of organic compounds at hourly resolution in ambient conditions with the use of the CHemical Analysis of aeRosols ONline (CHARON) inlet coupled to a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS). Properly accounting for the neutral losses of small moieties during the molecular feature extraction from PTR mass spectra could significantly reduce uncertainties associated with the gas–particle partitioning measurements.
Stuart N. Riddick, Riley Ancona, Mercy Mbua, Clay S. Bell, Aidan Duggan, Timothy L. Vaughn, Kristine Bennett, and Daniel J. Zimmerle
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6285–6296, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6285-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6285-2022, 2022
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This describes controlled release experiments at the METEC facility in Fort Collins, USA, that investigates the accuracy and precision of five methods commonly used to measure methane emissions. Methods include static/dynamic chambers, hi flow sampling, a backward Lagrangian stochastic method, and a Gaussian plume method. This is the first time that methods for measuring CH4 emissions from point sources less than 200 g CH4 h−1 have been quantitively assessed against references and each other.
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
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5841–5859, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5841-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5841-2022, 2022
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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.
Daniel Furuta, Tofigh Sayahi, Jinsheng Li, Bruce Wilson, Albert A. Presto, and Jiayu Li
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5117–5128, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5117-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5117-2022, 2022
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Methane is a major greenhouse gas and contributor to climate change with various human-caused and natural sources. Currently, atmospheric methane is expensive to sense. We investigate repurposing cheap methane safety sensors for atmospheric sensing, finding several promising sensors and identifying some of the challenges in this approach. This work will help in developing inexpensive sensor networks for methane monitoring, which will aid in reducing methane leaks and emissions.
Clare E. Singer, Benjamin W. Clouser, Sergey M. Khaykin, Martina Krämer, Francesco Cairo, Thomas Peter, Alexey Lykov, Christian Rolf, Nicole Spelten, Armin Afchine, Simone Brunamonti, and Elisabeth J. Moyer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4767–4783, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4767-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4767-2022, 2022
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In situ measurements of water vapor in the upper troposphere are necessary to study cloud formation and hydration of the stratosphere but challenging due to cold–dry conditions. We compare measurements from three water vapor instruments from the StratoClim campaign in 2017. In clear sky (clouds), point-by-point differences were <1.5±8 % (<1±8 %). This excellent agreement allows detection of fine-scale structures required to understand the impact of convection on stratospheric water vapor.
Sebastian Diez, Stuart E. Lacy, Thomas J. Bannan, Michael Flynn, Tom Gardiner, David Harrison, Nicholas Marsden, Nicholas A. Martin, Katie Read, and Pete M. Edwards
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4091–4105, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4091-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4091-2022, 2022
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Regardless of the cost of the measuring instrument, there are no perfect measurements. For this reason, we compare the quality of the information provided by cheap devices when they are used to measure air pollutants and we try to emphasise that before judging the potential usefulness of the devices, the user must specify his own needs. Since commonly used performance indices/metrics can be misleading in qualifying this, we propose complementary visual analysis to the more commonly used metrics.
Ashley S. Bittner, Eben S. Cross, David H. Hagan, Carl Malings, Eric Lipsky, and Andrew P. Grieshop
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3353–3376, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3353-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3353-2022, 2022
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We present findings from a 1-year pilot deployment of low-cost integrated air quality sensor packages in rural Malawi using calibration models developed during collocation with US regulatory monitors. We compare the results with data from remote sensing products and previous field studies. We conclude that while the remote calibration approach can help extract useful data, great care is needed when assessing low-cost sensor data collected in regions without reference instrumentation.
Noah Bernays, Daniel A. Jaffe, Irina Petropavlovskikh, and Peter Effertz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3189–3192, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3189-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3189-2022, 2022
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Ozone is an important pollutant that impacts millions of people worldwide. It is therefore important to ensure accurate measurements. A recent surge in wildfire activity in the USA has resulted in significant enhancements in ozone concentration. However given the nature of wildfire smoke, there are questions about our ability to accurately measure ozone. In this comment, we discuss possible biases in the UV measurements of ozone in the presence of smoke.
Gérard Ancellet, Sophie Godin-Beekmann, Herman G. J. Smit, Ryan M. Stauffer, Roeland Van Malderen, Renaud Bodichon, and Andrea Pazmiño
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3105–3120, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3105-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3105-2022, 2022
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The 1991–2021 Observatoire de Haute Provence electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) ozonesonde data have been homogenized according to the recommendations of the Ozonesonde Data Quality Assessment panel. Comparisons with ground-based instruments also measuring ozone at the same station (lidar, surface measurements) and with colocated satellite observations show the benefits of this homogenization. Remaining differences between ECC and other observations in the stratosphere are also discussed.
Horim Kim, Michael Müller, Stephan Henne, and Christoph Hüglin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2979–2992, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2979-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2979-2022, 2022
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In this study, the performance of electrochemical sensors for NO and NO2 for measuring air quality was determined over a longer operating period. The performance of NO sensors remained reliable for more than 18 months. However, the NO2 sensors showed decreasing performance over time. During deployment, we found that the NO2 sensors can distinguish general pollution levels, but they proved unsuitable for accurate measurements due to significant biases.
Randulph Morales, Jonas Ravelid, Katarina Vinkovic, Piotr Korbeń, Béla Tuzson, Lukas Emmenegger, Huilin Chen, Martina Schmidt, Sebastian Humbel, and Dominik Brunner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2177–2198, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2177-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2177-2022, 2022
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Mapping trace gas emission plumes using in situ measurements from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is an emerging and attractive possibility to quantify emissions from localized sources. We performed an extensive controlled-release experiment to develop an optimal quantification method and to determine the related uncertainties under various environmental and sampling conditions. Our approach was successful in quantifying local methane sources from drone-based measurements.
Junlei Zhan, Yongchun Liu, Wei Ma, Xin Zhang, Xuezhong Wang, Fang Bi, Yujie Zhang, Zhenhai Wu, and Hong Li
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1511–1520, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1511-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1511-2022, 2022
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Our study investigated the O3 formation sensitivity in Beijing using a random forest model coupled with the reactivity of volatile organic
compound (VOC) species. Results found that random forest accurately predicted O3 concentration when initial VOCs were considered, and relative importance correlated well with O3 formation potential. The O3 isopleth curves calculated by the random forest model were generally comparable with those calculated by the box model.
Daniel R. Peters, Olalekan A. M. Popoola, Roderic L. Jones, Nicholas A. Martin, Jim Mills, Elizabeth R. Fonseca, Amy Stidworthy, Ella Forsyth, David Carruthers, Megan Dupuy-Todd, Felicia Douglas, Katie Moore, Rishabh U. Shah, Lauren E. Padilla, and Ramón A. Alvarez
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 321–334, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-321-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-321-2022, 2022
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We present more than 2 years of NO2 pollution measurements from a sensor network in Greater London and compare results to an extensive network of expensive reference-grade monitors. We show the ability of our lower-cost network to generate robust insights about local air pollution. We also show how irregularities in sensor performance lead to some uncertainty in results and demonstrate ways that future users can characterize and mitigate uncertainties to get the most value from sensor data.
Timothy G. Pernini, T. Scott Zaccheo, Jeremy Dobler, and Nathan Blume
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 225–240, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-225-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-225-2022, 2022
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We demonstrate a novel approach to estimating emissions from oil sands operations that utilizes the GreenLITE™ gas concentration measurement system and an atmospheric model. While deployed at a facility in the Athabasca region of Alberta, Canada, CH4 emissions from a tailings pond were estimated to be 7.2 t/d for July–October 2019, and 5.1 t/d for March–July 2020. CH4 emissions from an open-pit mine were estimated to be 24.6 t/d for September–October 2019.
Wengang Zhang, Ling Wang, Yang Yu, Guirong Xu, Xiuqing Hu, Zhikang Fu, and Chunguang Cui
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7821–7834, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7821-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7821-2021, 2021
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Global precipitable water vapor (PWV) derived from MERSI-II (Medium Resolution Spectral Imager) is compared with PWV from the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA). Our results show a good agreement between PWV from MERSI-II and IGRA and that MERSI-II PWV is slightly underestimated on the whole, especially in summer. The bias between MERSI-II and IGRA grows with a larger spatial distance between the footprint of the satellite and the IGRA station, as well as increasing PWV.
Trevor W. Coates, Monzurul Alam, Thomas K. Flesch, and Guillermo Hernandez-Ramirez
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7147–7152, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7147-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7147-2021, 2021
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A field study tested two footprint models for calculating surface emissions from downwind flux measurements. Emission rates from a 10 × 10 m synthetic source were estimated with the simple Kormann–Meixner model and a sophisticated Lagrangian stochastic model. Both models underestimated emissions by approximately 30 %, and no statistical differences were observed between the models. Footprint models are critically important for interpreting eddy covariance measurements.
Teles C. Furlani, Patrick R. Veres, Kathryn E. R. Dawe, J. Andrew Neuman, Steven S. Brown, Trevor C. VandenBoer, and Cora J. Young
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5859–5871, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5859-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5859-2021, 2021
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This study characterized and validated a commercial spectroscopic instrument for the measurement of hydrogen chloride (HCl) in the atmosphere. Near the Earth’s surface, HCl acts as the dominant reservoir for other chlorine-containing reactive chemicals that play an important role in atmospheric chemistry. The properties of HCl make it challenging to measure. This instrument can overcome many of these challenges, enabling reliable HCl measurements.
Marvin Glowania, Franz Rohrer, Hans-Peter Dorn, Andreas Hofzumahaus, Frank Holland, Astrid Kiendler-Scharr, Andreas Wahner, and Hendrik Fuchs
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 4239–4253, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4239-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4239-2021, 2021
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Three instruments that use different techniques to measure gaseous formaldehyde concentrations were compared in experiments in the atmospheric simulation chamber SAPHIR at Forschungszentrum Jülich. The results demonstrated the need to correct the baseline in measurements by instruments that use the Hantzsch reaction or make use of cavity ring-down spectroscopy. After applying corrections, all three methods gave accurate and precise measurements within their specifications.
Attilio Naccarato, Antonella Tassone, Maria Martino, Sacha Moretti, Antonella Macagnano, Emiliano Zampetti, Paolo Papa, Joshua Avossa, Nicola Pirrone, Michelle Nerentorp, John Munthe, Ingvar Wängberg, Geoff W. Stupple, Carl P. J. Mitchell, Adam R. Martin, Alexandra Steffen, Diana Babi, Eric M. Prestbo, Francesca Sprovieri, and Frank Wania
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3657–3672, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3657-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3657-2021, 2021
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Mercury monitoring in support of the Minamata Convention requires effective and reliable analytical tools. Passive sampling is a promising approach for creating a sustainable long-term network for atmospheric mercury with improved spatial resolution and global coverage. In this study the analytical performance of three passive air samplers (CNR-PAS, IVL-PAS, and MerPAS) was assessed over extended deployment periods and the accuracy of concentrations was judged by comparison with active sampling.
Mei Bai, José I. Velazco, Trevor W. Coates, Frances A. Phillips, Thomas K. Flesch, Julian Hill, David G. Mayer, Nigel W. Tomkins, Roger S. Hegarty, and Deli Chen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3469–3479, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3469-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3469-2021, 2021
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The development and validation of management practices to mitigate methane (CH4) emissions from livestock require accurate emission measurements. We compared the inverse dispersion modelling (IDM) and tracer-ratio techniques to measure CH4 emissions from cattle. Both measurements agreed well but were higher than IPCC estimates. We suggest that the IDM approach can provide an accurate method of estimating cattle emissions, and IPCC estimates may have larger uncertainties.
Yuan You, Ralf M. Staebler, Samar G. Moussa, James Beck, and Richard L. Mittermeier
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1879–1892, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1879-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1879-2021, 2021
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Tailings ponds in the Alberta oil sands can be significant sources of methane, an important greenhouse gas. This paper describes a 1-month study conducted in 2017 to measure methane emissions from a pond using a variety of micrometeorological flux methods and demonstrates some advantages of these methods over flux chambers.
Christoph Häni, Marcel Bühler, Albrecht Neftel, Christof Ammann, and Thomas Kupper
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1733–1741, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1733-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1733-2021, 2021
Seth Kutikoff, Xiaomao Lin, Steven R. Evett, Prasanna Gowda, David Brauer, Jerry Moorhead, Gary Marek, Paul Colaizzi, Robert Aiken, Liukang Xu, and Clenton Owensby
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1253–1266, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1253-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1253-2021, 2021
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Fast-response infrared gas sensors have been used over 3 decades for long-term monitoring of water vapor fluxes. As optically improved infrared gas sensors are newly employed, we evaluated the performance of water vapor density and water vapor flux from three generations of infrared gas sensors in Bushland, Texas, USA. From our experiments, fluxes from the old sensors were best representative of evapotranspiration based on a world-class lysimeter reference measurement.
Yuan You, Samar G. Moussa, Lucas Zhang, Long Fu, James Beck, and Ralf M. Staebler
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 945–959, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-945-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-945-2021, 2021
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Tailings ponds in the Alberta oil sands represent an insufficiently characterized source of fugitive emissions of pollutants to the atmosphere. In this study, a novel approach of using a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer along with measurements of atmospheric turbulence is shown to present a practical, non-intrusive method of quantifying emission rates for ammonia, alkanes, and methane. Results from a 1-month field study are presented and discussed.
Ravi Sahu, Ayush Nagal, Kuldeep Kumar Dixit, Harshavardhan Unnibhavi, Srikanth Mantravadi, Srijith Nair, Yogesh Simmhan, Brijesh Mishra, Rajesh Zele, Ronak Sutaria, Vidyanand Motiram Motghare, Purushottam Kar, and Sachchida Nand Tripathi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 37–52, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-37-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-37-2021, 2021
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A unique feature of our low-cost sensor deployment is a swap-out experiment wherein four of the six sensors were relocated to different sites in the two phases. The swap-out experiment is crucial in investigating the efficacy of calibration models when applied to weather and air quality conditions vastly different from those present during calibration. We developed a novel local calibration algorithm based on metric learning that offers stable and accurate calibration performance.
Michal Vojtisek-Lom, Alessandro A. Zardini, Martin Pechout, Lubos Dittrich, Fausto Forni, François Montigny, Massimo Carriero, Barouch Giechaskiel, and Giorgio Martini
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 5827–5843, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5827-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5827-2020, 2020
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The feasibility of monitoring on-road emissions from small motorcycles with two highly compact portable emissions monitoring systems was evaluated on three motorcycles, with positive results. Mass emissions measured on the road were consistent among repeated runs, with differences between laboratory and on-road tests much larger than those between portable and laboratory systems, which were, on the average, within units of percent over standard test cycles.
Xiaoyu Sun, Minzheng Duan, Yang Gao, Rui Han, Denghui Ji, Wenxing Zhang, Nong Chen, Xiangao Xia, Hailei Liu, and Yanfeng Huo
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3595–3607, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3595-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3595-2020, 2020
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The accurate measurement of greenhouse gases and their vertical distribution in the atmosphere is significant to the study of climate change and satellite remote sensing. Carbon dioxide and methane between 0.6 and 7 km were measured by the aircraft King Air 350ER in Jiansanjiang, northeast China, on 7–11 August 2018. The profiles show strong variation with the altitude and time, so the vertical structure of gases should be taken into account in the current satellite retrieval algorithm.
Paul A. Solomon, Dena Vallano, Melissa Lunden, Brian LaFranchi, Charles L. Blanchard, and Stephanie L. Shaw
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3277–3301, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3277-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3277-2020, 2020
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Analyzing street-level air pollutants (2016–2017), this assessment indicates that mobile measurement is precise and accurate (5 % to 25 % bias) relative to regulatory sites, with higher spatial resolution. Collocated sensor measurements in California showed differences less than 20 %, suggesting that greater differences represent spatial variability. Mobile data confirm regulatory-site spatial representation and that pollutant levels can also be 6 to 8 times higher just blocks apart.
Christian Juncher Jørgensen, Jacob Mønster, Karsten Fuglsang, and Jesper Riis Christiansen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3319–3328, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3319-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3319-2020, 2020
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Recent discoveries have shown large emissions of methane (CH4) to the atmosphere from meltwater at the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS). Low-cost and low-power gas sensor technology offers great potential to supplement CH4 measurements using very expensive reference analyzers under harsh and remote conditions. In this paper we evaluate the in situ performance at the GrIS of a low-cost CH4 sensor to a state-of-the-art analyzer and find very excellent agreement between the two methods.
Lilian Joly, Olivier Coopmann, Vincent Guidard, Thomas Decarpenterie, Nicolas Dumelié, Julien Cousin, Jérémie Burgalat, Nicolas Chauvin, Grégory Albora, Rabih Maamary, Zineb Miftah El Khair, Diane Tzanos, Joël Barrié, Éric Moulin, Patrick Aressy, and Anne Belleudy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3099–3118, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3099-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3099-2020, 2020
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This article presents an instrument weighing less than 3 kg for accurate and rapid measurement of greenhouse gases between 0 and 30 km altitude using a meteorological balloon. This article shows the interest of these measurements for the validation of simulations of infrared satellite observations.
Jonathan Elsey, Marc D. Coleman, Tom D. Gardiner, Kaah P. Menang, and Keith P. Shine
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 2335–2361, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2335-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2335-2020, 2020
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Water vapour is an important component in trying to understand the flows of energy between the Sun and Earth, since it is opaque to radiation emitted by both the surface and the Sun. In this paper, we study how it absorbs sunlight by way of its
continuum, a property which is poorly understood and with few measurements. Our results indicate that this continuum absorption may be more significant than previously thought, potentially impacting satellite observations and climate studies.
Claudia Grossi, Scott D. Chambers, Olivier Llido, Felix R. Vogel, Victor Kazan, Alessandro Capuana, Sylvester Werczynski, Roger Curcoll, Marc Delmotte, Arturo Vargas, Josep-Anton Morguí, Ingeborg Levin, and Michel Ramonet
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 2241–2255, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2241-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2241-2020, 2020
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The sustainable support of radon metrology at the environmental level offers new scientific possibilities for the quantification of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the determination of their source terms as well as for the identification of radioactive sources for the assessment of radiation exposure. This study helps to harmonize the techniques commonly used for atmospheric radon and radon progeny activity concentration measurements.
Cheng-Hsien Lin, Richard H. Grant, Albert J. Heber, and Cliff T. Johnston
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 2001–2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2001-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2001-2020, 2020
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Gas quantification using the open-path Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (OP-FTIR) is subject to interferences of environmental variables, leading to errors in gas concentration calculations. This study investigated the effects of ambient water vapour content, temperature, path lengths, and wind speed on the quantification of N2O and CO2 concentrations, which can help the OP-FTIR users to avoid these errors and improve the precision and accuracy of the atmospheric gas quantification.
Rachel Edie, Anna M. Robertson, Robert A. Field, Jeffrey Soltis, Dustin A. Snare, Daniel Zimmerle, Clay S. Bell, Timothy L. Vaughn, and Shane M. Murphy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 341–353, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-341-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-341-2020, 2020
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Ground-based measurements of emissions from oil and natural gas production are important for understanding emission distributions and improving emission inventories. Here, measurement technique Other Test Method 33A (OTM 33A) is validated through several test releases staged at the Methane Emissions Technology Evaluation Center. These tests suggest OTM 33A has no inherent bias and that a group of OTM measurements is within 5 % of the known mean emission rate.
Zheng Xu, Yuliang Liu, Wei Nie, Peng Sun, Xuguang Chi, and Aijun Ding
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 6737–6748, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6737-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6737-2019, 2019
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We evaluated the performance of HONO measurement by a wet-denuder--ion0chromatography system (WD/IC, MARGA). We found significant artificial HONO formed from the reaction of NO2 oxidizing SO2 in the denuder solution. High ambient NH3 would elevate the pH of the denuder solution and promote the overestimation of HONO. A method was established to correct the HONO measurement by WD/IC instruments.
Cited articles
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Short summary
We present an analysis from two large-scale mobile air quality monitoring campaigns in Colorado and California. We compare mobile measurements of air quality to measurements from nearby regulatory sites. The goal of this paper is to explore how fixed-site measurements (such as regulatory site measurements) can be used for ongoing instrument performance assessment of mobile monitoring platforms over extended measurement campaigns.
We present an analysis from two large-scale mobile air quality monitoring campaigns in Colorado...
