Articles | Volume 8, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-3745-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-3745-2015
Research article
 | 
16 Sep 2015
Research article |  | 16 Sep 2015

Determining air pollutant emission rates based on mass balance using airborne measurement data over the Alberta oil sands operations

M. Gordon, S.-M. Li, R. Staebler, A. Darlington, K. Hayden, J. O'Brien, and M. Wolde

Related authors

The importance of moist thermodynamics on neutral buoyancy height for plumes from anthropogenic sources
Sepehr Fathi, Paul Makar, Wanmin Gong, Junhua Zhang, Katherine Hayden, and Mark Gordon
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 2385–2405, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2385-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2385-2025, 2025
Short summary
Characterization of atmospheric water-soluble brown carbon in the Athabasca oil sands region, Canada
Dane Blanchard, Mark Gordon, Duc Huy Dang, Paul Andrew Makar, and Julian Aherne
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 2423–2442, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2423-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2423-2025, 2025
Short summary
Ozone in the boreal forest in the Alberta Oil Sands Region
Xuanyi Zhang, Mark Gordon, Paul A. Makar, Timothy Jiang, Jonathan Davies, and David Tarasick
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13647–13664, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13647-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13647-2023, 2023
Short summary
Passive-tracer modelling at super-resolution with Weather Research and Forecasting – Advanced Research WRF (WRF-ARW) to assess mass-balance schemes
Sepehr Fathi, Mark Gordon, and Yongsheng Chen
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 5069–5091, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5069-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5069-2023, 2023
Short summary
High sulfur dioxide deposition velocities measured with the flux–gradient technique in a boreal forest in the Alberta Oil Sands Region
Mark Gordon, Dane Blanchard, Timothy Jiang, Paul A. Makar, Ralf M. Staebler, Julian Aherne, Cris Mihele, and Xuanyi Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7241–7255, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7241-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7241-2023, 2023
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Gases | Technique: In Situ Measurement | Topic: Data Processing and Information Retrieval
Gridded surface O3, NOx, and CO abundances for model metrics from the South Korean ground station network
Calum P. Wilson and Michael J. Prather
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1757–1769, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1757-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1757-2025, 2025
Short summary
Revised methodology for CO2 and CH4 measurements at remote sites using a working standard-gas-saving system
Motoki Sasakawa, Noritsugu Tsuda, Toshinobu Machida, Mikhail Arshinov, Denis Davydov, Aleksandr Fofonov, and Boris Belan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1717–1730, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1717-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1717-2025, 2025
Short summary
Digitization and calibration of historical solar absorption infrared spectra from the Jungfraujoch site
Jamal Makkor, Mathias Palm, Matthias Buschmann, Emmanuel Mahieu, Martyn P. Chipperfield, and Justus Notholt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1105–1114, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1105-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1105-2025, 2025
Short summary
Direct high-precision radon quantification for interpreting high-frequency greenhouse gas measurements
Dafina Kikaj, Edward Chung, Alan D. Griffiths, Scott D. Chambers, Grant Forster, Angelina Wenger, Penelope Pickers, Chris Rennick, Simon O'Doherty, Joseph Pitt, Kieran Stanley, Dickon Young, Leigh S. Fleming, Karina Adcock, Emmal Safi, and Tim Arnold
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 151–175, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-151-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-151-2025, 2025
Short summary
Resolving the contributions of local emissions to measured concentrations: a method comparison
Taylor D. Edwards, Yee Ka Wong, Cheol-Jeon Heong, Jonathan M. Wang, Yushan Su, and Greg J. Evans
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2488,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2488, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

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, Atmospheric Environment, 44, 1866–1876, 2010.
Cambaliza, M. O. L., Shepson, P. B., Caulton, D. R., Stirm, B., Samarov, D., Gurney, K. R., Turnbull, J., Davis, K. J., Possolo, A., Karion, A., Sweeney, C., Moser, B., Hendricks, A., Lauvaux, T., Mays, K., Whetstone, J., Huang, J., Razlivanov, I., Miles, N. L., and Richardson, S. J.: Assessment of uncertainties of an aircraft-based mass balance approach for quantifying urban greenhouse gas emissions, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 9029–9050, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-9029-2014, 2014.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd: Canadian Natural 2012 Stewardship Report to Stakeholders, available at: http://www.cnrl.com/upload/media_element/692/02/2012-stewardship-report_web.pdf, last access: 4 May 2015.
Canadian Natural Resources Ltd: Operations: Horizon Oil Sands: available at: http://www.cnrl.com/operations/north-america/horizon-oil-sands.html, last access: 4 May 2015.
Garratt, J. R.: The Atmospheric Boundary Layer, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 52–56, 1994.
Download
Short summary
Aircraft-based measurements of air pollutants from sources in the Canadian oil sands were made during a summer intensive field campaign in 2013. This paper describes the top-down emission rate retrieval algorithm (TERRA) to determine facility emissions of pollutants, using SO2 and CH4 as examples. Uncertainty of the emission rates estimated with TERRA is estimated as less than 30%, which is primarily due to the unknown SO2 and CH4 mixing ratios near the surface below the lowest flight level.
Share