Local- and regional-scale measurements of CH4, δ13CH4, and C2H6 in the Uintah Basin using a mobile stable isotope analyzer

Rella, C. W.; Hoffnagle, J.; He, Y.; Tajima, S.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4539-2015

Articles | Volume 8, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4539-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4539-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 8, issue 10

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

30 Oct 2015

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 30 Oct 2015

Local- and regional-scale measurements of CH₄, δ¹³CH₄, and C₂H₆ in the Uintah Basin using a mobile stable isotope analyzer

C. W. Rella, J. Hoffnagle, Y. He, and S. Tajima

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Final revised paper (published on 30 Oct 2015)
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Preprint (discussion started on 13 May 2015)
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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC C1487: 'Review of amt-2015-49:', Anonymous Referee #1, 10 Jun 2015
RC C1563: 'Review of Rella et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 16 Jun 2015
EC C1982: 'Editor comment 2015-46', Murray Hamilton, 15 Jul 2015
AC C2882: 'Authors' response to referees' and editor's comments', Chris Rella, 08 Sep 2015

Short summary

We describe an innovative instrument based on cavity ring-down spectroscopy that analyzes the stable isotopes of methane in the ambient atmosphere. This instrument was used to study atmospheric emissions from oil and gas extraction activities in the Uintah Basin in Utah. These measurements suggest that 85 ± 7% of the total emissions in the basin are from natural gas production. The easy field deployment of this instrument can enable similar regional attribution studies across the world.