Radon Measurements of Atmospheric Mixing (RAMIX) 2006–2014 Final Campaign Summary

Program Document · Fri May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015

OSTI ID:1232638

Fischer, ML ^[1]; Biraud, SC ^[1]; Hirsch, A ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
2. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Uncertainty in vertical mixing between the surface layer, boundary layer, and free troposphere leads to large uncertainty in “top-down” estimates of regional land-atmosphere carbon exchange (i.e., estimates based on measurements of atmospheric CO₂ mixing ratios). The radioisotope radon-222 (²²²Rn) is a valuable tracer for measuring atmospheric mixing because it is emitted from the land surface and has a short enough half-life (3.8 days) to allow characterization of mixing processes based on vertical profile measurements.

• Research Organization: DOE Office of Science Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
• DOE Contract Number: UCRL-TR-224648
• OSTI ID: 1232638
• Report Number(s): DOE/SC-ARM-15-027
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English