How can mountaintop CO2 observations be used to constrain regional carbon fluxes?

Lin, John C.; Mallia, Derek V.; Wu, Dien; Stephens, Britton B.

doi:10.5194/acp-17-5561-2017

Title: How can mountaintop CO₂ observations be used to constrain regional carbon fluxes?

Journal Article · Wed May 03 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5561-2017· OSTI ID:1355135

; Mallia, Derek V.; Wu, Dien;

Despite the need for researchers to understand terrestrial biospheric carbon fluxes to account for carbon cycle feedbacks and predict future CO₂ concentrations, knowledge of these fluxes at the regional scale remains poor. This is particularly true in mountainous areas, where complex meteorology and lack of observations lead to large uncertainties in carbon fluxes. Yet mountainous regions are often where significant forest cover and biomass are found – i.e., areas that have the potential to serve as carbon sinks. As CO₂ observations are carried out in mountainous areas, it is imperative that they are properly interpreted to yield information about carbon fluxes. In this paper, we present CO₂ observations at three sites in the mountains of the western US, along with atmospheric simulations that attempt to extract information about biospheric carbon fluxes from the CO₂ observations, with emphasis on the observed and simulated diurnal cycles of CO₂. We show that atmospheric models can systematically simulate the wrong diurnal cycle and significantly misinterpret the CO₂ observations, due to erroneous atmospheric flows as a result of terrain that is misrepresented in the model. This problem depends on the selected vertical level in the model and is exacerbated as the spatial resolution is degraded, and our results indicate that a fine grid spacing of ~4 km or less may be needed to simulate a realistic diurnal cycle of CO₂ for sites on top of the steep mountains examined here in the American Rockies. In conclusion, in the absence of higher resolution models, we recommend coarse-scale models to focus on assimilating afternoon CO₂ observations on mountaintop sites over the continent to avoid misrepresentations of nocturnal transport and influence.

View Journal Article

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0010624; SC0010625

OSTI ID:: 1355135

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1368184

Journal Information:: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online), Journal Name: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online) Vol. 17 Journal Issue: 9; ISSN 1680-7324

Publisher:: Copernicus Publications, EGUCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 23 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (67)

Observational Techniques: Sampling the Mountain Atmosphere Banta, Robert M.; Shun, C. M.; Law, Daniel C. Mountain Weather Research and Forecasting https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4098-3_8	book	April 2012
Impacts of upwind wildfire emissions on CO, CO _2, and PM _2.5 concentrations in Salt Lake City, Utah : Impacts of wildfires on Salt Lake City Mallia, D. V.; Lin, J. C.; Urbanski, S. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 120, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JD022472	journal	January 2015
Vertical mixing in atmospheric tracer transport models: error characterization and propagation Gerbig, C.; Körner, S.; Lin, J. C. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 8, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-8-591-2008	journal	January 2008
Diurnal Mountain Wind Systems Zardi, Dino; Whiteman, C. David Springer Atmospheric Sciences https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4098-3_2	book	April 2012
Seven years of recent European net terrestrial carbon dioxide exchange constrained by atmospheric observations Peters, W.; Krol, M. C.; van der WERF, G. R. Global Change Biology, Vol. 16, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2486.2009.02078.x	journal	April 2010
Boundary Layers and Air Quality in Mountainous Terrain Steyn, Douw G.; De Wekker, Stephan F. J.; Kossmann, Meinolf Mountain Weather Research and Forecasting https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4098-3_5	book	April 2012
Coupled weather research and forecasting–stochastic time-inverted lagrangian transport (WRF–STILT) model Nehrkorn, Thomas; Eluszkiewicz, Janusz; Wofsy, Steven C. Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, Vol. 107, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-010-0068-x	journal	May 2010
Atmospheric carbon dioxide variations at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii Keeling, Charles D.; Bacastow, Robert B.; Bainbridge, Arnold E. Tellus, Vol. 28, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusa.v28i6.11322	journal	January 1976
Measurements of carbon dioxide on very tall towers: results of the NOAA/CMDL program Bakwin, Peter S.; Tans, Pieter P.; Hurst, Dale F. Tellus B, Vol. 50, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0889.1998.t01-4-00001.x	journal	November 1998
Atmospheric CO ₂ monitoring with single-cell NDIR-based analyzers Stephens, B. B.; Miles, N. L.; Richardson, S. J. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, Vol. 4, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-4-2737-2011	journal	January 2011
Seasonal pattern of regional carbon balance in the central Rocky Mountains from surface and airborne measurements Desai, Ankur R.; Moore, David J. P.; Ahue, William K. M. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 116, Issue G4 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JG001655	journal	January 2011
On observational and modelling strategies targeted at regional carbon exchange over continents Gerbig, C.; Dolman, A. J.; Heimann, M. Biogeosciences, Vol. 6, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-6-1949-2009	journal	January 2009
Continuing global significance of emissions of Montreal Protocol–restricted halocarbons in the United States and Canada Hurst, D. F.; Lin, J. C.; Romashkin, P. A. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 111, Issue D15 https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JD006785	journal	January 2006
How positive is the feedback between climate change and the carbon cycle? Friedlingstein, P.; Dufresne, J. -L.; Cox, P. M. Tellus B, Vol. 55, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0889.2003.01461.x	journal	April 2003
Carbon sequestration studied in western U.S. mountains Schimel, David; Kittel, Timothy G. F.; Running, Steven Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union, Vol. 83, Issue 40 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002EO000314	journal	January 2002
Acceleration of global warming due to carbon-cycle feedbacks in a coupled climate model Cox, Peter M.; Betts, Richard A.; Jones, Chris D. Nature, Vol. 408, Issue 6809 https://doi.org/10.1038/35041539	journal	November 2000
Long-term urban carbon dioxide observations reveal spatial and temporal dynamics related to urban characteristics and growth Mitchell, Logan E.; Lin, John C.; Bowling, David R. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 115, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1702393115	journal	March 2018
Measuring fluxes of trace gases at regional scales by Lagrangian observations: Application to the CO ₂ Budget and Rectification Airborne (COBRA) study Lin, J. C. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 109, Issue D15 https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JD004754	journal	January 2004
Probability of ponderosa pine infestation by mountain pine beetle in the Colorado Front Range Negrón, José F.; Popp, John B. Forest Ecology and Management, Vol. 191, Issue 1-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2003.10.026	journal	April 2004
Free tropospheric CO, C ₂ H ₆ , and HCN above central Europe: Recent measurements from the Jungfraujoch station including the detection of elevated columns during 1998 Rinsland, C. P.; Mahieu, E.; Zander, R. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 105, Issue D19 https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900371	journal	October 2000
Accounting for the effect of transport errors on tracer inversions Lin, J. C. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 32, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2004GL021127	journal	January 2005
Global fire emissions and the contribution of deforestation, savanna, forest, agricultural, and peat fires (1997–2009) van der Werf, G. R.; Randerson, J. T.; Giglio, L. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 10, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-10-11707-2010	journal	January 2010
The wildland fire emission inventory: western United States emission estimates and an evaluation of uncertainty Urbanski, S. P.; Hao, W. M.; Nordgren, B. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 24 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-12973-2011	journal	January 2011
The Contribution of Advective Fluxes to net Ecosystem Exchange in a High-Elevation, Subalpine Forest Yi, Chuixiang; Anderson, Dean E.; Turnipseed, Andrew A. Ecological Applications, Vol. 18, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1890/06-0908.1	journal	September 2008
Daily and 3-hourly variability in global fire emissions and consequences for atmospheric model predictions of carbon monoxide: DAILY AND HOURLY GLOBAL FIRE EMISSIONS Mu, M.; Randerson, J. T.; van der Werf, G. R. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 116, Issue D24 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JD016245	journal	December 2011
Carbon sequestration in a high-elevation, subalpine forest Monson, R. K.; Turnipseed, A. A.; Sparks, J. P. Global Change Biology, Vol. 8, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2486.2002.00480.x	journal	May 2002
The roles of hydraulic and carbon stress in a widespread climate-induced forest die-off Anderegg, W. R. L.; Berry, J. A.; Smith, D. D. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 109, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1107891109	journal	December 2011
An atmospheric perspective on North American carbon dioxide exchange: CarbonTracker Peters, W.; Jacobson, A. R.; Sweeney, C. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 104, Issue 48 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0708986104	journal	November 2007
Winter forest soil respiration controlled by climate and microbial community composition Monson, Russell K.; Lipson, David L.; Burns, Sean P. Nature, Vol. 439, Issue 7077 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04555	journal	February 2006
High-resolution simulations of atmospheric CO ₂ over complex terrain – representing the Ochsenkopf mountain tall tower Pillai, D.; Gerbig, C.; Ahmadov, R. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-7445-2011	journal	January 2011
Constraints on Carbon Monoxide Emissions Based on Tall Tower Measurements in the U.S. Upper Midwest Kim, Su Youn; Millet, Dylan B.; Hu, Lu Environmental Science & Technology https://doi.org/10.1021/es4009486	journal	July 2013
Weak Northern and Strong Tropical Land Carbon Uptake from Vertical Profiles of Atmospheric CO2 Stephens, B. B.; Gurney, K. R.; Tans, P. P. Science, Vol. 316, Issue 5832 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1137004	journal	June 2007
Comparing atmospheric transport models for future regional inversions over Europe – Part 1: mapping the atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> signals Geels, C.; Gloor, M.; Ciais, P. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 7, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-7-3461-2007	journal	January 2007
Continuous isotopic composition measurements of tropospheric CO ₂ at Jungfraujoch (3580 m a.s.l.), Switzerland: real-time observation of regional pollution events Tuzson, B.; Henne, S.; Brunner, D. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-1685-2011	journal	January 2011
Irrigation in the American West: Area, Water and Economic Activity Gollehon, Noel; Quinby, William International Journal of Water Resources Development, Vol. 16, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1080/07900620050003107	journal	June 2000
Lagrangian particle dispersion modeling for the high Alpine site Jungfraujoch Folini, D.; Ubl, S.; Kaufmann, P. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 113, Issue D18 https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JD009558	journal	January 2008
Carbon–Concentration and Carbon–Climate Feedbacks in CMIP5 Earth System Models Arora, Vivek K.; Boer, George J.; Friedlingstein, Pierre Journal of Climate, Vol. 26, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00494.1	journal	August 2013
Seasonal variation of CH ₄ emissions from central California : SEASONAL VARIATION OF CH Jeong, Seongeun; Zhao, Chuanfeng; Andrews, Arlyn E. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 117, Issue D11 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JD016896	journal	June 2012
Lagrangian Modeling of the Atmosphre: An Introduction Lin, John C.; Brunner, Dominik; Gerbig, Christoph Lagrangian Modeling of the Atmosphere https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GM001376	book	January 2012
Trends and regional distributions of land and ocean carbon sinks Sarmiento, J. L.; Gloor, M.; Gruber, N. Biogeosciences, Vol. 7, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-7-2351-2010	journal	January 2010
Surface-to-mountaintop transport characterised by radon observations at the Jungfraujoch Griffiths, A. D.; Conen, F.; Weingartner, E. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 14, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-12763-2014	journal	January 2014
The World is Not Flat: Implications for the Global Carbon Balance Rotach, Mathias W.; Wohlfahrt, Georg; Hansel, Armin Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 95, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-13-00109.1	journal	July 2014
Satellite data analysis and ecosystem modeling for carbon sequestration assessments in the western United States Potter, Christopher; Fladeland, Matthew; Klooster, Steven Carbon Sequestration and Its Role in the Global Carbon Cycle https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GM000434	book	January 2009
Estimates of CO2 from fires in the United States: implications for carbon management Wiedinmyer, Christine; Neff, Jason C. Carbon Balance and Management, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1186/1750-0680-2-10	journal	November 2007
Forest health conditions in North America Tkacz, Borys; Moody, Ben; Castillo, Jaime Villa Environmental Pollution, Vol. 155, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2008.03.003	journal	October 2008
Atmospheric inverse modeling to constrain regional-scale CO ₂ budgets at high spatial and temporal resolution Göckede, Mathias; Michalak, Anna M.; Vickers, Dean Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 115, Issue D15 https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JD012257	journal	January 2010
Feasibility for detection of ecosystem response to disturbance by atmospheric carbon dioxide Brooks, Bjorn-Gustaf J.; Desai, Ankur R.; Stephens, Britton B. Biogeosciences Discussions https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2016-223	journal	June 2016
Systematic variations in the concentration of NO _x (NO Plus NO ₂ ) at Niwot Ridge, Colorado Parrish, D. D.; Hahn, C. H.; Fahey, D. W. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 95, Issue D2 https://doi.org/10.1029/JD095iD02p01817	journal	January 1990
A near-field tool for simulating the upstream influence of atmospheric observations: The Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport (STILT) model Lin, J. C. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 108, Issue D16 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JD003161	journal	January 2003
The wildland - urban interface fire problem - current approaches and research needs Mell, William E.; Manzello, Samuel L.; Maranghides, Alexander International Journal of Wildland Fire, Vol. 19, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1071/WF07131	journal	January 2010
The Schauinsland CO ₂ record: 30 years of continental observations and their implications for the variability of the European CO ₂ budget Schmidt, M. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 108, Issue D19 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JD003085	journal	January 2003
Inferring high-resolution fossil fuel CO ₂ records at continental sites from combined ¹⁴ CO ₂ and CO observations Levin, Ingeborg; Karstens, Ute Tellus B, Vol. 59, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0889.2006.00244.x	journal	April 2007
A time-split nonhydrostatic atmospheric model for weather research and forecasting applications Skamarock, William C.; Klemp, Joseph B. Journal of Computational Physics, Vol. 227, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2007.01.037	journal	March 2008
Assessing filtering of mountaintop CO ₂ mole fractions for application to inverse models of biosphere-atmosphere carbon exchange Brooks, B. -G. J.; Desai, A. R.; Stephens, B. B. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 12, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-2099-2012	journal	January 2012
Old-growth CO2 flux measurements reveal high sensitivity to climate anomalies across seasonal, annual and decadal time scales Wharton, S.; Falk, M.; Bible, K. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 161 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2012.03.007	journal	August 2012
Global carbon budget 2014 Le Quéré, C.; Moriarty, R.; Andrew, R. M. Earth System Science Data, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-7-47-2015	journal	January 2015
A comparison of water and carbon dioxide exchange at a windy alpine tundra and subalpine forest site near Niwot Ridge, Colorado Blanken, Peter D.; Williams, Mark W.; Burns, Sean P. Biogeochemistry, Vol. 95, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-009-9325-9	journal	April 2009
FLUXNET: A New Tool to Study the Temporal and Spatial Variability of Ecosystem–Scale Carbon Dioxide, Water Vapor, and Energy Flux Densities Baldocchi, Dennis; Falge, Eva; Gu, Lianhong Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 82, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(2001)082<2415:FANTTS>2.3.CO;2	journal	November 2001
Simulations of terrestrial carbon metabolism and atmospheric CO2 in a general circulation model. Part 2: Simulated CO2 concentrations Denning, A. Scott; Randall, David A.; Collatz, G. James Tellus B, Vol. 48, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0889.1996.t01-1-00010.x	journal	September 1996
Estimating historical changes in global land cover: Croplands from 1700 to 1992 Ramankutty, Navin; Foley, Jonathan A. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Vol. 13, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1029/1999GB900046	journal	December 1999
CO2 transport over complex terrain Sun, Jielun; Burns, Sean P.; Delany, Anthony C. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, Vol. 145, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2007.02.007	journal	July 2007
A Multiscale and Multidisciplinary Investigation Of Ecosystem–Atmosphere CO ₂ Exchange Over the Rocky Mountains of Colorado Sun, Jielun; Oncley, Steven P.; Burns, Sean P. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 91, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1175/2009BAMS2733.1	journal	February 2010
High Resolution Fossil Fuel Combustion CO ₂ Emission Fluxes for the United States Gurney, Kevin R.; Mendoza, Daniel L.; Zhou, Yuyu Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 43, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1021/es900806c	journal	July 2009
Reduction in carbon uptake during turn of the century drought in western North America Schwalm, Christopher R.; Williams, Christopher A.; Schaefer, Kevin Nature Geoscience, Vol. 5, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1529	journal	July 2012
A preliminary investigation of boundary layer effects on daytime atmospheric CO2 concentrations at a mountaintop location in the Rocky Mountains De Wekker, Stephan F. J.; Ameen, Alex; Song, Guan Acta Geophysica, Vol. 57, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.2478/s11600-009-0033-6	journal	August 2009
Regional carbon fluxes and the effect of topography on the variability of atmospheric CO ₂ van der Molen, M. K.; Dolman, A. J. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 112, Issue D1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007649	journal	January 2007
Carbon cycle uncertainty in the Alaskan Arctic Fisher, J. B.; Sikka, M.; Oechel, W. C. Biogeosciences, Vol. 11, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-11-4271-2014	journal	January 2014

Similar Records

A WRF simulation of the impact of 3-D radiative transfer on surface hydrology over the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online) · OSTI ID:1355135

Liou, K. N.; Gu, Y.; Leung, L. R.; +2 more

Interactions Between the Amazonian Rainforest and Cumuli Clouds: A Large‐Eddy Simulation, High‐Resolution ECMWF, and Observational Intercomparison Study

Journal Article · Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems · OSTI ID:1355135

Vilà‐Guerau de Arellano, J.; Wang, X.; Pedruzo‐Bagazgoitia, X.; +10 more

How can biosphere models simulate enough vegetation biomass in the mountains of the western United States? Implications of meteorological forcing

Journal Article · Tue Dec 14 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Environmental Modelling and Software · OSTI ID:1355135

Duarte, Henrique F.; Raczka, Brett M.; Bowling, David R.; +3 more

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Title: How can mountaintop CO2 observations be used to constrain regional carbon fluxes?

Citation Formats

References (67)

Similar Records

Related Subjects

Title: How can mountaintop CO₂ observations be used to constrain regional carbon fluxes?