Observations of atmospheric methane and carbon monoxide in Brazil: SCAR‐B mission

Alvalá, Plínio Carlos; Kirchhoff, V. W. J. H.

doi:10.1029/98jd00422

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…In the plume of a wildfire this ratio increased to 1%. Alvala and Kirchhoff (1998) report average CH 4 mixing ratios observed during the SCAR-B experiment in August 1995 in the Brasilian cerrado of 1739±20 ppb. This value is well above the average mixing ratio of 1690±26 ppb derived from the NOAA CMDL curve for that region and indicates a significant contribution of biomass burning to the CH 4 mixing ratios at the time of measurement.…”

Section: Methanementioning

confidence: 94%

A review of biomass burning emissions, part I: gaseous emissions of carbon monoxide, methane, volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen containing compounds

Koppmann¹,

Czapiewski²,

Reid³

2005

Preprint

213

141

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Abstract. Biomass burning is the burning of living and dead vegetation. Ninety percent of all biomass-burning events are thought to be human initiated. Human induced fires are used for a variety of ''applications'' such as agricultural expansion, deforestation, bush control, weed and residue burning, and harvesting practices. Natural fires are grassland and forest fires mainly induced by lightning. It is estimated that 8700 Tg of dry matter/year are burnt each year in total. Emissions from biomass burning include a wide range of gaseous compounds and particles that contribute significantly to the tropospheric budgets on a local, regional, and even global scales. The emission of CO, CH4 and VOC affect the oxidation capacity of the troposphere by reacting with OH radicals, and emissions of nitric oxide and VOC lead to the formation of ozone and other photo oxidants. For a large number of compounds biomass burning is one of the largest single sources in the troposphere, especially in the tropics. Biomass-burning emissions play an important role in the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nitrogen. Following the first systematic investigations on fire emissions in laboratory experiments in the 1960's, the last 20 years saw an increasing number in studies on biomass-burning emissions in various ecosystems. Recently, our knowledge of the emissions of gaseous compounds in the troposphere from fires has increased considerably. This manuscript is the first of four describing the properties biomass burning emissions. The properties of biomass-burning particles are discussed in part II and III of this review series which have been recently published, and their direct radiative effects are in part IV. This paper focuses on the review of emission ratios and emission rates of carbon monoxide, methane, volatile organics, and nitrogen containing compounds and should not be seen as a review of global emission estimates, even though we discuss the implications of our results on such studies.

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Section: Methanementioning

confidence: 94%

A review of biomass burning emissions, part I: gaseous emissions of carbon monoxide, methane, volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen containing compounds

Koppmann¹,

Czapiewski²,

Reid³

2005

Preprint

213

141

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“…Extensive CO measurements during these campaigns did show evidence of significant contributions of VOC photooxidation to the atmospheric CO burden; however, biomass burning was identified as the dominant source of the CO plume Jacob and Wofsy, 1988;Sachse et al, 1988;Harriss et al, 1990b;Kirchhoff and Marinho, 1990). Since these early investigations, interest in the distribution and sources of CO over Amazonia, and over the tropics in general, has persisted, with remote sensing playing an increasingly important role (Kirchhoff and Rasmussen, 1990;Reichle et al, 1990Reichle et al, , 1999Alvala and Kirchhoff, 1998;Pougatchev et al, 1999;Edwards et al, 2006;Yurganov et al, 2008Yurganov et al, , 2010. These studies confirmed the existence of a persistent CO maximum over the Amazon Basin and its periphery, which is particularly prominent during the fire season that occurs in the period from August to December. Interest in the atmospheric cycle of CO is motivated by its central role in atmospheric chemistry as a product of the photooxidation of methane (CH 4 ) and other VOCs, as the dominant sink for the OH radical, and as a precursor of tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) (Logan et al, 1981).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon monoxide and related trace gases and aerosols over the Amazon Basin during the wet and dry seasons

Artaxo²,

et al. 2012

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Abstract. We present the results of airborne measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) and aerosol particle number concentration (CN) made during the Balanço Atmosférico Regional de Carbono na Amazônia (BARCA) program. The primary goal of BARCA is to address the question of basinscale sources and sinks of CO 2 and other atmospheric carbon species, a central issue of the Large-scale BiosphereAtmosphere (LBA) program. The experiment consisted of two aircraft campaigns during November-December 2008 (BARCA-A) and May-June 2009 (BARCA-B), which covered the altitude range from the surface up to about 4500 m, and spanned most of the Amazon Basin.Based on meteorological analysis and measurements of the tracer, SF 6 , we found that airmasses over the Amazon Basin during the late dry season (BARCA-A, November 2008) originated predominantly from the Southern Hemisphere, while during the late wet season (BARCA-B, May 2009) low-level airmasses were dominated by northernhemispheric inflow and mid-tropospheric airmasses were of mixed origin. In BARCA-A we found strong influence of biomass burning emissions on the composition of the atmosphere over much of the Amazon Basin, with CO enhancements up to 300 ppb and CN concentrations approaching 10 000 cm −3 ; the highest values were in the southern part of the Basin at altitudes of 1-3 km. The CN/ CO ratios were diagnostic for biomass burning emissions, and were lower in aged than in fresh smoke. Fresh emissions indicated CO/CO 2 and CN/CO emission ratios in good agreement with previous work, but our results also highlight the need to consider the residual smoldering combustion that takes place after the active flaming phase of deforestation fires.During the late wet season, in contrast, there was little evidence for a significant presence of biomass smoke. Low CN concentrations (300-500 cm −3 ) prevailed basinwide, and CO mixing ratios were enhanced by only ∼10 ppb above the mixing line between Northern and Southern Hemisphere air. There was no detectable trend in CO with distance from the coast, but there was a small enhancement of CO in the boundary layer suggesting diffuse biogenic sources from photochemical degradation of biogenic volatile organic compounds or direct biological emission.Simulations of CO distributions during BARCA-A using a range of models yielded general agreement in spatial distribution and confirm the important contribution from biomass burning emissions, but the models evidence some systematic quantitative differences compared to observed CO concentrations. These mismatches appear to be related to problems with the accuracy of the global background fields, the role Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. M. O. Andreae et al.: Carbon monoxide and related trace gases and aerosolsof vertical transport and biomass smoke injection height, the choice of model resolution, and reliability and temporal resolution of the emissions data base.

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“…Other rural environments which produce seasonal burnings of waste, such as sugar cane elds, also produce seasonal CO inputs (Kirchhoff et al 1989b;1991). These seasonal increases in the CO concentrations are not restricted to the surface, but are transmitted to the whole lower atmosphere, as has been observed on aircraft platforms (Harriss et al 1990;Pickering et al 1992;Thompson et al 1994;Alvala and Kirchhoff 1998). Another source of CO is present in the forest interior of Amazonia (Kirchhoff and Marinho 1990), possibly associated with abundant decaying organic material on the soil surface.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The cans used have been developed by R. Rasmussen and are especially manufactured for this purpose, being internally electro-polished to avoid contamination. The absolute CO concentrations are obtained by comparison with standard calibration gases presently provided by the NOAA/Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (Novelli et al 1991;1998). One stored (canned) gas sample can be analysed in about 4 minutes on the gas chromatograph.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An experiment to determine atmospheric CO concentrations of tropical South Atlantic air samples

Kirchhoff

Aires

Alvalá

2003

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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SUMMARYNew observations of atmospheric carbon monoxide, CO, are described, from tropical South Atlantic air samples. A new observational site, Maxaranguape, was set up in a clean remote environment right next to the ocean on the north-east coast of Brazil, to obtain CO mixing ratios and auxiliary data (meteorological parameters, ozone (O 3 ), carbon dioxide (CO 2 / and methane (CH 4 // during three sequential seasonal cycles. The seasonal variations of temperature, humidity and precipitation are shown for the new site. Chromatographic separation followed by mercury oxide detection is used to measure CO. The seasonality of the CO data was clearly established. Minima are seen during April, May and June showing wet-period averages of 56.1 parts per billion by volume (ppbv), with standard deviation 8.7 ppbv; during dry-period months, August to November, the average was 77.7 § 16.5 ppbv. For comparison, CO concentrations were also measured over continental areas in Brazil. Much larger values have been found in moderate 'burning' regions, such as the south of the state of Mato Grosso and the north-western part of the state of Parana, where 200 ppbv in the dry season has been observed. Since normally the air masses have travelled for several days over the ocean, the air masses over the site present low chemical activity. Daily variations of CO 2 are very small, of the order of a few percent relative to the diurnal mean. Only on rare occasions, when the wind direction changes, is the sampled air contaminated from owing over the inhabited shoreline to the south, and then CO 2 varies inversely with O 3 . The monthly mean CH 4 data does not show a clear seasonal variation, possibly because the amplitude of the CH 4 variation is only of the order of 1%, which is close to the precision of the measuring instrument.

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Observations of atmospheric methane and carbon monoxide in Brazil: SCAR‐B mission

Cited by 11 publications

References 21 publications

A review of biomass burning emissions, part I: gaseous emissions of carbon monoxide, methane, volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen containing compounds

A review of biomass burning emissions, part I: gaseous emissions of carbon monoxide, methane, volatile organic compounds, and nitrogen containing compounds

Carbon monoxide and related trace gases and aerosols over the Amazon Basin during the wet and dry seasons

An experiment to determine atmospheric CO concentrations of tropical South Atlantic air samples

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