Aircraft and tall tower measurements of propane, n-butane, n-pentane and i-pentane in the study of "Long-term measurements show little evidence for large increases in total U.S. CH4 emissions over the past decade"
Authors
- Stephen Montzka, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
- Benjamin R. Miller, University of Colorado/CIRES, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
- Brad Hall, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
- Arlyn Andrews, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
- Jonathan Kofler, University of Colorado/CIRES, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
- Colm Sweeney, University of Colorado/CIRES, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
- Sonja Wolter, University of Colorado/CIRES, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
- Tim Newberger, University of Colorado/CIRES, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
- Kathryn McKain, University of Colorado/CIRES, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
- Edward Dlugokencky, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
- Patricia Lang, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
- Pieter Tans, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
- Sébastien C. Biraud, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA
- Xin Lan, University of Colorado/CIRES, NOAA/ESRL/GMD
This database contains aircraft and tower measured mole fractions of propane (C3H8), n-butane (n-C4H10), n-pentane (n-C5H12) and i-pentane (i-C5H12) used in the study of "Long-term measurements show little evidence for large increases in total U.S. CH4 emissions over the past decade". Study period is 2008 -2015 for these hydrocarbon species.
The air sampling uses a programmable flask package (PFP) systems consists of 12 borosilicate glass flasks in each, a stainless-steel gas manifold system, and data logging and control software. These flasks (0.7 L each) are pressurized using a programmable compressor package (PCP) to obtain 2.2 L air sample. For aircraft, typically 12 targeted altitudes are sampled in each vertical profile. The sampling frequency varies from twice per week to once every two months, and some sites had reduced sampling frequency during 2011-2012. Please see Sweeney et al. (2015) for more details regarding aircraft measurements. The same PFP system is also used for tall tower measurement. At most towers samples are collected daily. Please refer to Andrews et al. (2014) for more details related to tall tower measurements. More information about aircraft program can be found at https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/aircraft/. More information about tall tower program can be found at https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/insitu/.
After the flask-air samples are taken, the PFPs are shipped back to NOAA/ESRL for analysis. Propane, n-butane, n-pentane and i-pentane are analyzed using a gas chromatography/mass spectrometric technique in NOAA/ESRL/HATS. Please refer to Montzka et al. (1993; 2007) for more measurement and analysis details.
This download package includes two tab- delimited files for aircraft and tower data, respectively, with a 'readme' file to explain the content of each column in the tab- delimited files.
Fair Use Statement
This database is made freely available to the scientific community and is intended to stimulate and support global carbon cycle and other modeling studies. We rely on the ethics and integrity of the user to assure that the authors receive fair credit for their work. Fair credit will depend on the nature of the work and the requirements of the institutions involved. Your use of this database implies an agreement to contact the database co-authors to discuss the nature of the work and the appropriate level of acknowledgement. If the database is essential to the work, or if an important result or conclusion depends on the database, co-authorship may be appropriate. This should be discussed with the data providers at an early stage in the work. Contacting the data providers is not optional; if you use the database, you must contact the data providers. A co-author email distribution list is provided during the database download process, which generates an automated e-mail to the user containing all relevant information.
Required Citation
In addition to the conditions of fair use as stated above, users must also include the following database citation in any publication or presentation using the product:
Montzka, S. A., R. C. Myers, J. H. Butler, J. W. Elkins, and S. O. Cummings (1993), Global tropospheric distribution and calibration scale of HCFC-22, Geophys. Res. Lett., 20(8), 703-706, doi:10.1029/93GL00753.
Montzka, S. A., P. Calvert, B. D. Hall, J. W. Elkins, T. J. Conway, P. P. Tans, and C. Sweeney (2007), On the global distribution, seasonality, and budget of atmospheric carbonyl sulfide (COS) and some similarities to CO2, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D09302, doi:10.1029/2006JD007665.
Andrews, A. E., et al. (2014), CO2, CO, and CH4 measurements from tall towers in the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network: Instrumentation, uncertainty analysis, and recommendations for future high-accuracy greenhouse gas monitoring efforts, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7(2), 647-687, doi:10.5194/amt-7-647-2014.
Sweeney, C., A. Karion, S. Wolter, T. Newberger, D. Guenther, J. A. Higgs, A. E. Andrews, P. M. Lang, D. Neff, E. Dlugokencky, J. B. Miller, S. A. Montzka, B. R. Miller, K. A. Masarie, S. C. Biraud, P. C. Novelli, M. Crotwell, A. M. Crotwell, K. Thoning, and P. P. Tans (2015), Seasonal climatology of CO2 across North America from aircraft measurements in the NOAA/ESRL Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 120, doi:10.1002/2014JD022591.
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