Investigating regional source and sink patterns of Alpine CO2 and CH4 concentrations based on a back trajectory receptor model

Abstract

Background: The main purpose of this paper is to contribute to the improvement in the present knowledge concerning regional carbon dioxide (CO 2) and methane (CH 4) exchange as an essential step towards reducing the uncertainties along with bottom-up estimations of their global budget by identifying the characteristic spatial and temporal scales of the regional greenhouse gas fluxes. To this end, we propose a stepwise statistical top-down methodology for examining the relationship between synoptic-scale atmospheric transport patterns and mole fractions of the climate gases to finally receive a characterisation of the sampling sites with regard to the key processes driving the CO 2 or CH 4 concentration levels. Results: The results of this study presented in this paper give detailed insights into the emission structures underlying the measurement time series by means of origin-related examinations of the Alpine CO 2 and CH 4 budgets. The time series of both climate gases from the atmospheric measurements carried out at the four high-alpine observatories Schneefernerhaus, Jungfraujoch, Sonnblick and Plateau Rosa form the basis for the characterisation of the regional CO 2 as well as CH 4 budget of the Alpine region as the focus area of the Central European study region. For the investigation area so outlined, the project identifies source and relative sink regions with influence on the Alpine climate gas measurements as well as their temporal variations. The therefore required combination of the measurements with the synoptic situation prevailing at the respective measuring time which carries the information about the origin of the analysed air masses is derived by means of a trajectory-based receptor model. The back trajectory receptor model is set up to decipher with high spatial resolution the most relevant source and sink areas, whereby the Alpine region is identified as a significant relative sink for CO 2 as well as for CH 4 concentrations all year long, whereas major European emitters show their impact during different seasons. Conclusions: The reliable results achieved with this approach in connection with the encouraging model-internal uncertainty assessments and external plausibility checks lend credence to our model and its strength to illustrate dependably spatial-temporal variations of the relevant emitters and absorbers of different climate gases (CO 2 and CH 4) in high spatial resolution.

Long-term trends of black carbon and particle number concentration in the lower free troposphere in Central Europe

“…The upper part of the Zugspitzplatt plateau is covered by Germany's largest glacier, "Schneeferner", which descends from west to east. Owing to the climatology of synoptic airflow in Central Europe, ZSF is influenced by westerly winds most of the time [31,32].…”

Comparison of atmospheric CO, CO2 and CH4 measurements at the Schneefernerhaus and the mountain ridge at Zugspitze

“…In recent years, several studies have analysed the CO 2 and CH 4 measurements performed at Zugspitze (e.g. Yuan et al, 2018Yuan et al, , 2019Giemsa et al, 2019), also in combination with δ 13 C-CO 2 ratios (e.g. Ghasemifard et al, 2019a, b).…”

Comparison of atmospheric CO, CO2 and CH4 measurements at Schneefernerhaus and the mountain ridge at Zugspitze

“…Due to the high elevation of mountain stations, the measured ambient air is less affected by regional and local influences compared to urban stations. In recent years, several studies have analysed the CO 2 and CH 4 measurements performed at Zugspitze (e.g., Yuan et al, 2018Yuan et al, , 2019Giemsa et al, 2019), also in combination with δ 13 C-CO 2 ratios (e.g., Ghasemifard et al, 2019a, b). However, recent studies of greenhouse gas measurements with a temporal resolution of seconds to minutes have shown, that local influences of anthropogenic activities can be seen in several mountain station time series, such as Pic du Midi, where a small sewage treatment facility near the air intake of the analyser causes local CH 4 peaks (El Yazidi et al, 2018), or Jungfraujoch, where the CO 2 measurement shows an influence of local anthropogenic activities, potentially by visitors and tourism (Affolter et al, 2021).…”