Imposing strong constraints on tropical terrestrial CO₂ fluxes using passenger aircraft based measurements

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Abstract

Because very few measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) are available in the tropics, estimates of surface CO 2 fluxes in tropical regions are beset with considerable uncertainties. To improve estimates of tropical terrestrial fluxes, atmospheric CO 2 inversion was performed using passenger aircraft based measurements of the Comprehensive Observation Network for Trace gases by Airliner (CONTRAIL) project in addition to the surface measurement data set of GLOBALVIEW–CO 2 . Regional monthly fluxes at the earth's surface were estimated using the Bayesian synthesis approach focusing on the period 2006–2008 using the Nonhydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model‐based Transport Model (NICAM‐TM). By adding the aircraft to the surface data, the posterior flux errors were greatly reduced; specifically, error reductions of up to 64% were found for tropical Asia regions. This strong impact is closely related to efficient vertical transport in the tropics. The optimized surface fluxes using the CONTRAIL data were evaluated by comparing the simulated atmospheric CO 2 distributions with independent aircraft measurements of the Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container (CARIBIC) project. The inversion with the CONTRAIL data yields the global carbon sequestration rates of 2.22 ± 0.28 Pg C yr −1 for the terrestrial biosphere and 2.24 ± 0.27 Pg C yr −1 for the oceans (the both are adjusted by riverine input of CO 2 ). For the first time the CONTRAIL CO 2 measurements were used in an inversion system to identify the areas of greatest impact in terms of reducing flux uncertainties.

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