ATML: A new atmospheric and terrestrial mobile laboratory for GHG measurement

Poster PDF

Description

A new mobile laboratory for multi-signature, greenhouse gas measurement and source attribution is under construction in support of a three-lab (LANL-LLNL-SNL) program in Climate Modeling, Carbon Measurement, and Uncertainty Quantification. The Atmospheric and Terrestrial Mobile Laboratory (ATML) will provide measurement capabilities to attribute CO2 emissions to their diverse sources, quantify fluxes of CO2 in the terrestrial biosphere, and improve our ability to scale from ground-based to satellite-based GHG measurements. This poster will describe the unique suite of instruments on the ATML, including a proton transfer mass spectrometer and laser-based analyzers for field sampling and rapid, high precision analysis of CO2 and water vapor concentrations and isotopics, as well as CH4 concentration. The ATML is also outfitted with a portable tall tower, flask sampler for collection of air samples for 14C analysis, EC Flux system, photoacoustic aerosol sampler, flask sampling system, and standard air quality and meteorological instruments. A separate, transportable high resolution solar tracking Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) that operates in the near-IR and vis-uv is being acquired for retrievals of columnar concentrations of CO2, CH4, N2O, CO, NO2, and other absorbing species. We plan to assemble and deploy the ATML and transportable FTS for a series of short-term, focused experiments in FY2010 for GHG measurement and attribution, emphasizing inter-comparison and cross-validation of new analytical techniques, real-time measurement of multiple parameters for the attribution of CO2 sources, as well as test scaling hypotheses that connect ARM data to satellite products. This poster will summarize the ongoing construction of the ATML and timelines for its deployment later this year.