A new mobile laboratory for greenhouse gas source and sink attribution and carbon cycle science

 

Authors

Bernard D. Zak — Multiple Academic
Mark D. Ivey — Sandia National Laboratories
Jeffrey Zirzow — Sandia National Laboratories
Fred Helsel — Sandia National Laboratories
John K Roskovensky — Sandia National Laboratories
Manvendra K. Dubey — Los Alamos National Laboratory
Thom Rahn — Los Alamos National Laboratory
Claudia I Mora — Los Alamos National Laboratory
Hope A. Michelsen — Sandia National Laboratories
Thomas Guilderson — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Ray P. Bambha — Sandia National Laboratories
Paul Schrader — Sandia National Laboratories
Ryan Thomas Herrmann — Sandia National Laboratories

Category

Instruments

Description

ATML1 and ATML2 deployed at the ARM Southern Great Plains site during the Northern Oklahoma CO2 Attribution with Tracers Study (NOCATS), fall 2010.
We have developed a mobile laboratory to quantify fluxes of CO2 within the terrestrial biosphere and quantitatively attribute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to diverse biogenic and anthropogenic sources. Our new mobile lab facilities include (1) two climate-controlled 30-foot trucks, referred to as the Atmospheric and Terrestrial Mobile Laboratories (ATML1 and ATML2), which house instruments for in situ measurements of GHGs and tracers of GHG sources and sinks, and (2) an insulated trailer, which houses upward-viewing remote sensing instruments. The trucks were recently deployed at the ARM SGP facility for six weeks to demonstrate the utility of this suite of instruments for carbon-cycle science and GHG attribution. The trailer was deployed downwind of the Four Corners Power Plant in Farmington, New Mexico, to measure the evolution of the coal-fired power-plant plume. We have also developed capabilities to analyze trace-gas data using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The trucks are equipped with gas-bottle racks, instruments racks, and inlet systems for air sampling. ATML1 has a pneumatic mast to collect air at a height of 10 meters. The inlet for ATML2 extends to allow sampling on an eddy-covariance tower separate from the truck or from the top of the ATML1 mast. Both trucks are line-powered, but ATML1 can be powered by built-in generators if needed. Having two trucks with some redundant instrumentation allows for more flexibility during deployments and the ability to make measurements upwind and downwind of GHG sources. ATML1 currently carries instrumentation for CO, SO2, NOx, and O3 abundances; four Picarro spectrometers for 12CO2, 13CO2, CH4, H216O, H218O, and HD16O abundances; a flask sampling system for 14CO2; a drum sampler for elemental particle composition; a PASS-3 photoacoustic particle sensor; and an AirCore sampler for sampling aloft. ATML2 houses an Aerodyne laser absorption spectrometer for 12CO2, 13CO2, C16O18O, C16O2, and H2O abundances and fluxes; a proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometer for VOC abundances and fluxes; a sonic anemometer; and soil and air temperature and humidity sensors for validating flux measurements. The trailer includes a sun-tracking photometer for aerosols, a ceilometer for boundary layer height, a total sky imager for clouds, a radiosonde system, and a solar-viewing FTIR spectrometer, which enables smokestack-plume or atmospheric-column measurements in the near-infrared and thermal infrared spectral region.