资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Fossil fuel CO2 (CO2ff) is the major contributor of anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere, and accurate quantification is essential to better understand the carbon cycle. Since October 2012, we have been continuously measuring the mixing ratios of CO, CO2, CH4, and H2O at five different heights at the Beromunster tall tower, Switzerland. Air samples for radiocarbon (Delta (CO2)-C-14) analysis have also been collected from the highest sampling inlet (212.5 m) of the tower on a biweekly basis. A correction was applied for (CO2)-C-14 emissions from nearby nuclear power plants (NPPs), which have been simulated with the Lagrangian transport model FLEXPART-COSMO. The (CO2)-C-14 emissions from NPPs offset the depletion in C-14 by fossil fuel emissions, resulting in an underestimation of the fossil fuel component in atmospheric CO2 by about 16 %. An average observed ratio (R CO /of 13.4 +/- 1.3 mmol mol(-1) was calculated from the enhancements in CO mixing ratios relative to the clean-air reference site Jungfraujoch (1 CO) and the radiocarbon-based fossil fuel CO2 mole fractions. The wintertime R CO estimate of 12.5 +/- 3.3 is about 30% higher than the wintertime ratio between in situ measured CO and CO2 enhancements at Beromunster over the Jungfraujoch background (8.7 mmol mol(-1)) corrected for non-fossil contributions due to strong biospheric contribution despite the strong correlation between 1 CO and 1 CO2 in winter. By combining the ratio derived using the radiocarbon measurements and the in situ measured CO mixing ratios, a high-resolution time series of CO2ff was calculated exhibiting a clear seasonality driven by seasonal variability in emissions and vertical mixing. By subtracting the fossil fuel component and the large-scale background, we have determined the regional biospheric CO2 component that is characterized by seasonal variations ranging between -15 and +30 ppm. A pronounced diurnal variation was observed during summer modulated by biospheric exchange and vertical mixing, while no consistent pattern was found during winter.