Citation

BibTex format

@article{Chawner:2024:10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024,
author = {Chawner, H and Saboya, E and Adcock, KE and Arnold, T and Artioli, Y and Dylag, C and Forster, GL and Ganesan, A and Graven, H and Lessin, G and Levy, P and Luijkx, IT and Manning, A and Pickers, PA and Rennick, C and Rodenbeck, C and Rigby, M},
doi = {10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024},
journal = {Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics},
pages = {4231--4252},
title = {Atmospheric oxygen as a tracer for fossil fuel carbon dioxide: a sensitivity study in the UK},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024},
volume = {24},
year = {2024}
}

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB - We investigate the use of atmospheric oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements for the estimation of the fossil fuel component of atmospheric CO2 in the UK. Atmospheric potential oxygen (APO) – a tracer that combines O2 and CO2, minimizing the influence of terrestrial biosphere fluxes – is simulated at three sites in the UK, two of which make APO measurements. We present a set of model experiments that estimate the sensitivity of APO simulations to key inputs: fluxes from the ocean, fossil fuel flux magnitude and distribution, the APO baseline, and the exchange ratio of O2 to CO2 fluxes from fossil fuel combustion and the terrestrial biosphere. To estimate the influence of uncertainties in ocean fluxes, we compare three ocean O2 flux estimates from the NEMO–ERSEM, the ECCO–Darwin ocean model, and the Jena CarboScope (JC) APO inversion. The sensitivity of APO to fossil fuel emission magnitudes and to terrestrial biosphere and fossil fuel exchange ratios is investigated through Monte Carlo sampling within literature uncertainty ranges and by comparing different inventory estimates. We focus our model–data analysis on the year 2015 as ocean fluxes are not available for later years. As APO measurements are only available for one UK site at this time, our analysis focuses on the Weybourne station. Model–data comparisons for two additional UK sites (Heathfield and Ridge Hill) in 2021, using ocean flux climatologies, are presented in the Supplement. Of the factors that could potentially compromise simulated APO-derived fossil fuel CO2 (ffCO2) estimates, we find that the ocean O2 flux estimate has the largest overall influence at the three sites in the UK. At times, this influence is comparable in magnitude to the contribution of simulated fossil fuel CO2 to simulated APO. We find that simulations using different ocean fluxes differ from each other substantially. No single model estimate, or a model estimate that assumed zero oce
AU - Chawner,H
AU - Saboya,E
AU - Adcock,KE
AU - Arnold,T
AU - Artioli,Y
AU - Dylag,C
AU - Forster,GL
AU - Ganesan,A
AU - Graven,H
AU - Lessin,G
AU - Levy,P
AU - Luijkx,IT
AU - Manning,A
AU - Pickers,PA
AU - Rennick,C
AU - Rodenbeck,C
AU - Rigby,M
DO - 10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024
EP - 4252
PY - 2024///
SN - 1680-7316
SP - 4231
TI - Atmospheric oxygen as a tracer for fossil fuel carbon dioxide: a sensitivity study in the UK
T2 - Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024
UR - https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/24/4231/2024/
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/113177
VL - 24
ER -