Characterization of Regional-Scale CO2 Transport Uncertainties in an Ensemble with Flow-Dependent Transport Errors
(2019) In Geophysical Research Letters 46(7). p.4049-4058- Abstract
Inference of CO2 surface fluxes using atmospheric CO2 observations in atmospheric inversions depends critically on accurate representation of atmospheric transport. Here we characterize regional-scale CO2 transport uncertainties due to uncertainties in meteorological fields using a mesoscale atmospheric model and an ensemble of simulations with flow-dependent transport errors. During a 1-month summer period over North America, transport uncertainties yield an ensemble spread in instantaneous CO2 at 100 m above ground level comparable to the CO2 uncertainties resulting from 48% relative uncertainty in 3-hourly natural CO2 fluxes. Temporal averaging reduces transport... (More)
Inference of CO2 surface fluxes using atmospheric CO2 observations in atmospheric inversions depends critically on accurate representation of atmospheric transport. Here we characterize regional-scale CO2 transport uncertainties due to uncertainties in meteorological fields using a mesoscale atmospheric model and an ensemble of simulations with flow-dependent transport errors. During a 1-month summer period over North America, transport uncertainties yield an ensemble spread in instantaneous CO2 at 100 m above ground level comparable to the CO2 uncertainties resulting from 48% relative uncertainty in 3-hourly natural CO2 fluxes. Temporal averaging reduces transport uncertainties but increases the influence of CO2 uncertainties from the lateral boundaries. The influence of CO2 background uncertainties is especially large for column-averaged CO2. These results suggest that transport errors and CO2 background errors limit regional atmospheric inversions at two distinct timescales and that the error characteristics of transport and background errors should guide the design of regional inversion systems.
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- author
- Chen, Hans W. LU ; Zhang, Fuqing ; Lauvaux, Thomas ; Davis, Kenneth J. ; Feng, Sha ; Butler, Martha P. and Alley, Richard B.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2019-04-16
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Geophysical Research Letters
- volume
- 46
- issue
- 7
- pages
- 10 pages
- publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85064534237
- ISSN
- 0094-8276
- DOI
- 10.1029/2018GL081341
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 2a728aa4-e984-4f53-8ebb-5d034954d9df
- date added to LUP
- 2019-11-13 16:16:20
- date last changed
- 2022-04-18 18:51:11
@article{2a728aa4-e984-4f53-8ebb-5d034954d9df, abstract = {{<p>Inference of CO<sub>2</sub> surface fluxes using atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> observations in atmospheric inversions depends critically on accurate representation of atmospheric transport. Here we characterize regional-scale CO<sub>2</sub> transport uncertainties due to uncertainties in meteorological fields using a mesoscale atmospheric model and an ensemble of simulations with flow-dependent transport errors. During a 1-month summer period over North America, transport uncertainties yield an ensemble spread in instantaneous CO<sub>2</sub> at 100 m above ground level comparable to the CO<sub>2</sub> uncertainties resulting from 48% relative uncertainty in 3-hourly natural CO<sub>2</sub> fluxes. Temporal averaging reduces transport uncertainties but increases the influence of CO<sub>2</sub> uncertainties from the lateral boundaries. The influence of CO<sub>2</sub> background uncertainties is especially large for column-averaged CO<sub>2</sub>. These results suggest that transport errors and CO<sub>2</sub> background errors limit regional atmospheric inversions at two distinct timescales and that the error characteristics of transport and background errors should guide the design of regional inversion systems.</p>}}, author = {{Chen, Hans W. and Zhang, Fuqing and Lauvaux, Thomas and Davis, Kenneth J. and Feng, Sha and Butler, Martha P. and Alley, Richard B.}}, issn = {{0094-8276}}, language = {{eng}}, month = {{04}}, number = {{7}}, pages = {{4049--4058}}, publisher = {{American Geophysical Union (AGU)}}, series = {{Geophysical Research Letters}}, title = {{Characterization of Regional-Scale CO<sub>2</sub> Transport Uncertainties in an Ensemble with Flow-Dependent Transport Errors}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2018GL081341}}, doi = {{10.1029/2018GL081341}}, volume = {{46}}, year = {{2019}}, }