Project

4167

Chief Investigator

ETHERIDGE, Dr David - CSIRO

Title

Greenhouse gases in the southern atmosphere

Project aims

Gases released by human activity (greenhouse and ozone depleting gases) contribute to global climate change. The Antarctic region is well located to measure global background changes in the gases. The CSIRO background air monitoring network is the most comprehensive and long-running in the Southern Hemisphere. With continuing innovation in measurements and interpretive models, it is ideally positioned to detect possible climate-induced regional changes in carbon uptake. It also provides essential background information for monitoring integrated emissions from the Australian continent.

Project gallery


Project Summary of the Season 2012/13

Atmospheric composition research has continued at 3 AAD stations (Casey since 1997, Mawson and Macquarie Island since 1990) using biweekly collected air samples, in collaboration with Bureau of Meteorology station staff. The samples were analysed at CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research "GASLAB" for CO2, CH4, CO, H2, N2O and CO2 isotopes. Enhanced atmospheric research at Macquarie Island clean air laboratory continued with: 1. continuous high precision in-situ CO2 measurement program (CSIRO); 2. semi-regular air sample collection for radio carbon (14CO2) analysis at the University of Heidelberg (Germany), and 3. continuous in-situ radon measurement program operated by ANSTO. In early 2012 a new technology Cavity Ring Down Spectroscopy continuous CO2 and CH4 analyser (Picarro) was installed at Casey initiating the first continuous CO2 measurement record on the Australian Antarctic continent. This continued to operate with minimal down time during the 2012/2013 season.

Project Summary of the Season 2013/14

Atmospheric composition research has continued at three AAD stations (Casey since 1997, Mawson and Macquarie Island since 1990) using bi-weekly collected air samples, in close collaboration with Bureau of Meteorology station staff. The samples that were collected were analysed at CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Aspendale laboratories for CO2, CH4, CO, H2, N2O and CO2 isotopes.

These atmospheric datasets represent a unique continuous record of the changing Antarctic /Southern Hemisphere and are used frequently in a wide range of global carbon cycle modelling studies. All data (2013) was processed and submitted to the World Meteorological Organization Global Atmospheric Watch (WMO GAW) World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) (http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/gmd/wdcgg/). This data is also incorporated into the "ObsPack" and "GLOBALVIEW" suite of atmospheric greenhouse gas data products (http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/obspack/index.html) which incorporate measurement contributions from more than 200 institutes around the world (346 total downloads in 2013 for CO2 datasets that include this AAD project's data).

Enhanced atmospheric research programs continued successfully at the Macquarie Island clean air laboratory with: 1. continuous, high precision, in-situ CO2 measurement program (CSIRO), and 2. continuous in-situ radon 222 measurement program operated by ANSTO.

At Casey station a recently established (2012) enhanced atmospheric research program has also operated successfully with a continuous, high precision, in-situ CO2/CH4/H2O analyser system (CSIRO). This represents the start of the first in-situ CO2 measurement record of the Australian Antarctic continental atmosphere.

All of these atmospheric programs continued to be operated successfully with minimal instrument down time during the 2013/2014 season.

Project Summary of the Season 2014/15

Gases released by human activity (greenhouse and ozone depleting gases) contribute to global climate change. The Antarctic region is well located to observe global background changes in these gases. The CSIRO background air monitoring network is the most comprehensive and long-running in the Southern Hemisphere. With continuing innovation in measurements and interpretive models, it is ideally positioned to detect possible climate-induced regional changes in carbon uptake. It also provides essential background information for monitoring integrated emissions from the Australian continent. In the last season, regular air samples were successfully collected at three Australian Antarctic stations, Mawson, Macquarie Is. and Casey. These are in addition to air samples collected at the South Pole station with collaborators from the USA. Combined with the long running atmospheric trace gas time series produced at the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station, these data provide a unique Southern Ocean regional network. These stations are recognized as WMO/GAW (World Meteorological Organization Global Atmospheric Watch) stations. The data from this global network is used extensively in a wide range of global atmospheric research studies.

Project Summary of the Season 2015/16

Anthropogenic emissions (greenhouse and ozone depleting gases) contribute to global climate change and the large scale oceanic and atmospheric dynamics in the Antarctic and Southern Ocean region play key roles in global climate processes. Monitoring changes in this region are critical to understanding these changing processes and the impacts on the Antarctic region, Australia and globally.
Australian Antarctic/Southern Ocean stations are ideally located to observe inter-annual and long term changes in the global background atmosphere. The CSIRO background air monitoring network is the most comprehensive and long-running in the Southern Hemisphere.
This program continued successfully with regular air samples being collected at three Australian Antarctic stations, Mawson, Macquarie Is. and Casey. These are in addition to air samples collected at the South Pole station with collaborators from the USA. The important in-situ greenhouse gas program at Macquarie continued successfully, achieving 10 years of continuous atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) data - an invaluable high quality data set that is being used with other Southern Ocean in-situ CO2 sites to observe and interpret seasonal latitudinal gradients in ocean CO2 fluxes, from a unique atmospheric perspective. This program includes the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) atmospheric radon monitoring program, radon is an important atmospheric tracer for air mass origin analysis.
Combined with the long running atmospheric trace gas time series produced at the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station, this data contributes to a unique Southern Ocean regional network. Data was submitted to the World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/gmd/wdcgg/). These stations are recognized as WMO/GAW (World Meteorological Organization Global Atmospheric Watch) stations. The data from this global network is used extensively in a wide range of global atmospheric research studies.

Project Summary of the Season 2016/17

Measurements of greenhouse gases and related tracers were continued at Casey, Macquarie Island and Mawson Stations. Greenhouse
gases (GHG) and their isotopologues (CO2, CH4, N2O, 13CO2, 14CO2, C18O2) and related trace gas species and tracers (O2/N2, CO, H2, radon) are measured through a combination of flask air samples and continuous measurements by CSIRO, ANSTO, and the University of Heidelberg. Visits were made to Macquarie Island (November 2016 and March 2017) and to Casey (February) for maintenance and calibration and training of Bureau of Meteorology support staff.
Data have been quality controlled, calibrated and provided to researchers and to data bases.
Publications on gas trends, sources and sinks have resulted, about 4 since 2016.

Project Summary of the Season 2017/18

Measurements of greenhouse gases and related tracers were continued at Casey, Macquarie Island and Mawson Stations. Greenhouse
gases (GHG: CO2, CH4, N2O) and CO2 isotopologues (13CO2, C18O2) and related trace gas species and tracers (CO, H2, radon) are measured through a combination of flask air samples and continuous measurements by CSIRO and ANSTO. Visits were made to Macquarie Island (March 2018) and to Casey (November 2017) for maintenance and calibration and for training of Bureau of Meteorology support staff.
Data have been quality controlled, calibrated and provided to researchers and to scientific data bases for a wide range of research applications.
The results on gas concentration trends, and emissions and uptake have been reported in publications, scientific meeting presentations and mainstream public literature.

Project Summary of the Season 2018/19

Measurements of greenhouse gases and gas tracers were continued at Casey, Mawson and Macquarie Island, using flask samples analysed at CSIRO and in situ monitoring at Casey and Macquarie (CSIRO and ANSTO). Measurements were assisted by BoM, AAD and the University of Wollongong.
Maintenance visits were carried out in February (Casey) and March (Macquarie Island), 2019.
The data contribute to the long and comprehensive records of trends in these gases in the Southern Ocean and Antarctic region. They are used in multiple modelling activities to infer sources and sinks of the gases, to drive climate models, and to link measurements of past atmospheric composition in ice cores to recent years. These in turn are used in policy documents of climate, greenhouse gases and the environment.

Project Summary of the Season 2019/20

Measurements of greenhouse gases and gas tracers including radon were continued at Casey, Mawson and Macquarie Island, using flask samples analysed at CSIRO and in situ monitoring at Casey and Macquarie Island (CSIRO and ANSTO). Measurements were supported by the BoM and the AAD.
Maintenance visits were carried out in November (Casey) and March (Macquarie Island), 2020.
The data contribute to the long and comprehensive records of trends in these gases in the Southern Ocean and Antarctic region. They are available through public databases and can be provided on request. They are used in multiple modelling activities to infer sources and sinks of the gases, to drive climate models, and to link measurements of past atmospheric composition in ice cores to recent years. These in turn are used in policy documents of climate, greenhouse gases and the environment.
The visit to Casey also scoped potential locations in conjunction with AAD personnel for a new atmospheric monitoring facility to replace the ageing Mabel hut and house instruments to monitor a wider range of atmospheric constituents.

Final Summary of Project Achievements

Measurements of the main atmospheric greenhouse gases were continued at two coastal Antarctic stations (Casey and Mawson) and at Macquarie Island (MI) in the Southern Ocean (SO) over the past 10 years.
Air sampled fortnightly in flasks was measured at CSIRO for the concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2) and the carbon-13 isotope of CO2. Continuous in-situ monitoring of CO2 and CH4 was introduced at Casey and MI (together with radon-222). The data are of high precision and quality, screened of local station influences and artefacts, and calibrated to international standards to merge with other regional observations in the region including the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station, the RV Investigator and monitoring stations across the globe.
The greenhouse gas records are essentially continuous since 1984 (Mawson), 1996 (Casey) and 1990 (MI) and constitute the most extensive and long running atmospheric composition observational network in the region. They quantify long term trends, year to year differences and seasonal variations of key atmospheric constituents. The observations provide validation of past atmospheric composition from ice core measurements and ground truthing of satellite retrievals.
The Antarctic and SO region is a unique location to observe changes in the global background atmosphere and the specific impacts in the region such as the important SO CO2 sink, remote atmospheric photochemistry and Australian emissions.
The data are used in numerical models of the atmosphere to infer the gas sources and sinks. The growth in CO2, CH4 and N2O is primarily due to anthropogenic emissions, with variations caused by bushfires, volcanic eruptions and global economic events. Variations but no significant decadal trends are found in the SO CO2 sink.
The gas records are also used in climate model simulations of climate change across the region and the globe.
Data are provided to public databases, to research groups and individuals. They have been used in most international studies of atmospheric composition in the region. The findings are used in policy reviews including the IPCC Assessment Reports (UN) and the State of the Climate (CSIRO-BoM).
The observing network, with ongoing upgrades to in situ monitoring is well placed to track future emissions and mitigation, the impact of changing energy systems (e.g. H2) and provide an early warning of a decline in the SO CO2 sink.

Category 1: Peer-reviewed literature

Rubino M., Etheridge D.M., Trudinger C.M., Allison C.E., Battle M.O., Langenfelds R.L., Steele L.P., Curran M., Bender M., White J.W.C., Jenk T.M., Blunier T., Francey R.J. (2013) A revised 1000 year atmospheric delta13C-CO2 record from Law Dome and South Pole, Antarctica, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 118(15). 8482-8499; [Ref: 15517]

Rubino M., Etheridge D.M., Trudinger C.M., Allison C.E., Rayner P.J., Enting I., Mulvaney R., Steele L.P., Langenfelds R.L., Sturges W.T., Curran M.A.J., Smith A.M. (2016) Low atmospheric CO2 levels during the Little Ice Age due to cooling-induced terrestrial uptake, Nature Geoscience 9(9). 691-694; [Ref: 15781]

Saunois M., et al (2016) The global methane budget 2000–2012, Earth System Science Data 8. 697-751; [Ref: 15858]

Tsuruta A., Aalto T., Backman L., Hakkarainen J., van der Laan-Luijkx I.T., Krol M.C., Spahni R., Houweling S., Laine M., Dlugokencky E., Gomez-Pelaez A.J., van der Schoot M., Langenfelds R., Ellul R., Arduini J., Apadula F., Gerbig C., Feist D.G., Kivi R., Yoshida Y., Peters W. (2017) Global methane emission estimates for 2000–2012 from CarbonTracker Europe-CH4 v1.0, Geoscientific Model Development 10(3). 1261-1289; [Ref: 15859]

Wells K.C., Millet D.B., Bousserez N., Henze D.K., Chaliyakunnel S., Griffis T.J., Luan Y., Dlugokencky E.J., Prinn R.G., O'Doherty S., Weiss R.F., Dutton G.S., Elkins J.W., Krummel P.B., Langenfelds R., Steele L.P., Kort E.A., Wofsy S.C., Umezawa T. (2015) Simulation of atmospheric N2O with GEOS-Chem and its adjoint: evaluation of observational constraints, Geoscientific Model Development 8(10). 3179-3198; [Ref: 15860]

Ghosh A., Patra P.K., Ishijima K., Umezawa T., Ito A., Etheridge D.M., Sugawara S., Kawamura K., Miller J.B., Dlugokencky E.J., Krummel P.B., Fraser P.J., Steele L.P., Langenfelds R.L., Trudinger C.M., White J.W.C., Vaughn B., Saeki T., Aoki S., Nakazawa T. (2015) Variations in global methane sources and sinks during 1910–2010, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 15. 2595-2612; [Ref: 15861]

Fraser A., Palmer P.I., Feng L., Bosch H., Parker R., Dlugokencky E.J., Krummel P.B., Langenfelds R.L. (2014) Estimating regional fluxes of CO2 and CH4 using space-borne observations of XCH4 : XCO2, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 14(23). 12883-12895; [Ref: 15862]

Saikawa E., Prinn R.G., Dlugokencky E., Ishijima K., Dutton G.S., Hall B.D., Langenfelds R., Tohjima Y., Machida T., Manizza M., Rigby M., O'Doherty S., Patra P.K., Harth C.M., Weiss R.F., Krummel P.B., van der Schoot M., Fraser P.J., Steele L.P., Aoki S., Nakazawa T., Elkins J.W. (2014) Global and regional emissions estimates for N2O, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 14(9). 4617-4641; [Ref: 15863]

Thompson R.L., Chevallier F., Crotwell A.M., Dutton G., Langenfelds R.L., Prinn R.G., Weiss R.F., Tohjima Y., Nakazawa T., Krummel P.B., Steele L.P., Fraser P., O'Doherty S., Ishijima K., Aoki S. (2014) Nitrous oxide emissions 1999 to 2009 from a global atmospheric inversion, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 14(4). 1801-1817; [Ref: 15864]

Cressot C., Chevallier F., Bousquet P., Crevoisier C., Dlugokencky E.J., Fortems-Cheiney A., Frankenberg C., Parker R., Pison I., Scheepmaker R.A., Montzka S.A., Krummel P.B., Steele L.P., Langenfelds R.L. (2014) On the consistency between global and regional methane emissions inferred from SCIAMACHY, TANSO-FTS, IASI and surface measurements, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 14(2). 577-592; [Ref: 15865]

Thompson R.L., Dlugokencky E., Chevallier F., Ciais P., Dutton G., Elkins J.W., Langenfelds R.L., Prinn R.G., Weiss R.F., Tohjima Y., O'Doherty S., Krummel P.B., Fraser P., Steele L.P. (2014) Interannual variability in tropospheric nitrous oxide, Geophysical Research Letters 40(16). 4426–4431; [Ref: 15866]

Kirschke S., et al (2013) Three decades of global methane sources and sinks, Nature Geoscience 6. 813–823; [Ref: 15867]

Basu S., Guerlet S., Butz A., Houweling S., Hasekamp O., Aben I., Krummel P., Steele P., Langenfelds R., Torn M., Biraud S., Stephens B., Andrews A., Worthy D. (2013) Global CO2 fluxes estimated from GOSAT retrievals of total column CO2, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 13(17). 8695-8717; [Ref: 15868]

Fraser A., Palmer P.I., Feng L., Boesch H., Cogan A., Parker R., Dlugokencky E.J., Fraser P.J., Krummel P.B., Langenfelds R.L., O'Doherty S., Prinn R.G., Steele L.P., van der Schoot M., Weiss R.F. (2013) Estimating regional methane surface fluxes: the relative importance of surface and GOSAT mole fraction measurements, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 13(11). 5697-5713; [Ref: 15869]

Pieterse G., Krol M.C., Batenberg A.M., Brenninkmeijer C.A.M., Popa M.E., O'Doherty S., Grant A., Steele L.P., Krummel P.B., Langenfelds R., Wang H.J., Vermeulen A.T., Schmidt M., Yver C., Jordan A., Engel A., Fisher R.E., Lowry D., Nisbet E.G., Reimann S., Vollmer M.K., Steinbacher M., Hammer S., Forster G., Sturges W.T., Rockmann T. (2013) Reassessing the variability in atmospheric H2 using the two-way nested TM5 model, Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres 118(9). 3764-3780; [Ref: 15870]

Category 3: Conference paper

Stavert A., Law R.M., van der Schoot M., Steele L.P., Lenton A., Rödenbeck C., Spencer D., Krummel P. (2013) Using Macquarie Island Atmospheric CO2 measurements to Constrain the Seasonality of Southern Ocean Carbon Exchange, Atmospheric Composition and Chemistry Observations and Modelling Conference incorporating the Cape Grim Annual Science Meeting, Aspendale, Victoria, Australia 27-29 November 2013 .; [Ref: 15871]