Atmospheric CO2 Concentrations from Aircraft for 1972-1981, CSIRO Monitoring Program

• Main Authors: Beardsmore, David, Pearman, Graeme
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Environmental System Science Data Infrastructure for a Virtual Ecosystem; Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States) 2012
• Subjects: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; New Zealand; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3334/cdiac/atg.ndp007; https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1394443/

From 1972 through 1981, air samples were collected in glass flasks from aircraft at a variety of latitudes and altitudes over Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica. The samples were analyzed for CO2 concentrations with nondispersive infrared gas analysis. The resulting data contain the sampling dates, type of aircraft, flight number, flask identification number, sampling time, geographic sector, distance in kilometers from the listed distance measuring equipment (DME) station, station number of the radio navigation distance measuring equipment, altitude of the aircraft above mean sea level, sample analysis date, flask pressure, tertiary standards used for the analysis, analyzer used, and CO2 concentration. These data represent the first published record of CO2 concentrations in the Southern Hemisphere expressed in the WMO 1981 CO2 Calibration Scale and provide a precise record of atmospheric CO2 concentrations in the troposphere and lower stratosphere over Australia and New Zealand.