Airborne measurements of CO₂ and CH₄ fluxes over the Alaskan North Slope using the Flux Observations of Carbon from an Airborne Laboratory (FOCAL) system.

• Main Authors: Dumas, Edward J. Edward James, Dobosy, Ronald J., Senn, David Lawrence, Baker, Clifford Bruce, Sayres, D., Tuozzolo, C., Rivero, M., Allen, N., Healy, C., Munster, J., Anderson, J.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, Air Resources Laboratory, Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division. 2014
• Subjects: Atmospheric chemistry > Research.; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; north slope; Prudhoe Bay; Tundra; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7289/v5/tm-oar-arl-267; https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/12208

The Flux Observations of Carbon from an Airborne Laboratory (FOCAL) project is a cooperative effort among the Anderson Group from Harvard University, Aurora Flight Sciences, and NOAA's Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division (NOAA/ATDD) to add scientific instruments to a Diamond Aircraft DA-42 Twin Star aircraft to measure fluxes of CO₂ and CH₄ in the planetary boundary layer. The work, funded by the National Science Foundation in 2012, uses the Anderson Group's Integrated Cavity-Output Spectroscopy (ICOS) instrument suite to measure concentrations and isotopologues of CO₂ and CH₄, NOAA/ATDD's Best Airborne Turbulence (BAT) probe to measure atmospheric turbulence in 3-dimensions, and Aurora Flight Sciences' DA-42 Twin Star aircraft to carry the complete instrument package. The DA- 42 collected 36.9 hours of research data based from Deadhorse Airport in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in August, 2013. A flight track was created to compare the CO₂ and CH₄ flux measurements made by instruments aboard the DA-42 against a groundbased tower which made simultaneous CO₂ and CH₄ flux measurements. Flight tracks were then expanded to measure fluxes far beyond the tower comparison area. Tracks were flown over inland melt-pond lakes and the Arctic Ocean to monitor CH₄ concentrations and fluxes, as well as to compare coincident measurements of bulk water-column and in-situ tundra flux measurements made by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Tracks were also flown to characterize the background CO₂ and CH₄ concentrations around the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. This report describes the NOAA/ATDD BAT probe instrumentation and the August 2013 Alaska flight campaign.