NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: physical sciences, greenhouse gases, atmospheric sciences

Objective(s): To conduct high quality ground-based atmospheric measurements of Greenhouse Gases from coastal, interior and Arctic regions in Canada.

Project Description: Environment Canada’s (EC) Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) Measurement Program conducts high quality ground-based atmospheric measurements of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Methane (CH4) and other GHGs from coastal, interior and Arctic regions in Canada. The goal is to provide high quality data to put observational constraints on large-scale sources and sinks, and improve the understanding of the carbon cycle. The long lifetime and rapid mixing of CO2 and CH4 in the atmosphere provides a large scale integration of surface fluxes. With sufficient measurement precision and surface coverage (measurement sites), a signature of individual surface source or sink regions can be detected and quantified. The GHG measurement program is maintained by the Climate Chemistry Measurements and Research (CCMR) section at Environment Canada. The simultaneous measurement of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 is made using a Picarro G1301 gas analyzer. The measurement technology, based on cavity ring down detection, is new to the measurement community engaged in precise and accurate GHG measurements. The lifetime of these station standards are expected to be 2 years and will be changed by CCMR staff during scheduled annual maintenance visits. A computer is used to control the instrument and acquire data. High resolution data is stored on the computer. A lower resolution data stream is collected automatically by the servers in Toronto. All data is posted on the World Meteorological Organizations GHG data centre maintained by the Japanese Meteorological Agency in Tokyo, Japan. Web site: http://gaw.kishou.go.jp/wdcgg/ The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from December 7, 2010 to December 31, 2010.