ALBERT

Description: Airborne estimates of greenhouse gas emissions are becoming more prevalent with the advent of rapid commercial development of trace gas instrumentation featuring increased measurement accuracy, precision, and frequency, and the swelling interest in the verification of current emission inventories. Multiple airborne studies have indicated that emission inventories may underestimate some hydrocarbon emission sources in US oil- and gas-producing basins. Consequently, a proper assessment of the accuracy of these airborne methods is crucial to interpreting the meaning of such discrepancies. We present a new method of sampling surface sources of any trace gas for which fast and precise measurements can be made and apply it to methane, ethane, and carbon dioxide on spatial scales of  ∼ 1000 m, where consecutive loops are flown around a targeted source region at multiple altitudes. Using Reynolds decomposition for the scalar concentrations, along with Gauss's theorem, we show that the method accurately accounts for the smaller-scale turbulent dispersion of the local plume, which is often ignored in other average mass balance methods. With the help of large eddy simulations (LES) we further show how the circling radius can be optimized for the micrometeorological conditions encountered during any flight. Furthermore, by sampling controlled releases of methane and ethane on the ground we can ascertain that the accuracy of the method, in appropriate meteorological conditions, is often better than 10 %, with limits of detection below 5 kg h−1 for both methane and ethane. Because of the FAA-mandated minimum flight safe altitude of 150 m, placement of the aircraft is critical to preventing a large portion of the emission plume from flowing underneath the lowest aircraft sampling altitude, which is generally the leading source of uncertainty in these measurements. Finally, we show how the accuracy of the method is strongly dependent on the number of sampling loops and/or time spent sampling the source plume.

Description: We study the relationships between convective characteristics and air density over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) from the perspective of both climate statistics and large eddy simulation (LES). First, based on climate data, we found that there is stronger thermal turbulence and higher frequency of low cloud formation for the same surface relative humidity over the eastern and central TP compared with the eastern monsoon region of China. Second, we focus on the dynamical and thermal structure of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) with low air density. With the same surface heat flux, a decrease in air density enhances the buoyancy flux, which increases the ABL depth and moisture transport from the subcloud layer into the cloud layer. With the same low cloud cover for different air densities, the greater ABL depth for lower air density means that the average mixed-layer relative humidity with higher air density will be greater than that with low air density. Results from a subcloud convective velocity scaling scheme were compared with LES results, which indicated that the original fixed parameter values in this scheme may not adequate in case of lower relative humidity and weaker thermal turbulence in the subcloud layer.

Description: Airborne estimates of greenhouse gas emissions are becoming more prevalent with the advent of rapid commercial development of trace gas instrumentation featuring increased measurement accuracy, precision, and frequency, and the swelling interest in the verification of current emission inventories. Multiple airborne studies have indicated that emission inventories may underestimate some hydrocarbon emission sources in U.S. oil and gas producing basins. Consequently, a proper assessment of the accuracy of these airborne methods is crucial to interpreting the meaning of such discrepancies. We present a new method of sampling surface sources of any trace gas for which fast and precise measurements can be made and apply it to methane, ethane, and carbon dioxide on spatial scales of ~ 1000 m, where consecutive loops are flown around a targeted source region at multiple altitudes. Using Reynolds decomposition for the scalar concentrations, along with Gauss's Theorem, we show that the method accurately accounts for the smaller scale turbulent dispersion of the local plume, which is often ignored in other average mass balance methods. With the help of large eddy simulations (LES) we further show how the circling radius can be optimized for the micrometeorological conditions encountered during any flight. Furthermore, by sampling controlled releases of methane and ethane on the ground we can ascertain that the accuracy of the method, in appropriate meteorological conditions, is better than 20 %, with limits of detection below 5 kg hr−1 for both methane and ethane. Because of the FAA mandated minimum flight safe altitude of 150 m, placement of the aircraft is critical to preventing a large portion of the emission plume from flowing underneath the lowest aircraft sampling altitude, which is generally the leading source of uncertainty in these measurements. Finally, we show how the accuracy of the method is strongly dependent on the number of sampling loops, or time spent sampling the source plume.

Description: We have developed a one-dimensional second-order closure numerical model to study the vertical turbulent transport of trace reactive species in the convective (daytime) planetary boundary layer (CBL), which we call the Second-Order Model for Conserved and Reactive Unsteady Scalars (SOMCRUS). The temporal variation of the CBL depth is calculated using a simple mixed-layer model with a constant entrainment coefficient and zero-order discontinuity at the CBL top. We then calculate time-varying continuous profiles of mean concentrations and vertical turbulent fluxes, variances, and covariances of both conserved and chemically reactive scalars in a diurnally varying CBL. The set of reactive species is the O3–NO–NO2 triad. The results for both conserved and reactive species are compared with large-eddy simulations (LES) for the same free-convection case using the same boundary and initial conditions. For the conserved species, we compare three cases with different combinations of surface fluxes, and CBL and free-troposphere concentrations. We find good agreement of SOMCRUS with LES for the mean concentrations and fluxes of both conserved and reactive species except near the CBL top, where SOMCRUS predicts a somewhat shallower depth, and has sharp transitions in both the mean and turbulence variables, in contrast to more smeared-out variations in the LES due to horizontal averaging. Furthermore, SOMCRUS generally underestimates the variances and species–species covariances. SOMCRUS predicts temperature–species covariances similar to LES near the surface, but much smaller magnitude peak values near the CBL top, and a change in sign of the covariances very near the CBL top, while the LES predicts a change in sign of the covariances in the lower half of the CBL. SOMCRUS is also able to estimate the intensity of segregation (the ratio of the species–species covariance to the product of their means), which can alter the rates of second-order chemical reactions; however, for the case considered here, this effect is small. The simplicity and extensibility of SOMCRUS means that it can be utilized for a broad range of turbulence-mixing scenarios and sets of chemical reactions in the planetary boundary layer; it therefore holds great promise as a tool to incorporate these processes within air quality and climate models.