Atmospheric oxygen as a tracer for fossil fuel carbon dioxide: a sensitivity study in the UK

Chawner, Hannah; Saboya, Eric; Adcock, Karina E.; Arnold, Tim; Artioli, Yuri; Dylag, Caroline; Forster, Grant L.; Ganesan, Anita; Graven, Heather; Lessin, Gennadi; Levy, Peter; Luijkx, Ingrid T.; Manning, Alistair; Pickers, Penelope A.; Rennick, Chris; Rödenbeck, Christian; Rigby, Matthew

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024

Articles | Volume 24, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 24, issue 7

Research article

|

09 Apr 2024

Research article |

| 09 Apr 2024

Atmospheric oxygen as a tracer for fossil fuel carbon dioxide: a sensitivity study in the UK

Hannah Chawner, Eric Saboya, Karina E. Adcock, Tim Arnold, Yuri Artioli, Caroline Dylag, Grant L. Forster, Anita Ganesan, Heather Graven, Gennadi Lessin, Peter Levy, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Alistair Manning, Penelope A. Pickers, Chris Rennick, Christian Rödenbeck, and Matthew Rigby

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024-supplement

Data sets

Continuous measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and oxygen (O2) at Heathfield Tower 2021-2022 Karina Adcock and Penelope Pickers https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/bfc2483537a744dca8e3239278b6e522

Atmospheric oxygen as a tracer for fossil fuel carbon dioxide: a sensitivity study in the UK Hannah Chawner et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7681834

Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory: Longterm measurements of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Grant Forster https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/87fc265aab6b4aeb961e62da2cd6ca91

Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory: Long term measurements of atmospheric O2 Grant Forster https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/b3f9714c956f428a840211e0184e23eb

Model code and software

hanchawn/APO_modelling: APO v1.0 Hannah Chawner https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7688294

ACRG-Bristol/acrg: ACRG v0.2.0 Matt Rigby et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6834888

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Short summary

The quantity of atmospheric potential oxygen (APO), derived from coincident measurements of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and oxygen (O₂), has been proposed as a tracer for fossil fuel CO₂ emissions. In this model sensitivity study, we examine the use of APO for this purpose in the UK and compare our model to observations. We find that our model simulations are most sensitive to uncertainties relating to ocean fluxes and boundary conditions.