Potential of 14C-based vs. ΔCO-based ΔffCO2 observations to estimate urban fossil fuel CO2 (ffCO2) emissions

Maier, Fabian; Rödenbeck, Christian; Levin, Ingeborg; Gerbig, Christoph; Gachkivskyi, Maksym; Hammer, Samuel

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8183-2024

Articles | Volume 24, issue 14

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8183-2024

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8183-2024

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

Articles | Volume 24, issue 14

Research article

|

19 Jul 2024

Research article |

| 19 Jul 2024

Potential of ¹⁴C-based vs. ΔCO-based ΔffCO₂ observations to estimate urban fossil fuel CO₂ (ffCO₂) emissions

Fabian Maier, Christian Rödenbeck, Ingeborg Levin, Christoph Gerbig, Maksym Gachkivskyi, and Samuel Hammer

Data sets

14C-based ΔffCO2 estimates for Heidelberg and OPE and input data for the Rhine Valley ffCO2 inversion (2019-2020) F. Maier, I. Levin, S. Hammer, S. Conil, and S. Preunkert https://doi.org/10.11588/data/GRSSBN

Short summary

We investigate the usage of discrete radiocarbon (¹⁴C)-based fossil fuel carbon dioxide (ffCO₂) concentration estimates vs. continuous carbon monoxide (CO)-based ffCO₂ estimates to evaluate the seasonal cycle of ffCO₂ emissions in an urban region with an inverse modeling framework. We find that the CO-based ffCO₂ estimates allow us to reconstruct robust seasonal cycles, which show the distinct COVID-19 drawdown in 2020 and can be used to validate emission inventories.