Status: this preprint was under review for the journal ACP but the revision was not accepted.
Cross-validation of inferred daytime airborne CO2 urban-regional scale surface fluxes with eddy-covariance observations and emissions inventories in Greater London
A. Font,C. S. B. Grimmond,J.-A. Morguí,S. Kotthaus,M. Priestman,and B. Barratt
Abstract. Data obtained from eleven flight surveys on six days during October 2011 were used to characterize the urban CO2 dome in Greater London (GL) and to calculate CO2 fluxes at the city scale. Flights crossed GL along two transects (SW-NE and SSE-NNW) at an altitude of 360 m. Increments as high as 23 ppmv were measured. The maximum CO2 mixing ratios were localized over GL under low wind speeds, whereas a displacement of the urban plume downwind from the centre of the urban area occurred during high wind speeds. The urban-regional surface CO2 flux was calculated for four days by the Integrative Mass Boundary Layer (IMBL) method. The diurnal CO2 flux in GL obtained from the aircraft observations ranged from 46 to 104 μmol CO2 m−2 s−1 during the day time. The mean CO2 fluxes estimated from the IMBL method were statistically similar to those observed by eddy-covariance systems located in central London and a spatially integrated emissions inventory for GL. This study provides an important cross-validation of two independent measurement-based methods to infer the contribution of urban areas to climate change in terms of CO2 surface fluxes, both of which complement bottom-up emissions inventories. The uncertainties of fluxes estimated by the IMBL method are considered and the limits of implementation of atmospheric methods to infer city-scale fluxes are discussed.
Received: 03 Apr 2013 – Discussion started: 22 May 2013
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