Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 5717–5740, 2019 https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5717-2019 © Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Accurate measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane mole fractions at the Siberian coastal site Ambarchik Friedemann Reum1, Mathias Göckede1, Jost V. Lavric1, Olaf Kolle1, Sergey Zimov2, Nikita Zimov2, Martijn Pallandt1, and Martin Heimann1,3 1Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany 2North-East Science Station, Pacific Institute for Geography, Far-Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Science, Chersky, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russia 3University of Helsinki, Faculty of Science, Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR)/Physics, Finland Correspondence: Friedemann Reum (
[email protected]) Received: 24 September 2018 – Discussion started: 9 October 2018 Revised: 2 September 2019 – Accepted: 16 September 2019 – Published: 30 October 2019 Abstract. Sparse data coverage in the Arctic hampers our 1 Introduction understanding of its carbon cycle dynamics and our predic- tions of the fate of its vast carbon reservoirs in a changing Detailed information on the distribution of sources and sinks climate. In this paper, we present accurate measurements of of the atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs) carbon diox- atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) dry ide (CO2) and methane (CH4) is a prerequisite for analyz- air mole fractions at the new atmospheric carbon observa- ing and understanding the role of the carbon cycle within the tion station Ambarchik, which closes a large gap in the atmo- context of global climate change. The Arctic plays a unique spheric trace gas monitoring network in northeastern Siberia.