TECHNICAL REPORTS 26 Setup of a CO2 and CH4 measurement system in Central Siberia and modeling of its results by Jan Winderlich ISSN 1615-7400 Technical Reports - Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie 26, 2012 Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie P.O.Box 10 01 64 07701 Jena/Germany phone: +49 3641 576-0 fax: + 49 3641 577300 http://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de Setup of a CO 2 and CH 4 measurement system in Central Siberia and modeling of its results Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der Naturwissenschaften im Fachbereich Geowissenschaften der Universität Hamburg vorgelegt von Jan Winderlich aus Dresden Hamburg 2012 Jan Winderlich Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie Hans-Knöll-Str. 10 07745 Jena Deutschland Betreuung der Doktorarbeit durch: Prof. Dr. Martin Heimann, Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie, Jena Dr. Christoph Gerbig, Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie, Jena Dr. Victor Brovkin, Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie, Hamburg Als Dissertation angenommen vom Fachbereich Geowissenschaften der Universität Hamburg auf Grund der Gutachten von: Prof. Dr. Martin Claußen, Meteorologisches Institut, Universität Hamburg und Prof. Dr. Martin Heimann, Max-Planck-Institut für Biogeochemie, Jena Hamburg, den 29.11.2011 Prof. Dr. Jürgen Oßenbrügge Leiter des Fachbereichs Geowissenschaften Abstract / Kurzfassung English: To improve the monitoring of the carbon cycle, an automated, low maintenance measurement system has been installed at the Zotino Tall Tower Observatory in Central Siberia (ZOTTO, 60°48’ N, 89°21’ E) in April 2009. A cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) analyzer continuously measures carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and water vapor (H2O) from six heights up to 301 m a.g.l. The measurement precision (accuracy) of 0.04 ppm (0.09 ppm) for CO2 and 0.3 ppb (1.5 ppb) for CH4 is compliant with the WMO recommendations. The data collected so far (until June 2011) reveals an increase of 2.62 ppm/yr and a seasonal cycle amplitude of 28.3 ppm for CO2 at the 301m level. Buffer volumes in each air line allow continuous, near-concurrent measurements from all tower levels with only one analyzer. The gradients between the tower levels have been analyzed in combination with meteorological measurements to estimate diurnal cycles of local CO2 and CH4 fluxes for individual summer months, which compare well with previous studies. Finally, the CO2 and CH4 observations have been incorporated into an atmospheric transport inversion model to estimate fluxes for the boreal zone of Central Siberia of 0.04 ± 0.11 PgC through CO2 and 8.4 ± 1.1 TgC through CH4 in the year 2009. Deutsch: Um die Überwachung des Kohlenstoffkreislaufes zu verbessern, wurde im April 2009 ein automatisiertes, wartungsarmes Messsystem am „Tall Tower Observatory” (ZOTTO, 60°48’ n.B., 89°21’ ö.L.) in Zentralsibirien installiert. Ein auf Cavity-Ring-Down-Spektroskopie (CRDS) basierendes Messgerät misst kontinuier- lich Kohlenstoffdioxid (CO2), Methan (CH4) und Wasserdampf (H2O) von sechs Turmhöhen bis zu 301 m. Die Messgenauigkeit (Exaktheit) von 0,04 ppm (0,09 ppm) für CO2 und 0,3 ppb (1,5 ppb) für CH4 fügt sich den WMO-Vorgaben. Die bislang gesammelten Daten (bis Juni 2011) zeigen einen jährlichen Anstieg von 2,62 ppm und eine Amplitude im Jahresgang von 28,3 ppm für CO2 auf 301 m Höhe. Puffervolumen in jeder Ansaugleitung ermöglichen kontinuierliche, nahezu gleichzeitige Messungen von allen Turmhöhen mit nur einem Messgerät. Die Gradienten zwischen den Turmhöhen wurden gemeinsam mit meteorologischen Messungen ausgewertet, um den Tagesgang von lokalen CO2- und CH4-Flüssen für einzelne Sommermonate abzuschätzen, welche im Einklang mit früheren Studien sind. Schließlich wurden die CO2- und CH4-Beobachtungen in ein inverses atmosphärisches Transportmodel eingebunden um Flüsse für die boreale Zone Zentralsibiriens von 0,04 ± 0,11 PgC durch CO2 und 8,4 ± 1,1 TgC durch CH4 im Jahr 2009 zu errechnen. Abstract Acknowledgements I would like to thank everyone who has helped me with my dissertation. First of all, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Martin Heimann and Prof. Dr. Martin Claußen for supervising my thesis. I also thank Martin Heimann for offering me the PhD position in Jena and his confidence in my work. I am grateful to Martin Heimann and Victor Brovkin, who gave me orientation and motivation in the advisory meetings. During my whole time at the Institute, I could always count on the support from Christoph Gerbig. I thank him for his time, for his organization of group meetings, his open mind and his inexhaustible repertoire of new ideas. I am thankful for the fruitful discussions and friendly atmosphere in our shared office and laboratory with Huilin Chen and Julia Steinbach. These discussions undoubtedly increased the scientific quality of my work, and provided intercultural exchange and latest Institute’s news. The tall tower in Zotino has been the center of my thesis work. I spent 74 days at the station and numerous days traveling there. I’d like to thank my colleagues from Jena who accompanied my travels and made them a once in a lifetime experience. Especially, I will not forget my first spectacular trip with Anastasia Tatarinova and Steffen Schmidt through Siberia. I will keep in mind Steffen’s organizing ability, technical help and cooperativeness, and the concentrated, complaisant work of Karl Kübler, and the interesting discussions with Olaf Kolle. I thank Michael Hielscher for the (photo)technical excursions and his excellent photographs that decorate this work. Thanks to all other travel participants as well. In Russia I always felt welcome. A large contribution to this feeling is due to the thoughtful care and attention given to us during our travels and at the station by Alexey Panov. For servicing the installed setup at the ZOTTO station, I also deeply appreciate the work of Alexander Cukanov, Anastasia Timokhina, Andrey Sidorov and successors from the Sukachev Institute of Forest in Krasnoyarsk. Moreover, I am grateful to our driver and technician Valodya Kislitsyn, who is hard-working, but always good for a joke and a drink. His hospitality enables me to experience the “Siberian romanticism” – as he used to say. Together with the watchmen Anatoly Gribushin and Alexander Dolgushin as well as other visiting Russian scientists, I have experienced an unforgettable and wonderful atmosphere at the station and on the expeditions. There are many many more people in Russia who supported me; and to all of them I want to express my gratitude: “Спасибо большое”! The ZOTTO project is funded by the Max Planck Society through the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) partner project no. 2757 on the initiative of Prof. E.-D. Schulze and Prof. M. Gloor. Furthermore, the project was supported by Dr. D. S. Schimel, Prof. M. Heimann, and Prof. E. A. Vaganov. I am Acknowledgements glad that the project enabled me to carry out my doctoral thesis and gave me the chance to discover parts of the world that I had never been to before. All business trips, including 33 flights, numerous travels on land and water, sum up to a distance of more than 100 000 kilometers. The carbon footprint for all business trips adds up to a burden of 16.3 t CO2, equivalent to 4.4 t of carbon, a paradox for a climate researcher, but inevitable for equipping a remote station. After my experiences abroad, I appreciate German society even more, which enables scientists in the Max Planck Society to enjoy excellent laboratory infrastructure, comprehensive access to literature, and funding for travels to conferences and summer schools. I have benefited from this in several respects at the Institute for Biogeochemistry in Jena. I would like to thank Rona Thompson for technical advice in setting up tall towers, Thomas Seifert for his programming solutions, and Uwe Schultz for his technical expertise. Jošt Lavrič proved a diligent reviewer and helped me to advantageously communicate my work to the scientific community. I appreciate the extensive analytical, scientific and technical support from Armin Jordan, Willi Brand, Falk Hänsel and Bert Steinberg. Special thanks go to the mechanical and electronic workshop, where I could always count on the support of Frank Voigt, Bernd Schlöffel, Reimo Leppert, and Martin Strube. Moreover, I thank Olaf Kolle and Karl Kübler from the Freiland department, the IT department, trainee Matthias Pittner, and Stephan Baum for the flask organization and our lunch conversations. Christian Rödenbeck and Ute Karstens introduced me to the world of atmospheric inversion models – thanks for your time and helpful explanations! I thank Frank-Thomas Koch for the preparation of meteorological data fields and Julia Marshall for providing the results of WRF simulations in Siberia. I thank Eric Morgan for all his valuable comments on my English language in this thesis. For the contribution of the CH4 data from the tower network in Siberia I express my thanks to Motoki Sasakawa from NIES, Japan. The CO2 aircraft data was kindly provided by Toshinobu Machida from NIES, Japan. I thank Claire Kaiser at LSCE, France for data from comparison experiments with CRDS analyzers. I send my gratitude to Aaron van Pelt, Chris Rella, and Eric Crosson from Picarro Inc, USA for their immediate and comprehensive support and kind cooperation and invitations. Prof. E.-D. Schulze kindly provided the reference flux data. I acknowledge the work of the computing centre DKRZ in Hamburg and all the countless discussions with open-minded researches at conferences and summer schools. During my time at the Institute, Kristina became much more than a colleague. I thank her for sometimes endless discussions about my work, her instructive scientific explanations and for encouraging me especially in frustrating moments. I express my deepest gratitude to my family. I have received continuous support from them for my entire life. My parents’ steady confidence and trust brought me up to the present point.