HR: 0800h
AN: B51C-0230    [Abstracts]
TI: A Regional Atmospheric Continuous CO₂ Network In The Rocky Mountains (Rocky RACCOON)
AU: * Stephens, B
EM: stephens@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1850 Table Mesa Dr., Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AU: De Wekker, S
EM: dewekker@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1850 Table Mesa Dr., Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AU: Watt, A
EM: watt@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1850 Table Mesa Dr., Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AU: Schimel, D
EM: schimel@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1850 Table Mesa Dr., Boulder, CO 80307-3000 United States
AB: We have established a continuous CO₂ observing network in the Rocky Mountains, building on technological and modeling advances made during the Carbon in the Mountains Experiment (CME), to improve our understanding of regional carbon fluxes and to fill key gaps in the North American Carbon Program (NACP). We will present a description of the Rocky RACCOON network and early results from the first three sites. There are strong scientific and societal motivations for determining CO₂ exchanges on regional scales. NACP aims to address these concerns through a dramatic expansion in observations and modeling capabilities over North America. Mountain forests in particular represent a significant potential net CO₂ sink in the U.S. and are highly sensitive to land-use practices and climate change. However, plans for new continuous CO₂ observing sites have omitted the mountain west. This resulted from expensive instrumentation in the face of limited resources, and a perception that current atmospheric transport models are not sophisticated enough to interpret CO₂ measurements made in complex terrain. Through our efforts in CME, we have a new autonomous, inexpensive, and robust CO₂ analysis system and are developing mountain CO₂ modeling tools that will help us to overcome these obstacles. Preliminary observational and modeling results give us confidence that continuous CO₂ observations from mountain top observatories will provide useful constraints on regional carbon cycling and will be valuable in the continental inverse modeling efforts planned for NACP. We began at three Colorado sites in August 2005 and hope to add three to six sites in other western states in subsequent years, utilizing existing observatories to the maximum extent possible. The first three sites are at Niwot Ridge, allowing us to have an ongoing intercomparison with flask measurements made by NOAA CMDL; at Storm Peak Laboratory near Steamboat Springs, allowing us to investigate comparisons between these two relatively nearby sites; and at Fraser Experimental Forest, allowing us to investigate nocturnal respiration rates across a large intermountain valley. Our data are available to the public on the internet in near real time to support quality control, local science, and larger scale synthesis efforts.
UR: http://www.eol.ucar.edu/~stephens/RACCOON
DE: 0315 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions (0426, 1610)
DE: 0428 Carbon cycling (4806)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005