1. Characteristics of atmospheric nitrous oxide observed at Mt. Waliguan GAW global station in the inland Eurasia during eighteen years.
- Author
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Liang, Miao, Fang, Shuangxi, Liu, Lixin, Zhang, Yong, Wang, Jianqiong, Liu, Shuo, Wang, Hongyang, and Deng, Liangchun
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ATMOSPHERIC nitrous oxide ,METEOROLOGICAL stations ,TROPOSPHERIC ozone ,OZONE layer ,ZONAL winds ,AIR masses ,AIR sampling ,MOLE fraction ,QUASI-biennial oscillation (Meteorology) - Abstract
This study presents atmospheric N
2 O mole fractions measured from discrete air samples from 2001 to 2018 at Mt. Waliguan (WLG) station (36°17′N, 100°54′E, 3816 m asl) in China, which is a global background station of the World Meteorological Organization/Global Atmosphere Watch Programme (WMO/GAW) in central Eurasia. Observed N2 O characteristics of annual means, interannual variability, and seasonal cycles were investigated. Our results show that N2 O at WLG possess a distinct increasing trend and a statistically significant seasonal cycle, with an average growth rate of 0.9±0.01 ppb yr−1 (1σ)(1ppb=10−9 ), which is close to the global mean. The detrended seasonal cycle shows a trough of −0.25±0.04 (1σ) ppb in June and a peak of 0.13±0.07 (1σ) ppb in September, with an amplitude of 0.38 ppb. The pattern is due to combined effects of variation in surface sources, vertical convection within the boundary layer and stratosphere to troposphere transportation (STE). The interannual variability in growth rate was partly driven by quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) of tropical zonal wind through stratospheric transport into the troposphere. According to a cluster analysis of back trajectories and the corresponding average N2 O load, most air masses cover arid and semi-arid areas in inner Asia with low N2 O emissions, indicating that the atmospheric N2 O at the WLG represents the background N2 O level in central Eurasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2024
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