1. Impact of equatorial and continental airflow on primary greenhouse gases in the northern South China Sea
- Author
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Chang-Feng Ou-Yang, Ming-Cheng Yen, Tang-Huang Lin, Jia-Lin Wang, Russell C Schnell, Patricia M Lang, Somporn Chantara, and Neng-Huei Lin
- Subjects
carbon dioxide (CO2) ,methane (CH4) ,Dongsha Island (DSI) ,South China Sea (SCS) ,Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) ,7-SEAS ,Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering ,TD1-1066 ,Environmental sciences ,GE1-350 ,Science ,Physics ,QC1-999 - Abstract
Four-year ground-level measurements of the two primary greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide (CO _2 ) and methane (CH _4 )) were conducted at Dongsha Island (DSI), situated in the northern South China Sea (SCS), from March 2010 to February 2014. Their mean mixing ratios are calculated to be 396.3 ± 5.4 ppm and 1863.6 ± 50.5 ppb, with an annual growth rate of +2.19 ± 0.5 ppm yr ^–1 and +4.70 ± 4.4 ppb yr ^–1 for CO _2 and CH _4 , respectively, over the study period. Our results suggest that the Asian continental outflow driven by the winter northeast monsoon could have brought air pollutants into the northern SCS, as denoted by significantly elevated levels of 6.5 ppm for CO _2 and 59.6 ppb for CH _4 , which are greater than the marine boundary layer references at Cape Kumukahi (KUM) in the tropical northern Pacific in January. By contrast, the summertime CH _4 at DSI is shown to be lower than that at KUM by 19.7 ppb, whereas CO _2 is shown to have no differences (
- Published
- 2015
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