Abstract
In 2009, the United States Congress charged the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with supporting climate change research. As part of this effort, the Gas Sensing Metrology Group at NIST began developing new gas standard mixtures for greenhouse gas mixtures relevant to atmospheric measurements. Suites of gravimetrically prepared primary standard mixtures (PSMs) were prepared at ambient concentration levels for carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) in a dry-air balance. In parallel, 30 gas cylinders were filled, by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) in Wellington, New Zealand, to high pressure from pristine southern oceanic air at Baring Head, New Zealand, and shipped to NIST. Using spectroscopic instrumentation, NIST analyzed the 30 cylinder samples for mole fractions of CO2, CH4, and N2O. Certified values were assigned to these mixtures by calibrating the instrumentation with the PSM suites that were recently developed at NIST. These mixtures became NIST Standard Reference Material (SRM) 1721 Southern Oceanic Air and are certified for ambient mole fraction, the first of their kind for NIST. The relative expanded uncertainties corresponding to coverage intervals with 95 % probability are no larger than 0.06 % of the certified values, representing the smallest uncertainties to date ever assigned to an NIST gas SRM.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
LS set is all ratios measured between LS measurements and are assigned the same number.
Sample number of the candidate SRM: i.e., sample number 6 is SRM sample ID 1721-A-06
Break set includes all ratios measured without significant interruption.
All measurements taken on the same 24-h calendar day
References
WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, No. 10, 2014
NOAA/ESRL/GMD website: www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/
NOAA/ESRL/GMD website: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/global.html
Keeling CD, Piper SC, Whorf TP, Keeling RF (2011) Evolution of natural and anthropogenic fluxes of atmospheric CO2 from 2003. Tellus Series B-Chem Phys Metrol 63:1
Zhao CL, Tans PP, Thoning KW (1997) A high precision manometric system for absolute calibrations of CO2 in dry air. J Geophys Res 102(D5):5885–5894
(2013) 17th WMO/IAEA Meeting on Carbon Dioxide, Other Greenhouse Gases and Related Tracers Measurement Techniques (GGMT-2013), GAW Report No. 213
NOAA website: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccl/refgas.html
Rhoderick GC, Carney J, Guenther FR (2012) NIST gravimetrically prepared atmospheric level methane in dry air standards suite. Anal Chem 84(8):3802–3810
Kelley ME, Rhoderick GC, Guenther FR (2014) Development and verification of air balance gas primary standards for the measurement of nitrous oxide at atmospheric levels. Anal Chem 86(9):4544–4549
Miller WR, Rhoderick GC, Guenther FR (2015) Investigating adsorption/desorption of carbon dioxide in aluminum compressed gas cylinders. Anal Chem 87(3):1957–1962
CCQM website: http://www.bipm.org/en/committees/cc/ccqm/
Wessel RM, van der Veen AMH, Ziel, Steele P, Langenfelds R, va der Schoot M, Smeulders D, Besley L, Smarçao da Cunha V, Zhou Z, Qiao H, Heine HJ, Martin B, Macé T, Gupta PK, Amico di Meane E, Sega M, Rolle F, Maruyama M, Kato K, Matsumoto N, Kim JS, Moon KM, Lee JB, Murillo FR, Nambo CR, Caballero VMS, Salas Mde JA, Castorena AP, Konopelko LA, Kustikov YA, Kolobova AV, Pankratov VV, Efremova OV, Musil S, Chromek F, Valkova M, Milton MJT, Vargha G, Guenther FR, Miller WR, Botha A, Tshilongo J, Mokgoro IS, Leshabane N (2008) International comparison CCQM-K52: carbon dioxide in synthetic air. Metrologia 45 Tech. Suppl.: 08011
Lee J, Lee J, Moon D, Kim JS, Wessel R, Aoki N, Kato K, Guenther F, Rhoderick G, Konopelko LA, Han Q, Hall B (2011) CCQM-K86 final report international comparison CCQM K68 nitrous oxide in synthetic air. Metrologia 48, Tec Suppl
Flores E, Viallon J, Choteau T, Moussay P, Wielgosz RI, Kang N, Kim BM, Zalewska E, van der Veen AMH, Konopelko L, Wu H, Han Q, Rhoderick GC, Guenther FR, Watanabe T, Shimosaka T, Kato K, Hall B, Brewer P (2015) International comparison CCQM-K82: methane in air at ambient level (1800 to 2200) nmol/mol. Metrologia 52 Tech Suppl 08001
Chen H, Winderlich J, Gerbig C, Hoefer A, Rella CW, Crosson ER, Van Pelt AD, Steinbach J, Kolle O, Beck V, Daube BC, Gottlieb EW, Chow VY, Santon GW, Wofsy SC (2010) High-accuracy continuous airborne measurements of greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4) using the cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) technique. Atmos Meas Tech 3(2):375–386
Winderlich J, Chen H, Gerbig C, Seifert T, Kolle O, Lavric JV, Kaiser C, Hofer A, Heimann M (2010) Continuous low-maintenance CO2/CH4/N2O measurements at the Zotino tall tower observatory (ZOTTO) in central Siberia. Atmos Meas Tech 3(4):1113–1128
Nara H, Tanimoto H, Tohjima Y, Mukai H, Nojiri Y, Katsumata K, Rella CW (2012) Effect of air composition (N-2, O-2, Ar, and H2O) on CO2 and CH4 measurement by wavelength-scanned cavity ring-down spectroscopy: calibration and measurement strategy. Atmos MeasTech 5(11):2689–2701
Long DA, Gameson L, Truong GW, Bielska K, Cygan A, Hodges JT, Whetstone JR, van Zee RD (2013) The effects of variations in buffer gas mixing ratios on commercial carbon dioxide cavity ring-down spectroscopy sensors. J Atmos Ocean Tech 30:2604–2609. doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-13-00039.1
Flores E, Rhoderick GC, Viallon J, Moussay P, Choteau T, Gameson L, Guenther FR, Wielgosz RI (2015) Methane standards made in whole and synthetic air compared by cavity ring down spectroscopy and gas chromatography with flame ionization detection for atmospheric monitoring applications. Anal Chem 87(6):3272–3279. doi:10.1021/ac5043076
Keeling CD (1961) The concentration and isotopic abundances of carbon dioxide in rural and marine air. Geochim Cosmonchinmica Acta 24(3–4):277–298
Pataki DE, Bowlind DR, Ehleringer JR (2003) Seasonal cycle of carbon dioxide and its isotopic composition in an urban atmosphere: anthropogenic and biogenic effects. J Geophy Res 108(D23):735
Santoni GW, Daube BC, Kort EA, Jimènez R, Park S, Pittman JV, Gottlieb E, Xiang B, Zahniser MS, Nelson DD, McManus JB, Peischl J, Ryerson TB, Holloway JS, Andrews AE, Sweeney C, Hall B, Hintsa EJ, Moore FL, Elkins JW, Hurst DF, Stephens BB, Bent J, Wofsy SC (2014) Evaluation of the airborne quantum cascade laser spectrometer (QCLS) measurements of the carbon and greenhouse gas suite – CO2, CH4, N2O, and CO – during the CalNex and HIPPO campaigns. Atmos Meas Tech 7:1509–1526
Wieser ME, Holden N, Coplen TB, Böhlke JK, Berglund M, Brand WA, Bièvre PD, Gröning M, Loss RD, Meija J, Hirata T, Prohaska T, Schoenberg R, O’Connor G, Walczyk T, Yoneda S, Zhu X-K (2013) Atomic weights of the elements 2011 (IUPAC technical report). Pure Appl Chem 85(5):1047–1078
International Organization for Standardization, “ISO 6143:2001 gas analysis—determination of composition of calibration gas mixtures—comparison methods”, 2nd edition
Guenther FR, Possolo A (2011) Calibration and uncertainty assessment for certified reference gas mixtures. Anal Bioanal Chem 399:489–500
BIPM, IEC, IFCC, ILAC, ISO, IUPAC, IUPAP and OIML (2008) Evaluation of measurement data—supplement 1 to the “Guide to expressions of uncertainty in measurement: −Propagation of distributions using a Monte Carlo method. JCGM 101
GAW Report No. 80 (1992)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Disclaimer
Certain commercial equipment, instruments, and materials are identified in order to specify experimental procedures as completely as possible. In no case does such identification imply a recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology nor does it imply that any of the materials, instruments, or equipment identified are necessarily the best available for the purpose.
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
ESM 1
(PDF 258 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rhoderick, G.C., Kelley, M.E., Miller, W.R. et al. Development of a southern oceanic air standard reference material. Anal Bioanal Chem 408, 1159–1169 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9218-9
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-9218-9