Abstract
Integral quantities, wind run, S, and recirculation factor, R, useful for describing air flow, are calculated and combined with CO2 mixing ratios. Meteorological observations were obtained from a RASS sodar and CO2 mixing ratios from a continuous analyzer installed at a rural site in the upper Spanish plateau. The measuring campaign spread over 3 years and two approaches were followed. The first approach considered integral quantities on a daily basis and two classifications of air flow, to date scarcely used. The first classification distinguished among stagnation, recirculation, and ventilation, the second considering synoptic, meso-, and local scales. Moreover, 52.94% of daily values handled in this paper corresponded to ventilation and 49.70% to synoptic scale. The main goal of this approach is the subsequent link between the two classifications: the synoptic scale was associated with ventilation, mesoscale with recirculation and local scale partially with recirculation. CO2 observations were distributed in air flow groups following these classifications and mesoscale processes were satisfactorily described since noticeable evidence of transport from nearby cities was observed. In the second approach, S and R pairs were used and CO2 mixing ratios were distributed following percent intervals of ventilation, calculated by binning these pairs. The main goal of the second approach is to consider only three groups of mixing ratios. In the first group, with high ventilation, mixing ratios were low. With intermediate ventilation, mixing ratios were medium, and with low ventilation mixing ratios were high. A contrast of 21 ppm between the third and first groups was obtained at the 95th percentile. Finally, the second group provided a contrast of 3 ppm between north and south directions and also between east and west attributed to transport from nearby cities.
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The authors wish to acknowledge financial support from the Ministry of Science and Innovation, ERDF funds, and the Regional Government of Castile and Leon.
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Pérez, I.A., Sánchez, M.L., García, M.Á. et al. Relationship between CO2 at a rural site and integral measures of atmospheric stagnation, recirculation, and ventilation. Naturwissenschaften 98, 565–574 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0800-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0800-5