Development of a low-maintenance measurement approach to continuously estimate methane emissions: A case study

The chemical breakdown of organic matter in landfills represents a significant source of methane gas (CH₄). Current estimates suggest that landfills are responsible for between 3% and 19% of global anthropogenic emissions. The net CH₄ emissions resulting from biogeochemical processes and their modulation by microbes in landfills are poorly constrained by imprecise knowledge of environmental constraints. The uncertainty in absolute CH₄ emissions from landfills is therefore considerable. This study investigates a new method to estimate the temporal variability of CH₄ emissions using meteorological and CH₄ concentration measurements downwind of a landfill site in Suffolk, UK from July to September 2014, taking advantage of the statistics that such a measurement approach offers versus shorter-term, but more complex and instantaneously accurate, flux snapshots. Methane emissions were calculated from CH₄ concentrations measured 700m from the perimeter of the landfill with observed concentrations ranging from background to 46.4ppm. Using an atmospheric dispersion model, we estimate a mean emission flux of 709μgm^-2s^-1 over this period, with a maximum value of 6.21mgm^-2s^-1, reflecting the wide natural variability in biogeochemical and other environmental controls on net site emission. The emissions calculated suggest that meteorological conditions have an influence on the magnitude of CH₄ emissions. We also investigate the factors responsible for the large variability observed in the estimated CH₄ emissions, and suggest that the largest component arises from uncertainty in the spatial distribution of CH₄ emissions within the landfill area. The results determined using the low-maintenance approach discussed in this paper suggest that a network of cheaper, less precise CH₄ sensors could be used to measure a continuous CH₄ emission time series from a landfill site, something that is not practical using far-field approaches such as tracer release methods. Even though there are limitations to the approach described here, this easy, low-maintenance, low-cost method could be used by landfill operators to estimate time-averaged CH₄ emissions and their impact downwind by simultaneously monitoring plume advection and CH₄ concentrations.

The impact of local surface changes in Borneo on atmospheric composition at wider spatial scales: coastal processes, land-use change and air quality

We present results from the OP3 campaign in Sabah during 2008 that allow us to study the impact of local emission changes over Borneo on atmospheric composition at the regional and wider scale. OP3 constituent data provide an important constraint on model performance. Treatment of boundary layer processes is highlighted as an important area of model uncertainty. Model studies of land-use change confirm earlier work, indicating that further changes to intensive oil palm agriculture in South East Asia, and the tropics in general, could have important impacts on air quality, with the biggest factor being the concomitant changes in NO(x) emissions. With the model scenarios used here, local increases in ozone of around 50 per cent could occur. We also report measurements of short-lived brominated compounds around Sabah suggesting that oceanic (and, especially, coastal) emission sources dominate locally. The concentration of bromine in short-lived halocarbons measured at the surface during OP3 amounted to about 7 ppt, setting an upper limit on the amount of these species that can reach the lower stratosphere.