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Published August 17, 2017 | Supplemental Material + Published
Journal Article Open

Influence of Droughts on Mid-Tropospheric CO_2

Abstract

Using CO_2 data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), it is found for the first time that the mid-tropospheric CO_2 concentration is ~1 part per million by volume higher during dry years than wet years over the southwestern USA from June to September. The mid-tropospheric CO_2 differences between dry and wet years are related to circulation and CO_2 surface fluxes. During drought conditions, vertical pressure velocity from NCEP2 suggests that there is more rising air over most regions, which can help bring high surface concentrations of CO_2 to the mid-troposphere. In addition to the circulation, there is more CO_2 emitted from the biosphere to the atmosphere during droughts in some regions, which can contribute to higher concentrations of CO_2 in the atmosphere. Results obtained from this study demonstrate the significant impact of droughts on atmospheric CO_2 and therefore on a feedback cycle contributing to greenhouse gas warming. It can also help us better understand atmospheric CO_2, which plays a critical role in our climate system.

Additional Information

© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Received: 16 June 2017 / Revised: 13 August 2017 / Accepted: 15 August 2017 / Published: 17 August 2017. (This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Greenhouse Gases) We thank three anonymous referees and editor for their time and helpful comments. X.J. and Y.Y. were supported by NASA grants NNX13AC04G and NNX13AK34G. E.O. and T.P. conducted the work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, under contract with NASA. L.L. was supported by NASA ROSES Cassini Data Analysis and NASA grant NNH15ZDA001N-PDART. Author Contributions: X.J. and A.K. conducted the analysis and wrote the manuscript. A.C., E.O., T.P., A.Z., S.N., L.L., and Y.Y. contributed to the result discussions and manuscript preparation. The authors declare no competing financial interest.

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Published - remotesensing-09-00852.pdf

Supplemental Material - remotesensing-09-00852-s001.pdf

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August 21, 2023
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October 18, 2023