Characteristics of atmospheric carbon monoxide at a high-mountain background station in East Asia

Abstract

Atmospheric CO were monitored at the Lulin Atmospheric Background Station (LABS) with an elevation of 2862 m AMSL from April 2006 to April 2011 by the in-situ non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) spectrometer and weekly flask sample collections via collaboration with NOAA/ESRL/GMD. In general very coherent results were observed between the two datasets, despite a slight difference between the two. A distinct seasonal pattern of CO was noticed at the LABS with a springtime maximum and a summertime minimum, which was predominately shaped by the long-range transport of biomass burning air masses from Southeast Asia and oceanic influences from the Pacific, respectively. Diurnal cycles were also observed at the LABS, with a maximum in late afternoon and a minimum in early morning. The daytime CO maximum was most likely caused by the up-slope transport of lower elevation air. After filtering out the possibly polluted data points from the entire dataset with a mathematic procedure, the mean background CO level at the LABS was assessed as 129.3 ± 46.6 ppb, compared to 149.0 ± 72.2 ppb prior to the filtering.The cluster analysis of the backward trajectories revealed six possible source regions, which shows that air masses originating from the Westerly Wind Zone were dominated in spring and winter resulting in higher CO concentrations. As a contrast, the oceanic influences from the Pacific were found mostly in summer, contributing a lower seasonal CO concentration throughout a year.