Eddy covariance imaging of diffuse volcanic CO2 emissions at Mammoth Mountain, CA, USA

Abstract

Use of eddy covariance (EC) techniques to map the spatial distribution of diffuse volcanic CO2 fluxes and quantify CO2 emission rate was tested at the Horseshoe Lake tree-kill area on Mammoth Mountain, California, USA. EC measurements of CO2 flux were made during September–October 2010 and ranged from 85 to 1,766 g m−2 day−1. Comparative maps of soil CO2 flux were simulated and CO2 emission rates estimated from three accumulation chamber (AC) CO2 flux surveys. Least-squares inversion of measured eddy covariance CO2 fluxes and corresponding modeled source weight functions recovered 58–77% of the CO2 emission rates estimated based on simulated AC soil CO2 fluxes. Spatial distributions of modeled surface CO2 fluxes based on EC and AC observations showed moderate to good correspondence (R2 = 0.36 to 0.70). Results provide a framework for automated monitoring of volcanic CO2 emissions over relatively large areas.