Abstract
Abstract. A continuous, 36-year measurement composite of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) at three measurement locations on Mount Zugspitze, Germany, was studied. For a comprehensive site characterization of Mount Zugspitze, analyses of CO2 weekly periodicity and diurnal cycle were performed to provide evidence for local sources and sinks, showing clear weekday to weekend differences, with dominantly higher CO2 levels during the daytime on weekdays. A case study of atmospheric trace gases (CO and NO) and the passenger numbers to the summit indicate that CO2 sources close by did not result from tourist activities but instead obviously from anthropogenic pollution in the near vicinity. Such analysis of local effects is an indispensable requirement for selecting representative data at orographic complex measurement sites. The CO2 trend and seasonality were then analyzed by background data selection and decomposition of the long-term time series into trend and seasonal components. The mean CO2 annual growth rate over the 36-year period at Zugspitze is 1.8±0.4 ppm yr−1, which is in good agreement with Mauna Loa station and global means. The peak-to-trough amplitude of the mean CO2 seasonal cycle is 12.4±0.6 ppm at Mount Zugspitze (after data selection: 10.5±0.5 ppm), which is much lower than at nearby measurement sites at Mount Wank (15.9±1.5 ppm) and Schauinsland (15.9±1.0 ppm), but following a similar seasonal pattern.
Highlights
Long-term records of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) improve our understanding of the global carbon cycle, as well as long- and short-term changes, especially at remote background locations
The resulting Adaptive diurnal minimum variation selection (ADVS)-selected CO2 data showed a clear linkage of the percentage of selected data and the altitude of the measurement site
A similar result for an island mountain station can be found in Yuan et al (2018), in which a percentage of 36.2 % was computed for the CO2 measurements at Izaña station on the island of Tenerife (28◦19 N, 16◦30 E; 2373 m a.s.l.)
Summary
Long-term records of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) improve our understanding of the global carbon cycle, as well as long- and short-term changes, especially at remote background locations. The longest continuous measurements of atmospheric CO2 started in 1958 at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, initiated by investigators of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (Pales and Keeling, 1965). Additional measurement sites were established for background studies of global atmospheric CO2, such as the South Pole (Keeling et al, 1976), Cape Grim, Australia (Beardsmore and Pearman, 1987), Mace Head, Ireland (Bousquet et al, 1996), and Baring Head, New Zealand (Stephens et al, 2013). Along with sites located in Antarctica or along coastal/island regions, continental mountain stations offer excellent options to observe background atmospheric levels due to high elevations that are less affected by local influences, for example, Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. Yuan et al.: Weekly, seasonal cycles and annual trends in atmospheric CO2 at Mount Zugspitze
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