Title:
Gas flux estimation from surface gas concentrations

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Shahnaz, Sabina
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Wang, Jingfeng
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Abstract
The goal of this study is to develop a gradient-independent method for modeling surface gas flux using surface gas concentration data. The proposed method is built on the relationship between gas flux and the time history of surface gas concentration, known as half-order derivative (HOD), when the transport of gas in the boundary layer is described by a diffusion equation. The new model is tested using in-situ data of CO2 concentration time series at half hour (or hour) intervals from Ameriflux Network at several locations in US, Canada, Mexico and Brazil to estimate CO2 fluxes. In this research the estimated CO2 flux using HOD method are compared with observed CO2 fluxes from four study sites out of 160+ sites with diverse vegetation cover, geographic and climatic conditions to test the generality of model within reasonable endeavor. The sites are Cedar Bridge National Forest, New Jersey, Delta Junction 1920 Control, Alaska, Lucky Hills Shrub land, Arizona, and LBA Tapajos Mature Forest, Brazil. The modeled CO2 flux demonstrates close agreement with field observations confirming the usefulness and potential of HOD model for estimating CO2 gas fluxes.
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2016-05-10
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