Concentration and isotopic measurements of radiatively important gases in the southern atmosphere

Australian Antarctic Division project #124 monitors the background level of major greenhouse gases, and related species (carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide isotopes, oxygen), at a number of Antarctic sites.Samples of air are collected and returned to CSIRO Atmospheric Research for analysis. Radiocarbon and oxygen are measured by international collaborators.Approximately 4 samples are collected from each station per month.The greenhouse gases released by human activity and most implicated in global climate change, are long lived and well mixed in the atmosphere. The Antarctic regions, remote from industrial and land plant activity are ideally located to measure result of global changes in the gases. The CSIRO sampling network represents the most comprehensive, long running Southern hemisphere program. With continuing innovation in measurement and interpretive models, it is ideally positioned to detect possible climate induced regional changes in carbon uptake, as well as monitor global changes. It also provides essential background information to the new challenge of monitoring integrated emissions from the Australian continent.Data from this project have also been incorporated into State of the Environment Indicator 11, Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gas species. See the link below for further details.The download file contains both the individual flask data measurements and also monthly means derived from these. The monthly mean data are presented in the State Of Environment indicator linked below. The monthly mean files are labelled sss_mm.xxx where sss is the site code and xxx is the species identifier. An example for Cape Grim for Methane would be cga_mm.ch4.A number of readme files are also provided in the download for further information. Taken from the 2008-2009 Progress Report:Progress against objectives:Concentrations of CO2, CO, CH4, H2, and N2O, and the isotopes 13C and 18O in CO2, have been made in flask air samples collected at ~2 week intervals at Mawson, Casey, and Macquarie Island.In addition, at Macquarie Island, continuous CO2 measurements and sampling for the O2/N2 ratio and the 14C isotope of CO2 were made.The data have been calibrated and quality controlled for incorporation into global data sets, for use in detecting spatial and temporal trends and in model inversions to infer fluxes.

澳大利亚南极局（Australian Antarctic Division）第124号项目，旨在对多个南极站点的主要温室气体及其相关组分（二氧化碳、甲烷、一氧化碳、一氧化二氮、氢气，以及二氧化碳同位素、氧气）的本底水平进行监测。研究人员采集空气样本后，将其送回CSIRO（澳大利亚联邦科学与工业研究组织）大气研究部门开展分析，放射性碳与氧气的检测工作则由国际合作方完成。每个站点每月约采集4份空气样本。

人类活动排放的温室气体中，与全球气候变化关联最密切的品类均具有较长大气寿命且在全球大气中混合均匀。南极区域远离工业活动与陆地植被活动，是监测全球大气气体变化的理想区位。CSIRO的采样网络是南半球规模最全面、运行时间最久的温室气体长期监测项目。

随着测量技术与解释模型的持续革新，该项目能够精准探测气候诱导的碳吸收区域变化，同时实现全球大气变化的常态化监测。此外，其还为澳大利亚大陆综合排放监测这一新兴挑战提供了关键的本底数据支撑。本项目的数据已被纳入《环境状况指标11：温室气体组分大气浓度》。详细信息可参阅下方链接。

本次提供的下载文件包含单份采样烧瓶的实测数据，以及由这些数据衍生得到的月均数据。月均数据已在上述《环境状况指标》页面中发布。月均数据文件的命名格式为sss_mm.xxx，其中sss为站点代码，xxx为气体组分标识符。例如，针对格雷姆角（Cape Grim）的甲烷监测数据，其文件名为cga_mm.ch4。下载包中还附带了若干说明文档（readme）以供进一步查阅相关信息。

本段内容取自2008-2009年度项目进展报告：
项目目标达成进展：
研究人员在莫森站（Mawson）、凯西站（Casey）以及麦夸里岛（Macquarie Island），以约每两周一次的频次采集空气烧瓶样本，完成了CO₂、CO、CH₄、H₂、N₂O浓度以及CO₂中的¹³C与¹⁸O同位素的测定工作。此外，在麦夸里岛还同步开展了CO₂连续监测，以及针对O₂/N₂比值与CO₂的¹⁴C同位素的采样工作。

所有数据均经过校准与质量控制，可纳入全球数据集，用于探测大气气体的时空分布趋势，并通过模型反演推算碳通量。