Atmospheric variations in summertime column integrated CO2 on synoptic
and seasonal time scale over the U.S.
Abstract
Past studies have demonstrated that synoptic weather events play an
important role in the spatial and temporal variations of atmospheric
carbon dioxide ( within and above the boundary layer. In this study, we
investigate the spatial variability of column average CO2 dry air mole
fraction (XCO2) due to the impact of synoptic-scale transport using
retrievals from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 for 66 summer cold
frontal cases over the conterminous U.S. and Mexico above 20°N from 2015
to 2019. The results show that cold fronts in summer are in general
agreement with data from the Atmospheric Chemistry and Transport
(ACT-America) field campaign observations, which are significantly
different compared to non-frontal spatial distributions in summer,
though with reduced magnitude due to their nature as a column average as
opposed to an in situ measurements in the boundary layer and free
troposphere.