Development of a balloon-borne instrument for CO₂ vertical profile observations in the troposphere

Abstract

A novel, practical observation system for measuring tropospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations using a non-dispersive infrared analyzer carried by a small helium-filled balloon (CO2 sonde) has been developed for the first time. Vertical profiles of atmospheric CO2 can be measured with a 240–400 m altitude resolution through regular onboard calibrations using two different CO2 standard gases. The standard deviations (1σ) of the measured mole fractions in the laboratory experiments using a vacuum chamber at a temperature of 298 K were approximately 0.6 ppm at 1010 hPa and 1.2 ppm at 250 hPa. Two CO2 vertical profile data obtained using the CO2 sondes, which were launched on 31 January and 3 February 2011 at Moriya, were compared with the chartered aircraft data on the same days and the commercial aircraft data obtained by the Comprehensive Observation Network for TRace gases by Airliner (COTRAIL) program on the same day (31 January) and 1 d before (2 February). The difference between the CO2 sonde data and these four sets of in situ aircraft data (over the range of each balloon altitude ±100 m) up to the altitude of 7 km was 0.6±1.2 ppm (average ±1σ). In field experiments, the CO2 sonde detected an increase in CO2 concentration in an urban area and a decrease in a forested area near the surface. The CO2 sonde was shown to be a useful instrument for observing and monitoring the vertical profiles of CO2 concentration in the troposphere.