O₂ : CO₂ exchange ratio for net turbulent flux observed in an urban area of Tokyo, Japan, and its application to an evaluation of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions

Abstract

In order to examine O2 consumption and CO2 emission in a megacity, continuous observations of atmospheric O2 and CO2 concentrations, along with CO2 flux, have been carried out simultaneously since March 2016 at the Yoyogi (YYG) site located in the middle of Tokyo, Japan. An average O2 : CO2 exchange ratio for net turbulent O2 and CO2 fluxes (ORF) between the urban area and the overlaying atmosphere was obtained based on an aerodynamic method using the observed O2 and CO2 concentrations. The yearly mean ORF was found to be 1.62, falling within the range of the average OR values of liquid and gas fuels, and the annual average daily mean O2 flux at YYG was estimated to be −16.3 µmol m−2 s−1 based on the ORF and CO2 flux. By using the observed ORF and CO2 flux, along with the inventory-based CO2 emission from human respiration, we estimated the average diurnal cycles of CO2 fluxes from gas and liquid fuel consumption separately for each season. Both the estimated and inventory-based CO2 fluxes from gas fuel consumption showed average diurnal cycles with two peaks, one in the morning and another one in the evening; however, the evening peak of the inventory-based gas consumption was much larger than that estimated from the CO2 flux. This can explain the discrepancy between the observed and inventory-based total CO2 fluxes at YYG. Therefore, simultaneous observations of ORF and CO2 flux are useful in validating CO2 emission inventories from statistical data.