Browsing by Author "Haynes, KD"

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    Simulations of atmospheric methane for Cape Grim, Tasmania, to constrain southeastern Australian methane emissions
    (Copernicus Publications, 2014-01-13) Loh, ZH; Law, RM; Haynes, KD; Krummel, PB; Steele, LP; Fraser, PJ; Chambers, SD; Williams, AG
    This study uses two climate models and six scenarios of prescribed methane emissions to compare modelled and observed atmospheric methane between 1994 and 2007, for Cape Grim, Australia (40.7° S, 144.7° E). The model simulations follow the TransCom-CH4 protocol and use the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator (ACCESS) and the CSIRO Conformal-Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM). Radon is also simulated and used to reduce the impact of transport differences between the models and observations. Comparisons are made for air samples that have traversed the Australian continent. All six emission scenarios give modelled concentrations that are broadly consistent with those observed. There are three notable mismatches, however. Firstly, scenarios that incorporate interannually varying biomass burning emissions produce anomalously high methane concentrations at Cape Grim at times of large fire events in southeastern Australia, most likely due to the fire methane emissions being unrealistically input into the lowest model level. Secondly, scenarios with wetland methane emissions in the austral winter overestimate methane concentrations at Cape Grim during wintertime while scenarios without winter wetland emissions perform better. Finally, all scenarios fail to represent a~methane source in austral spring implied by the observations. It is possible that the timing of wetland emissions in the scenarios is incorrect with recent satellite measurements suggesting an austral spring (September–October–November), rather than winter, maximum for wetland emissions. © Author(s) 2015. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence
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    Transport modelling and inversions for the interpretation of greenhouse gas measurements
    (Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, 2014-11-12) Law, RM; Loh, ZM; Ziehn, T; Haynes, KD; Krummel, PB; Steele, LP; Chambers, SD; Williams, AG
    The interpretation of greenhouse gas measurements can be aided by forward transport modelling while greenhouse gas fluxes can be estimated using atmospheric inversions. Here we (a) provide an update on a study of methane model simulations at Cape Grim and their use for determining methane fluxes from SE Australia and (b) show results from some recent CO2 inversions. Observed and model simulated non-baseline methane concentrations at Cape Grim have been compared (Loh et al., 2014). Two atmospheric models (CCAM and ACCESS) and six different methane emission scenarios are used. To minimise the influence of transport model errors on the analysis, deviations of Cape Grim methane concentration above baseline have been compared to coincident radon measurements. This methane to radon ratio shows a clear seasonal signal implying seasonal variations in methane emissions from SE Australia relative to a more temporally uniform radon flux. The ability of the model simulations to match the observed seasonality is dependent on the choice of methane emission scenario but all scenarios underestimate the observed methane to radon ratio in spring. We find that the most likely explanation for the discrepancy is wetland emissions that are too small in some emission scenarios or at the wrong time of year in other scenarios. CO2 inversions have been run recently for two purposes. The first is an international comparison of greenhouse gas inversions focussed on South, East and South East Asia. We have submitted a CCAM inversion for 1993-2012 using a fixed year of winds and expect to submit a second inversion with interannually varying winds. The second purpose is to use a CO2 inversion to estimate the magnitude of regional fluxes that are required to fit the larger difference in annual mean CO2 concentration between Mauna Loa and Cape Grim over recent years.