Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 8 4 2008 10.5194/acpd-8-15207-2008 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/15207/2008/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/15207/2008/acpd-8-15207-2008.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/15207/2008/acpd-8-15207-2008.pdf 15207 15238 2008-08-11 Spatial distribution of &Delta;¹⁴CO₂ across Eurasia: measurements from the TROICA-8 expedition J. C. Turnbull jocelyn.turnbull@colorado.edu J. B. Miller S. J. Lehman D. Hurst P. P. Tans J. Southon S. Montzka J. Elkins D. J. Mondeel P. A. Romashkin N. Elansky A. Skorokhod INSTAAR and Dept. of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA NOAA/ESRL, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303, USA CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, USA NCAR, 1850 Table Mesa Dr, Boulder, CO 80307, USA A. M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics RAS, Moscow, Russia Because fossil fuel derived CO₂ is the only source of atmospheric CO₂ that is devoid of ¹⁴C, atmospheric measurements of &Delta;¹⁴CO₂ can be used to constrain fossil fuel emissions at local and regional scales. However, at the continental scale, atmospheric transport and other sources of variability in &Delta;¹⁴CO₂ may influence the fossil fuel detection capability. We present a set of &Delta;¹⁴CO₂ observations from the train-based TROICA-8 expedition across Eurasia in March–April 2004. Local perturbations in &Delta;¹⁴CO₂ are caused by easily identifiable sources from nuclear reactors and localized pollution events. The remaining data show an increase in &Delta;¹⁴CO₂ from Western Russia (40&deg; E) to Eastern Siberia (120&deg; E), consistent with depletion in ¹⁴CO₂ caused by fossil fuel CO₂ emissions in heavily populated Europe, and gradual dispersion of the fossil fuel plume across Northern Asia. <br><br> Other tracer gas species which may be correlated with fossil fuel CO₂ emissions, including carbon monoxide, sulphur hexafluoride, and perchloroethylene, were also measured and the results compared with the &Delta;¹⁴CO₂ measurements. The sulphur hexafluoride longitudinal gradient is not significant relative to the measurement uncertainty. Carbon monoxide and perchloroethylene show large-scale trends of enriched values in Western Russia and decreasing values in Eastern Siberia, consistent with fossil fuel emissions, but exhibit significant spatial variability, especially near their primary sources in Western Russia. <br><br> The clean air &Delta;¹⁴CO₂ observations are compared with simulated spatial gradients from the TM5 atmospheric transport model. We show that the change in &Delta;¹⁴CO₂ across the TROICA transect is due almost entirely to emissions of fossil fuel CO₂, but that the magnitude of this &Delta;¹⁴CO₂ gradient is relatively insensitive to modest uncertainties in the fossil fuel flux. In contrast, the &Delta;¹⁴CO₂ gradient is strongly sensitive to the modeled representation of vertical mixing, suggesting that &Delta;¹⁴CO₂ may be a useful tracer for training mixing in atmospheric transport models. Andreae, M. O. and Merlet, P.; Emission of trace gases and aerosols from biomass burning, Glob. Biogeochem. 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