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Atmospheric variations in summertime column integrated CO2 on synoptic and seasonal time scale over the U.S.
  • Qingyu Wang,
  • Sean Crowell,
  • Sandip Pal
Qingyu Wang
University of Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Sean Crowell
University of Oklahoma, University of Oklahoma
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Sandip Pal
Department of Geosciences, Atmospheric Science Division, Texas Tech University, Department of Geosciences, Atmospheric Science Division, Texas Tech University
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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.