Estimating regional fossil fuel CO₂ concentrations from ¹⁴CO₂ observations: challenges and uncertainties.

ABSTRACT: The direct way to estimate the regional fossil fuel CO₂ surplus (ΔffCO₂) at a station is by measuring the Δ¹⁴CO₂ depletion compared with a respective background. However, this approach has several challenges, which are (i) the choice of an appropriate Δ¹⁴CO₂ background, (ii) potential contaminations through nuclear ¹⁴CO₂ emissions and (iii) masking of ΔffCO₂ by ¹⁴C-enriched biosphere respiration. Here we evaluate these challenges and estimate potential biases and typical uncertainties of ¹⁴C-based ΔffCO₂ estimates in Europe. We show that Mace Head (MHD), Ireland, is a representative background station for the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) atmosph

SUBMITTER: Maier F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10642792 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature