Darmstadt 2008 – scientific programme

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SYER: Symposium Trace species in environmental research

SYER 3: Session III

SYER 3.3: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 12, 2008, 17:30–18:00, 3C

Quantitative estimates of fossil fuel CO₂ over Europe using high-precision Radiocarbon observations — •Felix Vogel¹, Bernd Kromer², and Ingeborg Levin¹ — ¹Institut für Umweltphysik, Ruprecht-Karls-Universit"at Heidelberg, INF 229, 69120 Heidelberg — ²Akademie der Wissenschaften & Institut für Umweltphysik, Ruprecht-Karls-Universit"at Heidelberg INF 229, 69120 Heidelberg

To assess the carbon balance on the European scale, quantitative knowledge of the anthropogenic CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel burning is indispensable. Radiocarbon is a key tracer for this purpose because fossil fuel CO₂ is free of ¹⁴C. Conventional low-level counting as well as AMS measurements *now* have the precision to provide quantitative estimates of the fossil fuel CO₂ share of a polluted air sample. With this technique and a dedicated long-term monitoring program, validation of the Kyoto-process is possible and in fact provides the only independent method to validate the classical bottom-up emissions estimates and their anticipated changes. Besides this long-term application, we will also present new tools to assess processes on shorter timescales. Diurnal cycles of quasi-continuous CO measurements, previously calibrated using high-precision ¹⁴CO₂ measurements, are used to evaluate regional models as well as high-resolution inventories for fossil fuel CO2 emissions.