Agricultural Emissions Studies
Where: NE Colorado
When: Summer 2014 - 2016
How: Mobile Lab-based instruments
Who: Researchers from NOAA ESRL Chemical Sciences Division and the University of Colorado Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES)
Nitrogen is used extensively in agriculture and its use is increasing. This project studies some of the consequences of fertilizer and feed nitrogen as it escapes to water and air. These emissions are relevant to climate forcing, air quality, and stratospheric ozone.
Investigators drove the mobile laboratory making measurements to quantify agricultural nitrogen and methane emissions in northeastern Colorado beginning the summer of 2014. Short-term, intensive field measurements will provide key constraints on inventory values of agricultural (cropland and feedlot) emission ratios, spatial distributions, daily variability, and seasonality.
The Summer 2014 instrument payload measured:
- NH3, N2O, NO, and NO2
- CH4 and CO2
- O3 and CO
Fact Sheet: Colorado Agricultural Emissions and Air Quality-Climate