2011 Tower Network Overview
J.D. Kofler1, A.E. Andrews2, B.M. Walsh3, J.C. Williams3, M. Trudeau1, J. Higgs3, C. Sweeney1, T. Newberger1, M. Heller1, K. Sours1, S. Wolter1, P. Lang2, D. Chao1, K. Masarie2, P. Novelli2, D. Neff1, M.J. Parker4, M. Fischer5, C. Stanier6, S. deWekker7, J. Lee8, A.R. Desai9 and D.D. Baumann10
1Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309; 303-497-4679, E-mail: Jonathan.Kofler@noaa.gov
2NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO 80305
3Science and Technology Corporation, Boulder, CO 80305
4Savannah River Nuclear Solutions LLC, Aiken, SC 29808
5Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720
6University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242
7University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904
8University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469
9University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706-1481
10US Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Rhinelander, WI 54501
Partnerships with external collaborators have enabled the NOAA ESRL GMD Tower network to expand from three sites in 2006 to eleven sites in 2010. Nine sites are equipped with in situ systems for continuous CO2 and CO measurements. Collaborations have enabled continuous methane measurements at two sites. Programmable Flask Package samples are collected daily at ten sites. Expanding the network and upgrading the equipment has required a preventative maintenance schedule, routine testing procedures, hardware upgrades, error-checking software, and a web based utility for viewing processed data. These upgrades have improved data continuity and quality. A summary of the tower network and its measurement history, species data, statistics, maintenance, and notable towers instrumentation repairs are presented, including lessons learned.
Figure 1. The tall tower network May 2010 – Present (May 2011).