The station will provide data to improve estimates of emissions, including atmospheric hydrogen generated through the nation’s expanding hydrogen economy.
Based at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, the station forms part of the UK’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Modelling Advancement (GEMMA) programme. The facility includes equipment for measuring the key greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), in addition to carbon monoxide (CO), which acts as an indirect greenhouse gas and provides a useful tracer for combustion emissions. A high-precision analyser for monitoring atmospheric hydrogen (H2) will also soon be in action at the site.
Measurements collected there will be added to a long-term dataset gathered by the UK’s Deriving Emissions linked to Climate Change (DECC) network. These measurements are combined with a computer model representing the transport of gases from the emission sources to the measurement locations. This allows scientists to estimate the size and location of emissions for each measured gas. The total UK emissions estimated for CH4 and N2O using this method are included in the UK’s National Inventory Report, which is submitted annually to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The School of Chemistry's Professor Simon O’Doherty said: “We can only understand the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by making continuous high-quality, physical measurements of the atmosphere.
"The current UK network of monitoring stations set up in 2012 has been a huge success in furthering our understanding, however, the addition of the Jodrell Bank station to the network will enhance our ability to determine emissions in the north-west region of the UK.”