Using near-surface atmospheric measurements as a proxy for quantifying field-scale soil gas flux
<p>We present a new method for deriving surface soil gas flux at the field scale, which is less fieldwork intensive than traditional chamber techniques and less expensive than those derived from airborne or space surveys. The “open-field” technique uses aspects of chamber and micrometeorologic...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2020-12-01
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Series: | Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems |
Online Access: | https://gi.copernicus.org/articles/9/483/2020/gi-9-483-2020.pdf |
Summary: | <p>We present a new method for deriving surface soil gas flux at the field scale, which is less
fieldwork intensive than traditional chamber techniques and less expensive than those derived from
airborne or space surveys. The “open-field” technique uses aspects of chamber and
micrometeorological methods combined with a mobile platform and GPS to rapidly derive soil gas
fluxes at the field scale. There are several assumptions in using this method, which will be most
accurate under stable atmospheric conditions with little horizontal wind flow. Results show that
soil gas fluxes, when averaged across a field site, are highly comparable between the open-field
method and traditional chamber acquisition techniques. Atmospheric dilution is found to reduce the
range of flux values under the open-field method, when compared to chamber-derived results at the
field scale. Under ideal atmospheric conditions it may be possible to use the open-field method to
derive soil gas flux at an individual point; however this requires further investigation. The
open-field method for deriving soil–atmosphere gas exchange at the field scale could be useful for
a number of applications including quantification of leakage from <span class="inline-formula">CO<sub>2</sub></span> geological storage
sites, diffuse degassing in volcanic and geothermal areas, and greenhouse gas emissions,
particularly when combined with traditional techniques.</p> |
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ISSN: | 2193-0856 2193-0864 |