Methane fluxes from Zambian tropical wetlands
- 1Centre for Atmospheric Science, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
- 2Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA
- 3Wolfson Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratories, Department of Chemistry, University of York, York, UK
- 4National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of York, York, UK
- 5Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM), Building 125, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK
- 6Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- 7School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
- 8School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
- 9Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK
- 11National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Airborne measurements of methane (CH4) were recorded over three major wetland areas in Zambia in February 2019 during the MOYA (Methane Observations and Yearly Assessments) ZWAMPS field campaign. Enhancements of up to 600 ppb CH4 were measured over the Bangweulu (11°36’ S, 30°05’ E), Kafue (15°43’ S, 27°17’ E), and Lukanga (14°29’ S, 27°47’ E) wetlands. Three independent methods were used to quantify methane emission fluxes; aircraft mass balance, aircraft eddy covariance, and atmospheric inversion modelling. Results yielded methane emission fluxes of 10-20 mg CH4 m-2 hr-1, which were up to an order of magnitude greater than the emission fluxes simulated by various wetland process models (WetCHARTs ensemble and LPX-Bern). Independent column CH4 observations from the TROPOMI instrument were used to verify these fluxes, and investigate their applicability for timescales longer than the duration of the MOYA flight campaign.
How to cite: Shaw, J., Allen, G., Barker, P., Pitt, J., Lee, J., Bauguitte, S., Pasternak, D., Bower, K., Daly, M., Lunt, M., Ganesan, A., Vaughan, A., Fisher, R., France, J., Lowry, D., Palmer, P., Bateson, P., and Nisbet, E.: Methane fluxes from Zambian tropical wetlands, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-14938, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-14938, 2021.
