Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics www.atmos-chem-phys.net 1680-7316 1680-7324 10 18 2010 10.5194/acp-10-8881-2010 http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/10/8881/2010/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/10/8881/2010/acp-10-8881-2010.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/10/8881/2010/acp-10-8881-2010.pdf 8881 8897 2010-09-21 CO₂ and its correlation with CO at a rural site near Beijing: implications for combustion efficiency in China Y. Wang yxw@tsinghua.edu.cn J. W. Munger S. Xu M. B. McElroy J. Hao C. P. Nielsen H. Ma Department of Environmental Science and Engineering and State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Harvard China Project and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Although China has surpassed the United States as the world's largest carbon dioxide emitter, in situ measurements of atmospheric CO₂ have been sparse in China. This paper analyzes hourly CO₂ and its correlation with CO at Miyun, a rural site near Beijing, over a period of 51 months (Dec 2004 through Feb 2009). The CO₂-CO correlation analysis evaluated separately for each hour of the day provides useful information with statistical significance even in the growing season. We found that the intercept, representing the initial condition imposed by global distribution of CO₂ with influence of photosynthesis and respiration, exhibits diurnal cycles differing by season. The background CO₂ (CO_2,b) derived from Miyun observations is comparable to CO₂ observed at a Mongolian background station to the northwest. Annual growth of overall mean CO₂ at Miyun is estimated at 2.7 ppm yr⁻¹ while that of CO_2,b is only 1.7 ppm yr⁻¹ similar to the mean growth rate at northern mid-latitude background stations. This suggests a relatively faster increase in the regional CO₂ sources in China than the global average, consistent with bottom-up studies of CO₂ emissions. For air masses with trajectories through the northern China boundary layer, mean winter CO₂/CO correlation slopes (dCO₂/dCO) increased by 2.8 ± 0.9 ppmv/ppmv or 11% from 2005–2006 to 2007–2008, with CO₂ increasing by 1.8 ppmv. 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