ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-8-5855-2008 Interpreting the variability of space-borne CO<sub>2</sub> column-averaged volume mixing ratios over North America using a chemistry transport model Palmer P. I. 1 Barkley M. P. 1 Monks P. S. 2 School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, UK Department of Chemistry, University of Leicester, UK 13 10 2008 8 19 5855 5868 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/5855/2008/acp-8-5855-2008.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/5855/2008/acp-8-5855-2008.pdf

We use the GEOS-Chem chemistry transport model to interpret the sources and sinks of CO<sub>2</sub> that determine variability of column-averaged volume mixing ratios (CVMRs), as observed by the SCIAMACHY satellite instrument, during the 2003 North American growing season. GEOS-Chem generally reproduces the magnitude and seasonal cycle of observed CO<sub>2</sub> surface VMRs across North America and is quantitatively consistent with column VMRs in later years. However, it cannot reproduce the magnitude or variability of FSI-WFM-DOAS SCIAMACHY CVMRs. We use model tagged tracers to show that local fluxes largely determine CVMR variability over North America, with the largest individual CVMR contributions (1.1%) from the land biosphere. Fuel sources are relatively constant while biomass burning makes a significant contribution only during midsummer. We also show that non-local sources contribute significantly to total CVMRs over North America, with the boreal Asian land biosphere contributing close to 1% in midsummer at high latitudes. We used the monthly-mean Jacobian matrix for North America to illustrate that:~1) North American CVMRs represent a superposition of many weak flux signatures, but differences in flux distributions should permit independent flux estimation; and 2) the atmospheric e-folding lifetimes for many of these flux signatures are 3–4 months, beyond which time they are too well-mixed to interpret. These long lifetimes will improve the efficacy of observed CVMRs as surface CO<sub>2</sub> flux constraints.

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