Erie – Scientists hoping to pinpoint the sources of urban greenhouse gases unveiled a new lab here Tuesday at a dizzying 985 feet aboveground.
New carbon-dioxide sniffers adorn the “tall tower” operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in this semi-rural community 30 miles north of Denver.
It is part of a nationwide project to measure fossil-fuel emissions directly instead of through computer models.
“We’re getting into a new era where we want to limit emissions, but before we do that, we need to have a qualitative understanding of what’s there,” said Pieter Tans, head of the agency’s greenhouse- gases group.
“We need to know where do the gases come from and where are they absorbed,” Tans said.
The monitors detect the ebb and flow of carbon dioxide, a naturally occurring gas, which also is a byproduct of burning fossil fuels and is accumulating in the atmosphere, where it traps solar heat.
The annual rate of carbon-dioxide buildup in the oceans and atmosphere has tripled since 1958, Tans said.
Until now, cities and states have had to rely on “proxy” information such as gasoline sales to estimate the emissions from vehicles and other sources.
“I was looking at an emissions inventory, and I was shocked by how many assumptions go in there. We’re trying to get away from the assumptions,” Tans said.
The steel-framed tower will allow scientists to measure carbon dioxide from various heights, monitoring air from hundreds of miles away and revealing the effects of weather and daylight on the intricate chemistry of greenhouse gases.
It also is far enough away from the metro area that it detects the gases after they have mixed in the atmosphere.
Part of a planned network of a dozen tall towers across the country and hundreds around the world, the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory will help policymakers determine which reductions in emissions are working, said Arlyn Andrews, lead scientist at NOAA’s Earth Systems Research Lab.
“The motivation behind this project is to be able to map carbon-dioxide changes on a regional scale,” she said.
The tower, which is 271 feet higher than Denver’s tallest building, has been used since 1977 to study the metro-area “brown cloud” and other atmospheric conditions.
In addition to tracking carbon – a long-term project – atmospheric scientists like Steve Brown take advantage of the tower’s elevator system to measure changes in pollutants such as ozone, which can vary dramatically with elevation.
Brown said that the tower, while a handy place for scientific study, can be an acrophobe’s nightmare.
“It’s like standing on a pencil.”
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
