Vol. 39, issue 09, article # 8

Abstract:

Quantifying methane emissions from Arctic shelf seas is one of the most poorly studied issues of global greenhouse gas budget, largely due to the sparse observational network at high latitudes. This paper presents the results of continuous shipborne measurements of near-surface CH₄ and CO₂ concentrations in Kara and Barents Seas during the 93rd cruise of the scientific research vessel Akademik Mstislav Keldysh (8 November – 7 December 2023). For episodes of high methane mixing ratios (> 2050 ppb), backward trajectories of air masses were calculated, and in situ data were compared with simulations using the regional WRF-Chem model. This approach enabled spatial localization of emission sources and assessment of methane fluxes at water – atmosphere interface. The highest emissions, with median and peak values of 55.5 and 363 μg/(m² h), respectively, and a near-surface concentration of up to 2118 ppb, were found in southwestern Kara Sea (Baydaratskaya Bay), in good qualitative agreement with floating chamber flux measurements (86.4 and 483 μg/(m² h)). These values are comparable to or exceed wintertime methane fluxes from tundra and wetland ecosystems in Western Siberia (40–270 μg/(m² h)), thus pointing out to the potentially significant contribution of shelf emissions to regional atmospheric methane budget. The proposed approach for retrieving fluxes from near-surface concentration data can be applied to regionalization of point measurements and refining flux estimates in other Arctic areas where observational data are limited.

Keywords:

atmospheric composition, shipborne measurements, Arctic, methane emission, backward trajectory, model simulation, numerical assessment

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References:

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