Temporal characteristics of atmospheric CO2 in urban Nanjing, China

Although China is a big carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter, in situ measurements of atmospheric CO2 are sparse in urban China. The mixing ratio of carbon dioxide (CO2) and its influencing factors in urban Nanjing were investigated in this study, from the 18th of January to the 31st of December 2011. The annual average mixing ratio of CO2 was 406.5 ± 20.0 ppmv over the study period. The signal analysis using the fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm showed that CO2 had different cycles as a result of multiple controlling factors. The seasonal and intra-seasonal fluctuations of CO2 were mainly caused by the terrestrial biospheric uptake and emission and atmospheric oscillation. The weekly variation of CO2 was largely influenced by traffic volume. The diurnal cycle of CO2 presented a bimodal pattern in winter (DJF) probably due to the rush hour emissions. The seasonal mean CO2/CO correlation slope varied from 0.024 ppmv/ppbv to 0.029 ppmv/ppbv, comparable to the fossil fuel combustion emission ratio. The diurnal pattern of CO2/CO was irregular, indicating random anthropogenic emissions in an urban area. Firework setting was a large source of CO2 during the Spring Festival holiday. The backward trajectories by the HYSPLIT model showed that the local anthropogenic emissions contributed the most to the high CO2 mixing ratio in the urban area.