Greenhouse gases measurement station at ICTA-UAB
The ICTA-UAB, within the framework of the ERC URBAG project, has a greenhouse gases measurement station located in its building. The collector offers the daily levels of CO2, CH4 and H2O, which can be consulted through the institution's website.
The equipment is a CO2/CH4/H2O PICARRO, INC analyzer (G-2301) installed at the ICTA-UAB site (ICTA, 41.497535, 2.1089, 143m asl) located downwind from the Collserola range, at the Vallès Occidental valley.
Inlet is located at the ICTA-UAB rooftop (147 agl) and measures every 10 seconds. The station is located at 13km from the sea and only 2km from Collserola, receiving sea breezes and weak winds. In addition, it is located between two of the most used motorways in Catalonia, the AP7 and C58. Therefore, flows from the city of Barcelona and the highways of the area can be observed.
Picarro instrument is based on the cavity ring down spectroscopy technique and measure CO2,CH4 and H2O data at a frequency of 1 Hz with a precision of <200 ppb for CO2, <1.5 ppb for CH4 and <150 ppm for H2O according to manufacturer's specifications. G-2301 values were corrected for water vapor and for the linear calibration performed periodically in the laboratory using six NOAA reference gases.
An auxiliary pump is used to pump the air to the instrument at a flow rate of 8 l/min through a 20m 1/2" diameter Synflex piping.