MEASUREMENT OF CARBON-DIOXIDE EMISSIONS PLUMES FROM PRUDHOE BAY, ALASKA OIL-FIELDS

Large carbon dioxide plumes with concentrations up to 45 ppm above amb ient levels were measured about 15 km downwind of the Prudhoe Bay, Ala ska major oil production facilities, located at 70 degrees N Lat, abov e the Arctic Circle, The measured emissions were 1.3 x 10(3) metric to ns (C) hour(-1) (11.4 x 10(6) metric tons (C) year(-1)), six times gre ater than the combustion emissions assumed by Jaffe and coworkers in J . Atmos. Chem. 20 (1995), 213-227, based on 1989 reported Prudhoe Bay oil facility fuel consumption data, and four times greater than the to tal C emissions reported by the oil facilities for the same months as the measurement time periods. Variations in the emissions were estimat ed by extrapolating the observed emissions at a single altitude for al l tundra research transect flights conducted downwind of the oil field s. These 30 flights yielded an average emission rate of 1.02 x 10(3) m etric tons (C) hour(-1) with a standard deviation of 0.33 x 10(3). The se quantity of emissions are roughly equivalent to the carbon dioxide emissions of 7-10 million hectares of arctic tussock tundra (Oechel an d Vourlitis, Trends in Ecol. Evolution 9 (1994), 324-329).