Real-world wintertime CO, N2O, and CO2 emissions of a central European village

• Published in: Atmospheric measurement techniques 2022-09, Vol.15 (17), p.5019-5031
• Main Authors: Haszpra, László, Barcza, Zoltán, Ferenczi, Zita, Hollós, Roland, Kern, Anikó, Kljun, Natascha
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air pollution; Atmosphere; Carbon; Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide emissions; Climate change; Earth and Related Environmental Sciences; Eddy covariance; Emission inventories; Emission measurements; Emissions; Energy consumption; Environmental Sciences; Gases; Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Meteorologi och atmosfärforskning; Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences; Miljövetenskap; Monitoring; Natural Sciences; Naturvetenskap; Nitrous oxide; Nitrous oxide emissions; Three dimensional models; Villages; Winter
• ISSN: 1867-1381; 1867-8548; 1867-8548
• DOI: 10.5194/amt-15-5019-2022

Although small rural settlements are only minor individual sources of greenhouse gases and air pollution, their high overall occurrence can significantly contribute to the total emissions of a region or country. Emissions from a rural lifestyle may be remarkably different than those of urban and industrialized regions, but nevertheless they have hardly been studied so far. Here, flux measurements at a tall-tower eddy covariance monitoring site and the footprint model FFP are used to determine the real-world wintertime CO, N2O, and CO2 emissions of a small village in western Hungary. The recorded emission densities, dominantly resulting from residential heating, are 3.5, 0.043, and 72 µg m-2 s-1 for CO, N2O, and CO2, respectively. While the measured CO and CO2 emissions are comparable to those calculated using the assumed energy consumption and applying the according emission factors, the nitrous oxide emissions exceed the expected value by a magnitude. This may indicate that the nitrous oxide emissions are significantly underestimated in the emission inventories, and modifications in the methodology of emission calculations are necessary. Using a three-dimensional forward transport model, we further show that, in contrast to the flux measurements, the concentration measurements at the regional background monitoring site are only insignificantly influenced by the emissions of the nearby village.