Studies of greenhouse effect gases

• Grant number: 98/09566-5
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 1999
• End date: February 28, 2001
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geophysics
• Principal Investigator: Plínio Carlos Alvalá
• Grantee: Plínio Carlos Alvalá
• Host Institution: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE). Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brasil). São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

There are many locations monitoring the concentrations of the most important greenhouse gases in the world. However, in the South Atlantic there is only one station making this monitoring. This project pretends to get the first information about the most importante greenhouse gases: CO2, CH4, N2O, CFCl3 (CFC-11), CF2CL2 (CFC-12), in that region. The sampling will be taken in stainless steel flasks from aboard the Oceanographic and Supply Ship (NApOc) Ary Rongel, from Brazil’s Navy. The cruises will be between Rio de Janeiro (22°, 43°W) and the Brazilian Antarctic Station Comandante Ferraz (62°S, 58°W), each 5 degrees in latitude. The ship makes this trajectory every year between march and april, and october and november. After, the samples will be analyzed at INPE’s Laboratory using gas chromatography technique. Samples from Natal (6°S, 35°W) will be used for comparison also. The concentrations will give information about a region where there is a lack of in situ measurements, both spatial and temporal. This information will be used to study the latitudinal distribution and global budget of that gas, and could be useful to validate modeling results for the region. The development of this project will provide support to initiation works, master dissertation and doctoral theses, while the results will be disseminated through the scientific literature. (AU)