Arctic Methane Flux and Airborne Data from CARVE-ARCSS

Methane flux and atmospheric data from the Alaskan Arctic tundra combines ground-based and airborne measurements. The dataset includes half-hourly and daily methane flux, soil and air temperatures from five eddy covariance towers (2013-2014), plus airborne methane and ozone measurements with modeled surface influence footprints from CARVE flight campaigns (2012-2014). It was produced by the NSF ARCSS 'Methane Loss From Arctic' project and NASA's CARVE experiment.

Use Cases

• Modeling regional methane sources and sinks using the provided regional C-CH4 fluxes and 2D surface influence footprints.
• Analyzing relationships between soil temperature, air temperature, and methane emissions using the half-hourly and daily tower site data.
• Studying 'zero curtain' periods and their impact on Arctic carbon cycling using the identified near-freezing soil temperature intervals.
• Validating atmospheric transport models by comparing STILT-WRF modeled footprints against the airborne methane concentration measurements aggregated at 5 km intervals.

Strengths

• Includes data from five distinct tower sites providing spatial coverage across the Alaskan North Slope.
• Combines multiple measurement methods: year-round eddy covariance tower data and three years of airborne campaign data.
• Provides derived data products including daily means, zero curtain periods, regional fluxes, and high-resolution modeled footprints.

Limitations

• Key metadata conflicts exist: one source lists a 2026 update date while another indicates the data collection ended in 2014.
• Specific row counts, file sizes, and detailed column names are not provided by any source platform.

Provenance

Source

NSF ARCSS project 'Methane Loss From Arctic' (ARCSS #1204263) and NASA's Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE).

Collection Method

Ground-based eddy covariance measurements and airborne campaign sampling, processed with standard eddy covariance procedures and modeled with WRF-STILT.

Time Range

2012 to 2014

Freshness

2026-03-13 09:14:39.870592

Geography

Alaskan Arctic tundra, North Slope