This paper documents a global Bayesian variational inversion of CO2 surface fluxes during the period 1988–2008. Weekly fluxes are estimated on a 3.75° × 2.5° (longitude‐latitude) grid throughout the ...21 years. The assimilated observations include 128 station records from three large data sets of surface CO2 mixing ratio measurements. A Monte Carlo approach rigorously quantifies the theoretical uncertainty of the inverted fluxes at various space and time scales, which is particularly important for proper interpretation of the inverted fluxes. Fluxes are evaluated indirectly against two independent CO2 vertical profile data sets constructed from aircraft measurements in the boundary layer and in the free troposphere. The skill of the inversion is evaluated by the improvement brought over a simple benchmark flux estimation based on the observed atmospheric growth rate. Our error analysis indicates that the carbon budget from the inversion should be more accurate than the a priori carbon budget by 20% to 60% for terrestrial fluxes aggregated at the scale of subcontinental regions in the Northern Hemisphere and over a year, but the inversion cannot clearly distinguish between the regional carbon budgets within a continent. On the basis of the independent observations, the inversion is seen to improve the fluxes compared to the benchmark: the atmospheric simulation of CO2 with the Bayesian inversion method is better by about 1 ppm than the benchmark in the free troposphere, despite possible systematic transport errors. The inversion achieves this improvement by changing the regional fluxes over land at the seasonal and at the interannual time scales.
At the end of 2015, a CO2/CH4/CO cavity ring-down spectrometer (CRDS) was installed at the Izaña Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) station (Tenerife, Spain) to improve the Izaña Greenhouse Gases GAW ...Measurement Programme, and to guarantee the renewal of the instrumentation and the long-term maintenance of this program. We present the results of the CRDS acceptance tests, the raw data processing scheme applied, and the response functions used. Also, the calibration results, the implemented water vapor correction, the target gas injection statistics, the ambient measurements performed from December 2015 to July 2017, and their comparison with other continuous in situ measurements are described. The agreement with other in situ continuous measurements is good most of the time for CO2 and CH4, but for CO it is just outside the GAW 2 ppb objective. It seems the disagreement is not produced by significant drifts in the CRDS CO World Meteorological Organization (WMO) tertiary standards. The more relevant contributions of the present article are (1) determination of linear relationships between flow rate, CRDS inlet pressure, and CRDS outlet valve aperture; (2) determination of a slight CO2 correction that takes into account changes in the inlet pressure/flow rate (as well as its stability over the years), and attributing it to the existence of a small spatial inhomogeneity in the pressure field inside the CRDS cavity due to the gas dynamics; (3) drift rate determination for the pressure and temperature sensors located inside the CRDS cavity from the CO2 and CH4 response function drift trends; (4) the determination of the H2O correction for CO has been performed using raw spectral peak data instead of the raw CO provided by the CRDS and using a running mean to smooth random noise in a long water-droplet test (12 h) before performing the least square fit; and (5) the existence of a small H2O dependence in the CRDS flow and of a small spatial inhomogeneity in the temperature field inside the CRDS cavity are pointed out and their origin discussed.
An analysis of the 22-yr ozone (O3) series (1988–2009) at the subtropical high mountain Izaña~station (IZO; 2373 m a.s.l.), representative of free troposphere (FT) conditions, is presented. Diurnal ...and seasonal O3 variations as well as the O3 trend (0.19 ± 0.05 % yr−1 or 0.09 ppbv yr−1), are assessed. A climatology of O3 transport pathways using backward trajectories shows that higher O3 values are associated with air masses travelling above 4 km altitude from North America and North Atlantic Ocean, while low O3 is transported from the Saharan continental boundary layer (CBL). O3 data have been compared with PM10, 210Pb, 7Be, potential vorticity (PV) and carbon monoxide (CO). A clear negative logarithmic relationship was observed between PM10 and surface O3 for all seasons. A similar relationship was found between O3 and 210Pb. The highest daily O3 values (90th percentile) are observed in spring and in the first half of summer time. A positive correlation between O3 and PV, and between O3 and 7Be is found throughout the year, indicating that relatively high surface O3 values at IZO originate from the middle and upper troposphere. We find a good correlation between O3 and CO in winter, supporting the hypothesis of long-range transport of photochemically generated O3 from North America. Aged air masses, in combination with sporadic inputs from the upper troposphere, are observed in spring, summer and autumn. In summer time high O3 values seem to be the result of stratosphere-to-troposphere (STT) exchange processes in regions neighbouring the Canary Islands. Since 1995–1996, the North Atlantic Oscillation has changed from a predominantly high positive phase to alternating between negative, neutral or positive phases. This change results in an increased flow of the westerlies in the mid-latitude and subtropical North Atlantic, thus favouring the transport of O3 and its precursors from North America, and a higher frequency of storms over North Atlantic, with a likely higher incidence of STT processes in mid-latitudes. These processes lead to an increase of tropospheric O3 in the subtropical North Atlantic region after 1996 that has been reflected in surface O3 records at IZO.
Observations at surface sites show an increase in global mean surface methane (CH4) of about 180 parts per billion (ppb) (above 10 %) over the period 1984–2012. Over this period there are large ...fluctuations in the annual growth rate. In this work, we investigate the atmospheric CH4 evolution over the period 1970–2012 with the Oslo CTM3 global chemical transport model (CTM) in a bottom-up approach. We thoroughly assess data from surface measurement sites in international networks and select a subset suited for comparisons with the output from the CTM. We compare model results and observations to understand causes for both long-term trends and short-term variations. Employing Oslo CTM3 we are able to reproduce the seasonal and year-to-year variations and shifts between years with consecutive growth and stagnation, both at global and regional scales. The overall CH4 trend over the period is reproduced, but for some periods the model fails to reproduce the strength of the growth. The model overestimates the observed growth after 2006 in all regions. This seems to be explained by an overly strong increase in anthropogenic emissions in Asia, having global impact. Our findings confirm other studies questioning the timing or strength of the emission changes in Asia in the EDGAR v4.2 emission inventory over recent decades. The evolution of CH4 is not only controlled by changes in sources, but also by changes in the chemical loss in the atmosphere and soil uptake. The atmospheric CH4 lifetime is an indicator of the CH4 loss. In our simulations, the atmospheric CH4 lifetime decreases by more than 8 % from 1970 to 2012, a significant reduction of the residence time of this important greenhouse gas. Changes in CO and NOx emissions, specific humidity, and ozone column drive most of this, and we provide simple prognostic equations for the relations between those and the CH4 lifetime. The reduced lifetime results in substantial growth in the chemical CH4 loss (relative to its burden) and dampens the CH4 growth.
We present the first estimate of the global distribution of CO2 surface fluxes from 14 stations of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). The evaluation of this inversion is based on 1) ...comparison with the fluxes from a classical inversion of surface air-sample-measurements, and 2) comparison of CO2 mixing ratios calculated from the inverted fluxes with independent aircraft measurements made during the two years analyzed here, 2009 and 2010. The former test shows similar seasonal cycles in the northern hemisphere and consistent regional carbon budgets between inversions from the two datasets, even though the TCCON inversion appears to be less precise than the classical inversion. The latter test confirms that the TCCON inversion has improved the quality (i.e., reduced the uncertainty) of the surface fluxes compared to the assumed or prior fluxes. The consistency between the surface-air-sample-based and the TCCON-based inversions despite remaining flaws in transport models opens the possibility of increased accuracy and robustness of flux inversions based on the combination of both data sources and confirms the usefulness of space-borne monitoring of the CO2 column.
We present an assimilation system for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO
2
) using a Global Eulerian-Lagrangian Coupled Atmospheric model (GELCA), and demonstrate its capability to capture the observed ...atmospheric CO
2
mixing ratios and to estimate CO
2
fluxes. With the efficient data handling scheme in GELCA, our system assimilates non-smoothed CO
2
data from observational data products such as the Observation Package (ObsPack) data products as constraints on surface fluxes. We conducted sensitivity tests to examine the impact of the site selections and the prior uncertainty settings of observation on the inversion results. For these sensitivity tests, we made five different site/data selections from the ObsPack product. In all cases, the time series of the global net CO
2
flux to the atmosphere stayed close to values calculated from the growth rate of the observed global mean atmospheric CO
2
mixing ratio. At regional scales, estimated seasonal CO
2
fluxes were altered, depending on the CO
2
data selected for assimilation. Uncertainty reductions were determined at the regional scale and compared among cases. As measures of the model-data mismatch, we used the model-data bias, root-mean-square error, and the linear correlation. For most observation sites, the model-data mismatch was reasonably small. Regarding regional flux estimates, tropical Asia was one of the regions that showed a significant impact from the observation network settings. We found that the surface fluxes in tropical Asia were the most sensitive to the use of aircraft measurements over the Pacific, and the seasonal cycle agreed better with the results of bottom-up studies when the aircraft measurements were assimilated. These results confirm the importance of these aircraft observations, especially for constraining surface fluxes in the tropics.
Background & Aims:
Progress in the understanding of susceptibility factors to drug-induced liver injury (DILI) and outcome predictability are hampered by the lack of systematic programs to detect ...bona fide cases.
Methods:
A cooperative network was created in 1994 in Spain to identify all suspicions of DILI following a prospective structured report form. The liver damage was characterized according to hepatocellular, cholestatic, and mixed laboratory criteria and to histologic criteria when available. Further evaluation of causality assessment was centrally performed.
Results:
Since April 1994 to August 2004, 461 out of 570 submitted cases, involving 505 drugs, were deemed to be related to DILI. The antiinfective group of drugs was the more frequently incriminated, amoxicillin-clavulanate accounting for the 12.8% of the whole series. The hepatocellular pattern of damage was the most common (58%), was inversely correlated with age (
P < .0001), and had the worst outcome (Cox regression,
P < .034). Indeed, the incidence of liver transplantation and death in this group was 11.7% if patients had jaundice at presentation, whereas the corresponding figure was 3.8% in nonjaundiced patients (
P < .04). Factors associated with the development of fulminant hepatic failure were female sex (OR = 25; 95% CI: 4.1–151;
P < .0001), hepatocellular damage (OR = 7.9; 95% CI: 1.6–37;
P < .009), and higher baseline plasma bilirubin value (OR = 1.15; 95% CI: 1.09–1.22;
P < .0001).
Conclusions:
Patients with drug-induced hepatocellular jaundice have 11.7% chance of progressing to death or transplantation. Amoxicillin-clavulanate stands out as the most common drug related to DILI.
We present a proof of concept on the coupling of radio astronomical receivers and spectrometers with chemical reactors and the performances of the resulting setup for spectroscopy and chemical ...simulations in laboratory astrophysics. Several experiments including cold plasma generation and UV photochemistry were performed in a 40 cm long gas cell placed in the beam path of the Aries 40 m radio telescope receivers operating in the 41–49 GHz frequency range interfaced with fast Fourier transform spectrometers providing 2 GHz bandwidth and 38 kHz resolution. The impedance matching of the cell windows has been studied using different materials. The choice of the material and its thickness was critical to obtain a sensitivity identical to that of standard radio astronomical observations. Spectroscopic signals arising from very low partial pressures of CH3OH, CH3CH2OH, HCOOH, OCS, CS, SO2 (<10-3 mbar) were detected in a few seconds. Fast data acquisition was achieved allowing for kinetic measurements in fragmentation experiments using electron impact or UV irradiation. Time evolution of chemical reactions involving OCS, O2 and CS2 was also observed demonstrating that reactive species, such as CS, can be maintained with high abundance in the gas phase during these experiments.
Objectives
We tested the effects of a weight-loss intervention encouraging energy-reduced MedDiet and physical activity (PA) in comparison to
ad libitum
MedDiet on COVID-19 incidence in older adults.
...Design
Secondary analysis of PREDIMED-Plus, a prospective, ongoing, multicentre randomized controlled trial.
Setting
Community-dwelling, free-living participants in PREDIMED-Plus trial.
Participants
6,874 Spanish older adults (55–75 years, 49% women) with overweight/obesity and metabolic syndrome.
Intervention
Participants were randomised to Intervention (IG) or Control (CG) Group. IG received intensive behavioural intervention for weight loss with an energy-reduced MedDiet intervention and PA promotion. CG was encouraged to consume
ad libitum
MedDiet without PA recommendations.
Measurements
COVID-19 was ascertained by an independent Event Committee until December 31, 2021. COX regression models compared the effect of PREDIMED-Plus interventions on COVID-19 risk.
Results
Overall, 653 COVID-19 incident cases were documented (IG:317; CG:336) over a median (IQR) follow-up of 5.8 (1.3) years (inclusive of 4.0 (1.2) years before community transmission of COVID-19) in both groups. A significantly lowered risk of COVID-19 incidence was not evident in IG, compared to CG (fully-adjusted HR (95% CI): 0.96 (0.81,1.12)).
Conclusions
There was no evidence to show that an intensive weight-loss intervention encouraging energy-reduced MedDiet and PA significantly lowered COVID-19 risk in older adults with overweight/ obesity and metabolic syndrome in comparison to
ad libitum
MedDiet. Recommendations to improve adherence to MedDiet provided with or without lifestyle modification suggestions for weight loss may have similar effects in protecting against COVID-19 risk in older adults with high cardiovascular risks.
We present a global distribution of surface methane (CH4) emission estimates for 2000–2012 derived using the CarbonTracker Europe-CH4 (CTE-CH4) data assimilation system. In CTE-CH4, anthropogenic and ...biospheric CH4 emissions are simultaneously estimated based on constraints of global atmospheric in situ CH4 observations. The system was configured to either estimate only anthropogenic or biospheric sources per region, or to estimate both categories simultaneously. The latter increased the number of optimizable parameters from 62 to 78. In addition, the differences between two numerical schemes available to perform turbulent vertical mixing in the atmospheric transport model TM5 were examined. Together, the system configurations encompass important axes of uncertainty in inversions and allow us to examine the robustness of the flux estimates. The posterior emission estimates are further evaluated by comparing simulated atmospheric CH4 to surface in situ observations, vertical profiles of CH4 made by aircraft, remotely sensed dry-air total column-averaged mole fraction (XCH4) from the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON), and XCH4 from the Greenhouse gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT). The evaluation with non-assimilated observations shows that posterior XCH4 is better matched with the retrievals when the vertical mixing scheme with faster interhemispheric exchange is used. Estimated posterior mean total global emissions during 2000–2012 are 516 ± 51 Tg CH4 yr-1, with an increase of 18 Tg CH4 yr-1 from 2000–2006 to 2007–2012. The increase is mainly driven by an increase in emissions from South American temperate, Asian temperate and Asian tropical TransCom regions. In addition, the increase is hardly sensitive to different model configurations (< 2 Tg CH4 yr-1 difference), and much smaller than suggested by EDGAR v4.2 FT2010 inventory (33 Tg CH4 yr-1), which was used for prior anthropogenic emission estimates. The result is in good agreement with other published estimates from inverse modelling studies (16–20 Tg CH4 yr-1). However, this study could not conclusively separate a small trend in biospheric emissions (-5 to +6.9 Tg CH4 yr-1) from the much larger trend in anthropogenic emissions (15–27 Tg CH4 yr-1). Finally, we find that the global and North American CH4 balance could be closed over this time period without the previously suggested need to strongly increase anthropogenic CH4 emissions in the United States. With further developments, especially on the treatment of the atmospheric CH4 sink, we expect the data assimilation system presented here will be able to contribute to the ongoing interpretation of changes in this important greenhouse gas budget.