Near Surface Carbon Dioxide and Methane in Urban Areas of Costa Rica

Germain Esquivel-Hernández^1,2*, Mario Villalobos-Forbes², Ricardo Sánchez-Murillo², Christian Birkel^3,4, Juan Valdés-González¹, Jan Boll⁵

¹Laboratorio de Química de la Atmosfera, Escuela de Química, Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica.
²Grupo de Investigación en Isotopos Estables, Escuela de Química, Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica.
³Escuela de Geografía, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica.
⁴Northern Rivers Institute, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.
⁵Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/ojap.2015.44018                

Abstract

Little information is available for Central America regarding methane and carbon dioxide mixing ratios in urban areas. This work reports a representative spatial and seasonal study of near surface carbon dioxide and methane, carried out between July 2014 and January 2015 (27 weeks) in the Central Valley of Costa Rica, and other urban and rural sites across the country and covering three distinct seasons: Mid-summer drought (July-August), wet season (September-November) and transition period (December-January). The mixing ratios of both gases are clearly influenced by the metropolitan area, and by the prevailing atmospheric conditions during the wet season months. Average carbon dioxide concentration (629 ± 80 ppm) and average methane concentration (2192 ± 110 ppb) were up to 8% and up to 10%, respectively, higher during the wet season than the values recorded outside this period. HYSPLIT back air mass trajectories analysis, and weather data available for the Central Valley, suggest that these differences arise as result of a reduction in the mixing layer of depth (~425 m) and the wind speed (~1.5 m/s) across the valley, favoring the accumulation of polluted air masses in the metropolitan area. Other natural and anthropogenic sources, like the volcanic emissions of the Turrialba Volcano and the livestock activities at rural sites, apparently influence the mixing ratios of both gases across Costa Rica. Although the scope of this study is limited to representative seasonal conditions of the Central Valley in 2014 and 2015, it is possible considering the information presented in this work that the “dome” phenomenon can be assumed to exist.

Keywords

Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Urban Areas, Costa Rica, HYSPLIT, Atmospheric Conditions

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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