ALE - Atmospheric Life Experiment, Gas Chromatagraph datasets CSIRO archive - 1978 to 1986

The CSIRO archive of the Atmospheric Life Experiment (ALE) datasets which was designed to determine accurately the atmospheric concentrations of the four halocarbons CFCl3, CF2Cl2, CH3CCl3, and CCl4, and also of N2O with emphasis on measurement of their long-term trends in the atmosphere. Comparison of these concentrations and trends for the four halocarbons with estimates of their industrial emission rates then enabled calculations of their global circulation rates and globally averaged atmospheric lifetimes. The ALE project was the precursor of the GAGE (Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment) and thereafter AGAGE (Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment) global observing system that has been continuously measuring the composition of the atmosphere since. This particular dataset represents measurements taken utilizing automated dual-column electron-capture gas chromatographs which sample the background air about 4 times daily at the following globally distributed sites: Adrigole, Ireland; Cape Meares, Oregon; Ragged Point, Barbados; Cape Matatula, American Samoa; and Cape Grim, Tasmania. Officially ALE ran for the time period from 1978-1981, although data was continued to be logged until 1986 and is available in yearly files either in Ascii (.txt), Ascii decimal date(.dat) or binary file decimal date format(.dat.bin).

Simple

Identification info

Date
Citation identifier
Marlin Record Number: 8375

Citation identifier
Anzlic Identifier: ANZCW0306008375

Credit

Australian Bureau of Meteorology/Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station (CGBAPS), CSIRO - Marine and Atmospheric Research (CMAR), NASA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Oregan Graduate Institute, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), University of Bristol, Georgia Institute of Technology

Credit

Paul Krummel

Credit

Paul Steele

Credit

Paul Fraser.

Status
Completed
Point of contact
Role Organisation Electronic mail address
Point of contact

CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere - Aspendale
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
  • Environment

Extent

N
S
E
W




Temporal extent

Time period
1978-07 1986-05
Title

•Rasmussen, R. A.; Lovelock, J.E. The Atmospheric Lifetime Experiment. II - Calibration EJournal of Geophysical Research, 88, Oct. 20, ISSN 0148-0227, Number of Pages = 10.

•Prinn, R.G., R.F. Weiss, P.J. Fraser, P.G. Simmonds, D.M. Cunnold, F.N. Alyea, S. O'Doherty, P. Salameh, B.R. Miller, J. Huang, R.H.J. Wang, D.E. Hartley, C. Harth, L.P. Steele, G. Sturrock, P.M. Midgley, and A. McCulloch, A History of Chemically and Radiatively Important Gases in Air deduced from ALE/GAGE/AGAGE, J. Geophys. Res., 105, 17,751-17,792, 2000.

•Prinn, R.G., J. Huang, R.F. Weiss, D.M. Cunnold, P.J. Fraser, P.G. Simmonds, A. McCulloch, C.Harth, P. Salameh, S. O'Doherty, R.H.J. Wang, L. Porter, and B.R. Miller, Evidence for significant variations of atmospheric hydroxyl radicals in the last two decades, Science, 292. 1882-1888, 2001.

•Miller, B. R., R. F. Weiss, P. K. Salameh, T. Tanhua, B. R. Greally, J. Mühle, P. G. Simmonds, Medusa: A Sample Preconcentration and GC/MS Detector System for in Situ Measurements of Atmospheric Trace Halocarbons, Hydrocarbons, and Sulfur Compounds, /Analytical Chemistry/., ASAP Article; doi: 10.1021/ac702084k, 2008.

Date (Publication)
2000
Maintenance and update frequency
As needed
GCMD Keywords
CSIRO Equipment
AODN Geographic Extent Names
CSIRO Source List

Resource constraints

Other constraints

Available for CSIRO internal use, users are required to contact Paul Krummel, Paul Steele or Paul Fraser first.

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Environment description

Data is in ASCII format, can be opened by any text editor or specialised programs such as IDL(ITTVIS) or ARCview reader (freeware).

Supplemental Information

ATTRIBUTE STATEMENT:

Variables: DA, TIME, ABSDA, CFC-11S, CFC-11P, CFC-12, CH3CCl3, CCl4, N2O.

Stations available:

1978: Adrigole, Barbados, Cape Grim, Samoa.

1979-84: Adrigole, Barbados, Cape Grim, Oregon, Samoa.

1985: Barbados, Cape Grim, Samoa.

1986: Cape Grim, Samoa.

Instruments:

HP5840 Gas Chromatograph.

Distribution Information

Distribution format

  • DIGITAL - Binary

  • DIGITAL - Text Documents - ASCII

OnLine resource

Data Link

Link to 'Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center' (CDIAC) homepage

OnLine resource

Data Link

Link to 'World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases' (WDCGG) homepage

OnLine resource

Documentation Link

Link to AGAGE Global Homepage

OnLine resource

Name of the resource

Project Data Location

Description

\\Gl-as\Gold\Data\ALE\

Data quality info

Hierarchy level
Dataset

Report

Result

Date (Publication)
Explanation

N/A

Report

Result

Date (Publication)
Explanation

N/A

Report

Result

Date (Publication)
Explanation

Dataset is complete for listed stations - Not all stations available for all years.

Resource lineage

Statement

Processed and corrected to SIO-2005 scale

Hierarchy level
Dataset

Metadata

Metadata identifier
b964dd53-6631-49e1-9f35-9fe0b795d056

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation Electronic mail address
Point of contact

CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere - Hobart
Metadata linkage

Point of truth URL of this metadata record

Point of truth URL of this metadata record

Date info (Creation)
2008-09-03T00:00:00
Date info (Revision)
2008-09-04T11:44:22

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3:2018

Title

Marine Community Profile

Date (Creation)
2019-05-30
Edition

3.0

Edition date
2019-05-30T00:00:00
Cited responsible party
Role Organisation Electronic mail address
Custodian

Marine Community Profile Governance Committee
 
 

Spatial extent

Keywords

CSIRO Equipment

Gas Chromatographs
CSIRO Source List

Coastal Station: Adrigole Coastal Station: Cape Grim Coastal Station: Cape Matatula Coastal Station: Cape Meares Coastal Station: Ragged Point
GCMD Keywords

Earth Science | Atmosphere | Air Quality | Emissions Earth Science | Atmosphere | Atmospheric Chemistry | Halocarbons And Halogens | Chlorofluorocarbons Earth Science | Atmosphere | Atmospheric Chemistry | Halocarbons And Halogens | Halocarbons Earth Science | Atmosphere | Atmospheric Chemistry | Halocarbons And Halogens | Hydrochlorofluorocarbons Earth Science | Atmosphere | Atmospheric Chemistry | Halocarbons And Halogens | Hydrofluorocarbons Earth Science | Human Dimensions | Environmental Impacts | Industrial Emissions


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