First purpose-built UK tall tower for greenhouse gas research

随着《巴黎协定》的批准，世界已承诺避免危险的气候变化，这将涉及在发展碳汇的同时迅速减少排放。包括英国在内的世界各国政府提出了若干政策干预措施，以减少各个部门的温室气体排放。到目前为止，这些措施的有效性主要是用自下而上的方法来评估的，有一些局限性。“自上而下”的区域温室气体测量方法将提供政策有效性的直接证据，并作为“自下而上”的温室气体测量方法的参考点。如果我们不能确定减缓政策的有效性，那么我们减缓气候变化的能力将受到损害。此外，需要进行测量和建模工作，以评估自然温室气体通量如何对极端天气事件和气候变化作出反应，并解决碳循环科学中的基本问题。要做到这一点，我们需要能够测量和量化温室气体的排放和浓度，提高估算的空间粒度，并分别量化不同的自然和人为来源。从地面一直到地面以上的空气采样（不受非常局部的排放和汇的影响），可以对从地方尺度到覆盖国家和大陆的排放和汇进行敏感的测量。与大气模型相结合的测量，这个新的高塔设施将使温室气体通量估算的研究以前所未有的细节进行。在我们向净零目标迈进的过程中，这项工作将有助于政策制定者制定温室气体减排政策。

With the ratification of the Paris Agreement, the world has committed to avoiding dangerous climate change, which will involve rapid reduction in emissions while developing carbon sinks. Governments across the world including UK proposed several policy interventions to mitigate GHG emissions from various sectors. So far effectiveness of these measures is evaluated predominantly using bottom up methods with several limitations. 'Top-down' approaches in GHG measurement at regional scale will provide direct evidence of policy effectiveness and act as a reference point to 'bottom-up' GHG measurement approaches. If we cannot determine the effectiveness of mitigation policies, then our ability to mitigate climate change will be compromised. Further, measurements and modelling efforts are needed to evaluate how natural GHG fluxes respond to extreme weather events and climate change, and to solve fundamental questions within carbon cycle science. To do this we need to be able to measure and quantify GHG emissions and concentrations, improve the spatial granularity of estimates, and separately quantify different natural and man-made sources.Sampling air from ground level to through to well above ground (not influenced by very local emissions and sinks) allows measurements to be made that are sensitive to emissions and sinks from local scales through to covering countries and continents. Coupling measurements with models of the atmosphere, this new tall tower facility will allow research in greenhouse gas flux estimation to be made in unprecedented detail. In turn this work will help policy makers decide on the policies for greenhouse gas emissions reductions as we move towards the net zero target.