Airborne Mapping Reveals Emergent Power Law of Arctic Methane Emissions
Abstract Methane (CH4) emissions from thawing permafrost amplify a climate warming feedback. However, upscaling of site‐level CH4 observations across diverse Arctic landscapes remains highly uncertain, compromising accuracy of current pan‐Arctic CH4 budgets and confidence in model forecasts. We repo...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2020-02-01
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| Series: | Geophysical Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL085707 |
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| Summary: | Abstract Methane (CH4) emissions from thawing permafrost amplify a climate warming feedback. However, upscaling of site‐level CH4 observations across diverse Arctic landscapes remains highly uncertain, compromising accuracy of current pan‐Arctic CH4 budgets and confidence in model forecasts. We report a 30,000‐km2 survey at 25‐m2 resolution (~1 billion observations) of CH4 hotspot patterns across Alaska and northwestern Canada using airborne imaging spectroscopy. Hotspots covered 0.2% of the surveyed area, concentrated in the wetland‐upland ecotone, and followed a two‐component power law as a function of distance from standing water. Hotspots decreased sharply over the first 40 m from standing water (y = 0.21×−0.649, R2 = 0.97), mirroring in situ flux observations. Beyond 40 m, CH4 hotspots diminished gradually over hundreds of meters (y = 0.004×−0.164, R2 = 0.99). This emergent property quantifies the distribution of strong methanogenic zones from site to regional scales, vastly improving metrics for scaling ground‐based CH4 inventories and validation of land models. |
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| ISSN: | 0094-8276 1944-8007 |