2.9. Aircraft Profiles
Vertical profiles of CO2, CH4, and CO were collected weekly over Carr, Colorado (40.9ºN 104.8ºW) during 1996 and 1997. The air samples were collected from a Cessna 210T starting at an altitude of approximately 7.9 km above sea level down to 2.1 km above sea level. Twenty samples were collected on each flight. During 1996 we had approximately 25 successful flights and in 1997 we increased the number of profiles to 41. Poor weather conditions, airplane problems, or pilot scheduling conflicts contributed to missing flights.
We officially terminated the Moscow, Russia, sampling site with Aviaecocentre in July 1997. During 1996, seven profiles were collected from the site located approximately 100 km southeast of Moscow (54.9ºN 35.5ºE). The last successful flight was in December 1996.
The costs associated with operating this site were too high for us to be able to continue sampling.
In December 1996 we started sampling near Howland, Maine [42.2ºN, 68.1ºW] in collaboration with the University of New Hampshire. We collected data from three flights. Sampling equipment problems caused us to suspend sampling in the summer of 1997. We may be able to restart sampling at this site in the future.