Comparing emissions from a cattle pen as measured by two micrometeorological techniques

Abstract

Accurate measurement of ammonia (NH3) emissions from livestock pens is challenging. Two micrometeorological techniques, the integrated horizontal flux (IHF) and the backward Lagrangian stochastic (bLS) dispersion techniques were used to measure NH3 emissions from an isolated cattle pen (20 × 20 m) in Victoria, Australia. The bLS technique is simple and insensitive to the presence of animals, but typically gives discontinuous measurements due to the need for target wind directions and wind conditions above accepted thresholds. In contrast, the IHF technique as implemented here gives near-continuous measurements with no restriction on wind directions. However, IHF needs more complex field meas..