Project Funding: 2014 - 2017

NRA: 2013 NASA: Carbon Cycle Science   

Funded by NASA, NOAA

Abstract:
The convergence of bottom-up and top-down approaches to quantifying CO2 emissions in the North American domain has taken important steps with recent studies such as the Mid-Continent Intensive (MCI) experiment. Similarly, a number of recent studies have performed comparisons of concentration observations to flux estimation at individual observing sites or in very specific locales, such as in the urban-focused efforts of INFLUX and the Megacity Project. However, there has yet to be a direct comparison between bottom-up and top down estimation using the latest bottom-up emission data products and the complete complement of atmospheric CO2 monitoring across the entire United States. Most importantly, no study has yet to avail of the increasing amount of #14CO2 monitoring, a key constraint to fossil fuel CO2 emissions. Leveraging the large amount of research already begun, or completed, under the North American Carbon Program can fill this gap. Preliminary comparison of #14C observations with the standard version of CT fossil fuel fluxes (population downscaling approach) and an extrapolated version of Vulcan demonstrated that the spatial pattern of Vulcan agreed significantly better with #14C observations than the emission estimates previously used in CT. In the work proposed here, we would repeat this comparison with a new version of Vulcan, rigorously extended to 2012, and additionally use multiple transport models to assess the sensitivity of the comparison to transport specification in addition to an improved space/time representation of the fossil fuel fluxes. This proposal responds to Theme 6 of the Carbon Cycle Science portion of the ROSES 2013 solicitation. Specifically, this proposal 'extends and/or completes NACP synthesis research' by further synthesizing the fossil fuel CO2 emissions in North America with the NOAA monitoring and modeling capabilities in North America. This directly supports and informs three of the NACP synthesis activities: the Mid-Continent Intensive (MCI), the Regional-Continental Interim Synthesis and the Inverse Modelers (Regional-Continental) Interim Synthesis.

Publications:

Cui, X., Newman, S., Xu, X., Andrews, A. E., Miller, J., Lehman, S., Jeong, S., Zhang, J., Priest, C., Campos-Pineda, M., Gurney, K. R., Graven, H., Southon, J., Fischer, M. L. 2019. Atmospheric observation-based estimation of fossil fuel CO2 emissions from regions of central and southern California. Science of The Total Environment. 664, 381-391. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.01.081

Fischer, M. L., Parazoo, N., Brophy, K., Cui, X., Jeong, S., Liu, J., Keeling, R., Taylor, T. E., Gurney, K., Oda, T., Graven, H. 2017. Simulating estimation of California fossil fuel and biosphere carbon dioxide exchanges combining in situ tower and satellite column observations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 122(6), 3653-3671. DOI: 10.1002/2016JD025617

Graven, H., Fischer, M. L., Lueker, T., Jeong, S., Guilderson, T. P., Keeling, R. F., Bambha, R., Brophy, K., Callahan, W., Cui, X., Frankenberg, C., Gurney, K. R., LaFranchi, B. W., Lehman, S. J., Michelsen, H., Miller, J. B., Newman, S., Paplawsky, W., Parazoo, N. C., Sloop, C., Walker, S. J. 2018. Assessing fossil fuel CO 2 emissions in California using atmospheric observations and models. Environmental Research Letters. 13(6), 065007. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aabd43

Gurney, K. R., Huang, J., Coltin, K. 2016. Bias present in US federal agency power plant CO 2 emissions data and implications for the US clean power plan. Environmental Research Letters. 11(6), 064005. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/11/6/064005

Gurney, K. R., Liang, J., Patarasuk, R., Song, Y., Huang, J., Roest, G. 2020. The Vulcan Version 3.0 High-Resolution Fossil Fuel CO 2 Emissions for the United States. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 125(19). DOI: 10.1029/2020JD032974

Gurney, K. R., Liang, J., Roest, G., Song, Y., Mueller, K., Lauvaux, T. 2021. Under-reporting of greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. cities. Nature Communications. 12(1). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20871-0

Hedelius, J. K., Feng, S., Roehl, C. M., Wunch, D., Hillyard, P. W., Podolske, J. R., Iraci, L. T., Patarasuk, R., Rao, P., O'Keeffe, D., Gurney, K. R., Lauvaux, T., Wennberg, P. O. 2017. Emissions and topographic effects on column CO 2 () variations, with a focus on the Southern California Megacity. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 122(13), 7200-7215. DOI: 10.1002/2017JD026455

Huang, J., Gurney, K. R. 2016. Impact of climate change on U.S. building energy demand: sensitivity to spatiotemporal scales, balance point temperature, and population distribution. Climatic Change. 137(1-2), 171-185. DOI: 10.1007/s10584-016-1681-6

Huang, J., Gurney, K. R. 2016. The variation of climate change impact on building energy consumption to building type and spatiotemporal scale. Energy. 111, 137-153. DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2016.05.118

Huang, J., Gurney, K. R. 2017. Impact of climate change on U.S. building energy demand: Financial implications for consumers and energy suppliers. Energy and Buildings. 139, 747-754. DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.01.077

Salmon, O. E., Shepson, P. B., Ren, X., He, H., Hall, D. L., Dickerson, R. R., Stirm, B. H., Brown, S. S., Fibiger, D. L., McDuffie, E. E., Campos, T. L., Gurney, K. R., Thornton, J. A. 2018. Top-Down Estimates of NO x and CO Emissions From Washington, D.C.-Baltimore During the WINTER Campaign. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 123(14), 7705-7724. DOI: 10.1029/2018JD028539

More details may be found in the following project profile(s):

• NASA Terrestrial Ecology (TE) Project Profile
• North American Carbon Program (NACP) Project Profile