Worden, John: JPL (Project Lead)
Project Funding:
2014 - 2017
NRA: 2013 NASA: Carbon Cycle Science
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
The proposed research will address the following unresolved science questions:
1) How much of the total methane budget is due to tropical and sub-tropical fires?
2) To what extent have tropical and sub-tropical fires affected the recent increase (since 2006) in atmospheric methane?
3) How do methane emissions from tropical and sub-tropical fires vary with precipitation, humidity, and climactic anomalies such as ENSO?
We propose to use NASA Aura TES CH4 and CO free-tropospheric estimates and Terra MOPITT CO profiles (with sensitivity from the surface to upper-troposphere) to quantify CH4 emissions from fires and characterize the errors in these estimates due to transport, fuel-type, effect of wetland emissions on the observed air parcels, and the satellite observation uncertainties. We will then evaluate the relationship between these emissions with variations in rainfall and humidity, driven in part by the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and how variations in fire emissions affected the recent increase in atmospheric methane since 2006. These results will provide comprehensive top-down tests of modeled methane emissions from fires and will also allow subsequent research efforts to investigate feedbacks between human activities and a warming climate and their effects on tropical and subtropical methane emissions.
Publications:
Bloom, A. A., Worden, J., Jiang, Z., Worden, H., Kurosu, T., Frankenberg, C., Schimel, D. 2015. Remote-sensing constraints on South America fire traits by Bayesian fusion of atmospheric and surface data. Geophysical Research Letters. 42(4), 1268-1274. DOI: 10.1002/2014GL062584
Jiang, Z., Worden, J. R., Worden, H., Deeter, M., Jones, D. B. A., Arellano, A. F., Henze, D. K. 2017. A 15-year record of CO emissions constrained by MOPITT CO observations. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 17(7), 4565-4583. DOI: 10.5194/acp-17-4565-2017
Worden, J. R., Bloom, A. A., Pandey, S., Jiang, Z., Worden, H. M., Walker, T. W., Houweling, S., Rockmann, T. 2017. Reduced biomass burning emissions reconcile conflicting estimates of the post-2006 atmospheric methane budget. Nature Communications. 8(1). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02246-0
2015 NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Joint Science Workshop Poster(s)
- Remote sensing constraints on South America fire traits by Bayesian fusion of atmospheric and surface data
-- (A. Anthony Bloom, John R. Worden, Zhe Jiang, Helen Worden, Thomas Kurosu, Christian Frankenberg, David Schimel)
[abstract]
- Estimate of Tropical Fire Emissions using Aura TES and GOSAT data.
-- (John Worden, A. Anthony Bloom, Helen Worden, Kevin Bowman, David Schimel)
[abstract]
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
