Project Funding: 2013 - 2016

NRA: 2013 NASA: Carbon Monitoring System   

Funded by NASA

Abstract:
The world's population growth is increasingly concentrated in urban areas and this trend is expected to continue in the future. Urbanization has a profound impact on carbon dynamics, leading to increases in anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and decreases in biogenic fluxes from these areas. The latter are a key component of a carbon monitoring system (CMS), while spatially and temporally resolved estimates of anthropogenic fluxes are central to meeting greenhouse gas emissions reductions goals. We intend to design a measurement network and develop an accompanying atmospheric modeling framework for downscaling the current NASA CMS flux products to the regional and local scales pertinent to Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV). Our proposed research will focus on the Boston-DC megalopolis corridor, where about 17% of the U.S. population lives on less than 2% of the nation's land area, making it a key source of US anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Simultaneously, these urban areas are interspersed with vegetation that imposes a strong biogenic signal on the atmospheric CO2 mixing ratios. The proposed research will proceed along three main lines: 1) High-resolution transport modeling (WRF-STILT) customized and verified for the region, 2) High-resolution CO2 flux model incorporating anthropogenic emissions estimates and the CASA model (including its 0.5-deg resolution variant that provides the foundational biosphere model for the current CMS Flux Product and nested higher resolution runs to represent the scale sensitivity within heterogeneous urban areas), and 3) Inverse CO2 flux estimates corresponding to in-situ and remote CO2 observations in and around Boston, New York City, and Washington DC. As part of the proposed work, we will quantify errors in the WRF-STILT simulations of the planetary boundary layer (PBL), relying for this purpose on remotely sensed PBL measurements by the Sigma Space Corporation's Micro Pulse LiDAR (MPL). The PBL height is a key parameter entering inverse flux estimates, as it determines the mixing region and varies inversely to the trace gas concentrations. A key result of the proposed research will be the quantification of observing requirements for flux uncertainty reduction to levels needed for MRV. Our proposal addresses two stated goals of the NNH13ZDA001N-CMS solicitation: 'studies using commercial off-the-shelf technologies to produce and evaluate prototype MRV system approaches' and 'studies to improve the characterization and quantification of errors and uncertainties in existing and/or proposed NASA CMS products, including errors and uncertainties in the algorithms, models, and associated methodologies utilized in creating them.' The proposed work will leverage and extend the current CMS projects led by Drs. Arlyn Andrews and Steven Pawson, with which the lead proposing team at Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER) is intimately involved, and the CMS pilot surface carbon fluxes modeling analysis.

Publications:

Chen, J., Viatte, C., Hedelius, J. K., Jones, T., Franklin, J. E., Parker, H., Gottlieb, E. W., Wennberg, P. O., Dubey, M. K., Wofsy, S. C. 2016. Differential column measurements using compact solar-tracking spectrometers. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 16(13), 8479-8498. DOI: 10.5194/acp-16-8479-2016

Decina, S. M., Hutyra, L. R., Gately, C. K., Getson, J. M., Reinmann, A. B., Short Gianotti, A. G., Templer, P. H. 2016. Soil respiration contributes substantially to urban carbon fluxes in the greater Boston area. Environmental Pollution. 212, 433-439. DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2016.01.012

Hardiman, B. S., Wang, J. A., Hutyra, L. R., Gately, C. K., Getson, J. M., Friedl, M. A. 2017. Accounting for urban biogenic fluxes in regional carbon budgets. Science of The Total Environment. 592, 366-372. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.028

McKain, K., Down, A., Raciti, S. M., Budney, J., Hutyra, L. R., Floerchinger, C., Herndon, S. C., Nehrkorn, T., Zahniser, M. S., Jackson, R. B., Phillips, N., Wofsy, S. C. 2015. Methane emissions from natural gas infrastructure and use in the urban region of Boston, Massachusetts. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112(7), 1941-1946. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1416261112

Gately, C. K., Hutyra, L. R., Sue Wing, I. 2015. Cities, traffic, and CO 2 : A multidecadal assessment of trends, drivers, and scaling relationships. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112(16), 4999-5004. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1421723112

2015 NASA Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems Joint Science Workshop Poster(s)

• Quantification of Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Losses in the Urban Region of Boston, Massachusetts with an Atmospheric Measurement Network and Modeling Framework   --   (Kathryn McKain, Adrian Down, Steve M. Raciti, John Budney, Lucy R. Hutyra, Cody Floerchinger, Scott C. Herndon, Thomas Nehrkorn, Mark S. Zahniser, Robert Jackson, Nathan Phillips, Steven Wofsy)   [abstract]
• A New High-Resolution On-Road CO₂ Emissions Inventory for the United States, 1980 - 2012   --   (Conor Gately, Lucy Hutyra, Ian Sue Wing)   [abstract]

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

• North American Carbon Program (NACP) Project Profile
• NASA Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) Project Profile