Dubey, Manvendra (Dubey): Los Alamos National Laboratory (Project Lead)
Wennberg, Paul: Caltech (Co-Investigator)
Wunch, Debra: University of Toronto (Co-Investigator)
Lindenmaier, Rodica: Pacific NW National Lab (Participant)
Project Funding:
2013 - 2016
NRA: 2013 NASA: Carbon Monitoring System
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
Monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of natural sources and sinks and anthropogenic emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are crucial to predict climate change and develop transparent accounting policies to contain climate forcing. Remote sensing technologies are beginning to monitor CO2 and CH4 from ground and space using high-resolution solar spectroscopy enabling direct MRV. However, the current ground based coverage is very sparse due the need for large and expensive high-resolution spectrometers that limits our MRV abilities, both regionally and globally. There are striking monitoring gaps in Asia (China and India), South America and Africa where the CO2 emissions are growing and there is a large uncertainty in fluxes from land use change and biomass burning. Our project will evaluate the precision, accuracy and stability of new off-the-shelf commercial, compact, affordable and easy to use low-resolution spectrometers by comparing with the much larger high-resolution spectrometers used to monitor CO2 and CH4. While initial results are promising our study will encompass real world conditions and challenges. If we are successful the new off-the-shelf spectrometers will dramatically expand the coverage of regional column CO2 and CH4 observations, particularly in gap regions in the developing world. This will enable transparent and reliable MRV that would put carbon cycle science and carbon trading and put climate treaty verification on a firm foundation.
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
Hedelius, J. K., Parker, H., Wunch, D., Roehl, C. M., Viatte, C., Newman, S., Toon, G. C., Podolske, J. R., Hillyard, P. W., Iraci, L. T., Dubey, M. K., Wennberg, P. O. 2017. Intercomparability of X<sub>CO<sub>2</sub></sub> and X<sub>CH<sub>4</sub></sub> from the United States TCCON sites. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. 10(4), 1481-1493. DOI: 10.5194/amt-10-1481-2017
Hedelius, J. K., Viatte, C., Wunch, D., Roehl, C. M., Toon, G. C., Chen, J., Jones, T., Wofsy, S. C., Franklin, J. E., Parker, H., Dubey, M. K., Wennberg, P. O. 2016. Assessment of errors and biases in retrievals of X<sub>CO<sub>2</sub></sub>, X<sub>CH<sub>4</sub></sub>,
X<sub>CO</sub>, and X<sub>N<sub>2</sub>O</sub> from a 0.5 cm<sup>-1</sup> resolution solar-viewing
spectrometer. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. 9(8), 3527-3546. DOI: 10.5194/amt-9-3527-2016
Viatte, C., Lauvaux, T., Hedelius, J. K., Parker, H., Chen, J., Jones, T., Franklin, J. E., Deng, A. J., Gaudet, B., Verhulst, K., Duren, R., Wunch, D., Roehl, C., Dubey, M. K., Wofsy, S., Wennberg, P. O. 2017. Methane emissions from dairies in the Los Angeles Basin. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 17(12), 7509-7528. DOI: 10.5194/acp-17-7509-2017
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):
