Articles | Volume 14, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2401-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2401-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Data description article
| 
20 May 2022
Data description article |
| 20 May 2022
| 20 May 2022
Methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and isotopic ratios of methane observations from the Permian Basin tower network
Vanessa C. Monteiro
Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, PA, USA
Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, PA, USA
Scott J. Richardson
Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, PA, USA
Zachary Barkley
Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, PA, USA
Bernd J. Haupt
Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, PA, USA
David Lyon
Environmental Defense Fund, Austin, TX, USA
Benjamin Hmiel
Environmental Defense Fund, Austin, TX, USA
Kenneth J. Davis
Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 16802, PA, USA
Related authors
No articles found.
Yunsong Liu, Natasha L. Miles, Scott J. Richardson, Zachary R. Barkley, David O. Miller, Jonathan Kofler, Philip Handley, Stephen DeVogel, and Kenneth J. Davis
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 19, 965–981, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-965-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-965-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
This manuscript details laboratory and field-based testing of a tower-based methane and ethane measurement system to address the challenge of separating methane sources in oil and gas basins. We describe methods for managing water vapor, calibration, and estimating the various components of measurement uncertainty. With appropriate engineering and calibration, the instrument shows the capability to measure CH4 and C2H6 with sufficient stability to distinguish regional methane emission sources.
Jason P. Horne, Scott J. Richardson, Samantha L. Murphy, Helen C. Kenion, Bernd J. Haupt, Benjamin J. Ahlswede, Natasha L. Miles, and Kenneth J. Davis
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 823–843, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-823-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-823-2026, 2026
Short summary
Short summary
We present data from a network of towers used to study the exchange of heat, water vapor, and carbon dioxide between the surface and atmosphere in and around the city of Indianapolis, IN, USA. We explain what was measured, how we checked data quality, and why these observations improve our overall understanding of the urban environment.
Jean-Francois Lamarque, Pierre Friedlingstein, Brian Osias, Steve Strongin, Venkatramani Balaji, Kevin W. Bowman, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Heidi Cullen, Kenneth J. Davis, Scott C. Doney, Kevin R. Gurney, Alicia R. Karspeck, Charles D. Koven, Galen McKinley, Glen P. Peters, Julia Pongratz, Britt Stephens, and Colm Sweeney
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6457, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6457, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Earth System Dynamics (ESD).
Short summary
Short summary
This Perspective highlights requirements to scale the carbon credit market and enable the growth in climate solutions funded through such market. The requirements are on the understanding of the value of the proposed carbon credit projects, and on the availability of a verification system. This verification becomes particularly relevant as the carbon credit market scales to significant impacts on CO2 (or other greenhouse gases), such that attribution to collective actions can be identified.
Tobias Gerken, Kenneth J. Davis, Klaus Keller, and Sha Feng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 13327–13341, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-13327-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-13327-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
We apply the Patient Rule Induction Method (PRIM) technique to airborne CO2 and meteorological data to better understand atmospheric conditions and implications for carbon dioxide model-observation-mismatches. We found PRIM is capable of separating observations from different seasons and levels based on atmospheric conditions. Large magnitude carbon dioxide model-observation-differences were associated with non-typical atmospheric conditions, with implications for transport model evaluation.
Bianca C. Baier, John B. Miller, Colm Sweeney, Scott J. Lehman, Chad Wolak, Joshua P. DiGangi, Yonghoon Choi, Kenneth Davis, Sha Feng, and Thomas Lauvaux
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 10479–10497, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10479-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-10479-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
CO2 radiocarbon content (Δ14CO2) is a unique tracer that helps to accurately quantify anthropogenic CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. Δ14CO2 measured in airborne flask samples is used to distinguish fossil versus biogenic CO2 sources. Mid-Atlantic US CO2 variability is found to be driven by the biosphere. Errors in modeled fossil fuel CO2 are evaluated using Δ14CO2 airborne data as an avenue to improving future regional models of atmospheric CO2 transport.
Mark Omara, Ritesh Gautam, Madeleine A. O'Brien, Anthony Himmelberger, Alex Franco, Kelsey Meisenhelder, Grace Hauser, David R. Lyon, Apisada Chulakadabba, Christopher Chan Miller, Jonathan Franklin, Steven C. Wofsy, and Steven P. Hamburg
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3761–3790, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3761-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3761-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We acquire, integrate, and analyze ~ 6 million geospatial oil and gas infrastructure data records based on information available in the public domain and develop an open-access global database including all the major oil and gas facility types that are important sources of methane emissions. This work helps fulfill a crucial geospatial data need, in support of the assessment, attribution, and mitigation of global oil and gas methane emissions at high resolution.
Daniel J. Varon, Daniel J. Jacob, Benjamin Hmiel, Ritesh Gautam, David R. Lyon, Mark Omara, Melissa Sulprizio, Lu Shen, Drew Pendergrass, Hannah Nesser, Zhen Qu, Zachary R. Barkley, Natasha L. Miles, Scott J. Richardson, Kenneth J. Davis, Sudhanshu Pandey, Xiao Lu, Alba Lorente, Tobias Borsdorff, Joannes D. Maasakkers, and Ilse Aben
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7503–7520, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7503-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7503-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We use TROPOMI satellite observations to quantify weekly methane emissions from the US Permian oil and gas basin from May 2018 to October 2020. We find that Permian emissions are highly variable, with diverse economic and activity drivers. The most important drivers during our study period were new well development and natural gas price. Permian methane intensity averaged 4.6 % and decreased by 1 % per year.
Zachary Barkley, Kenneth Davis, Natasha Miles, Scott Richardson, Aijun Deng, Benjamin Hmiel, David Lyon, and Thomas Lauvaux
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6127–6144, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6127-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6127-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Using methane monitoring instruments attached to towers, we measure methane concentrations and quantify methane emissions coming from the Marcellus and Permian oil and gas basins. In the Marcellus, emissions were 3 times higher than the state inventory across the entire monitoring period. In the Permian, we see a sharp decline in emissions aligning with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tower observational networks can be utilized in other basins for long-term monitoring of emissions.
Michael N. Dyonisius, Vasilii V. Petrenko, Andrew M. Smith, Benjamin Hmiel, Peter D. Neff, Bin Yang, Quan Hua, Jochen Schmitt, Sarah A. Shackleton, Christo Buizert, Philip F. Place, James A. Menking, Ross Beaudette, Christina Harth, Michael Kalk, Heidi A. Roop, Bernhard Bereiter, Casey Armanetti, Isaac Vimont, Sylvia Englund Michel, Edward J. Brook, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus, Ray F. Weiss, and Joseph R. McConnell
The Cryosphere, 17, 843–863, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-843-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-843-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Cosmic rays that enter the atmosphere produce secondary particles which react with surface minerals to produce radioactive nuclides. These nuclides are often used to constrain Earth's surface processes. However, the production rates from muons are not well constrained. We measured 14C in ice with a well-known exposure history to constrain the production rates from muons. 14C production in ice is analogous to quartz, but we obtain different production rates compared to commonly used estimates.
Lu Shen, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Tia R. Scarpelli, Alba Lorente, David Lyon, Jianxiong Sheng, Daniel J. Varon, Hannah Nesser, Zhen Qu, Xiao Lu, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Steven P. Hamburg, and Daniel J. Jacob
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11203–11215, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11203-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11203-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We use 22 months of TROPOMI satellite observations to quantity methane emissions from the oil (O) and natural gas (G) sector in the US and Canada at the scale of both individual basins as well as country-wide aggregates. We find that O/G-related methane emissions are underestimated in these inventories by 80 % for the US and 40 % for Canada, and 70 % of the underestimate in the US is from five O/G basins, including Permian, Haynesville, Anadarko, Eagle Ford, and Barnett.
Rory A. Barton-Grimley, Amin R. Nehrir, Susan A. Kooi, James E. Collins, David B. Harper, Anthony Notari, Joseph Lee, Joshua P. DiGangi, Yonghoon Choi, and Kenneth J. Davis
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4623–4650, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4623-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4623-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
HALO is a multi-functional lidar that measures CH4 columns and profiles of H2O mixing ratio and aerosol/cloud optical properties. HALO supports carbon cycle, weather dynamics, and radiation science suborbital research and is a technology testbed for future space-based differential absorption lidar missions. In 2019 HALO collected CH4 columns and aerosol/cloud profiles during the ACT-America campaign. Here we assess HALO's CH4 accuracy and precision compared to co-located in situ observations.
David F. Baker, Emily Bell, Kenneth J. Davis, Joel F. Campbell, Bing Lin, and Jeremy Dobler
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 649–668, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-649-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-649-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The OCO-2 satellite measures many closely spaced column-averaged CO2 values around its orbit. To give these data proper weight in flux inversions, their error correlations must be accounted for. Here we lay out a 1-D error model with correlations that die out exponentially along-track to do so. A correlation length scale of ∼20 km is derived from column CO2 measurements from an airborne lidar flown underneath OCO-2 for use in this model. The model's performance is compared to previous ones.
Tao Zheng, Sha Feng, Kenneth J. Davis, Sandip Pal, and Josep-Anton Morguí
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 3037–3066, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3037-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-3037-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas. We develop the numerical model that represents carbon dioxide transport in the atmosphere. This model development is based on the MPAS model, which has a variable-resolution capability. The purpose of developing carbon dioxide transport in MPAS is to allow for high-resolution transport model simulation that is not limited by the lateral boundaries. It will also form the base for a future development of MPAS-based carbon inversion system.
Cited articles
Allen, D. T., Smith, D., Torres, V. M., and Saldaña, F. C.:
Carbon dioxide, methane and black carbon emissions from upstream oil and gas flaring in the United States, Curr. Opin. Chem. Eng., 13, 119–123, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coche.2016.08.014, 2016.
Alvarez, R. A., Pacala, S. W., Winebrake, J. J., Chameides, W. L., and Hamburg, S. P.:
Greater focus needed on methane leakage from natural gas infrastructure, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 109, 6435–6440, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1202407109, 2012.
Alvarez, R. A., Zavala-Araiza, D., Lyon, D. R., Allen, D. T., Barkley, Z. R., Brandt, A. R., Davis, K. J., Herndon, S. C., Jacob, D. J., Karion, A., Kort, E. A., Lamb, B. K., Lauvaux, T., Maasakkers, J. D., Marchese, A. J., Omara, M., Pacala, S. W., Peischl, J., Robinson, A. L., Shepson, P. B., Sweeney, C., Townsend-Small, A., Wofsy, S. C., and Hamburg, S. P.:
Assessment of methane emissions from the U. S. oil and gas supply chain, Science, 361, 186–188, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar7204, 2018.
Andrews, A. E., Kofler, J. D., Trudeau, M. E., Williams, J. C., Neff, D. H., Masarie, K. A., Chao, D. Y., Kitzis, D. R., Novelli, P. C., Zhao, C. L., Dlugokencky, E. J., Lang, P. M., Crotwell, M. J., Fischer, M. L., Parker, M. J., Lee, J. T., Baumann, D. D., Desai, A. R., Stanier, C. O., De Wekker, S. F. J., Wolfe, D. E., Munger, J. W., and Tans, P. P.:
CO2, CO, and CH4 measurements from tall towers in the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network: instrumentation, uncertainty analysis, and recommendations for future high-accuracy greenhouse gas monitoring efforts, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 647–687, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-647-2014, 2014.
Baray, S., Darlington, A., Gordon, M., Hayden, K. L., Leithead, A., Li, S.-M., Liu, P. S. K., Mittermeier, R. L., Moussa, S. G., O'Brien, J., Staebler, R., Wolde, M., Worthy, D., and McLaren, R.:
Quantification of methane sources in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region of Alberta by aircraft mass balance, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 7361–7378, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-7361-2018, 2018.
Barkley, Z. R., Lauvaux, T., Davis, K. J., Deng, A., Miles, N. L., Richardson, S. J., Cao, Y., Sweeney, C., Karion, A., Smith, M., Kort, E. A., Schwietzke, S., Murphy, T., Cervone, G., Martins, D., and Maasakkers, J. D.:
Quantifying methane emissions from natural gas production in north-eastern Pennsylvania, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 13941–13966, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13941-2017, 2017.
Barkley, Z. R., Lauvaux, T., Davis, K. J., Deng, A., Fried, A., Weibring, P., Richter, D., Walega, J. G., DiGangi, J., Ehrman, S. H., and Ren, X.:
Estimating methane emissions from underground coal and natural gas production in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, 4531–4540, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082131, 2019a.
Barkley, Z. R., Davis, K. J., Feng, S., Balashov, N., Fried, A., DiGangi, J., Choi, Y., and Halliday, H. S.:
Forward modeling and optimization of methane emissions in the South Central United States using aircraft transects across frontal boundaries, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, 13564–13573, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL084495, 2019b.
Barkley, Z. R., Davis, K. J., Feng, S., Cui, Y. Y., Fried, A., Weibring, P., Richter, D., Walega, J. G., Miller, S. M., Eckl, M., and Roiger, A.:
Analysis of Oil and Gas Ethane and Methane Emissions in the Southcentral and Eastern United States Using Four Seasons of Continuous Aircraft Ethane Measurements, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 126, p.e2020JD034194, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JD034194, 2021.
Cambaliza, M. O. L., Shepson, P. B., Caulton, D. R., Stirm, B., Samarov, D., Gurney, K. R., Turnbull, J., Davis, K. J., Possolo, A., Karion, A., Sweeney, C., Moser, B., Hendricks, A., Lauvaux, T., Mays, K., Whetstone, J., Huang, J., Razlivanov, I., Miles, N. L., and Richardson, S. J.:
Assessment of uncertainties of an aircraft-based mass balance approach for quantifying urban greenhouse gas emissions, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 9029–9050, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-9029-2014, 2014.
Carlson, K., Gerber, J., Mueller, N., Herrero, M., MacDonald, G. K., Brauman, K. A., Havlik, P., O'Connell, C. S., Johnson, J. A., Saatchi, S., and West, P. C.:
Greenhouse gas emissions intensity of global croplands, Nat. Clim. Change 7, 63–68, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3158, 2017.
Caulton, D. R., Lu, J. M., Lane, H. M., Buchholz, B., Fitts, J. P., Golston, L. M., Guo, X., Li, Q., McSpiritt, J., Pan, D., and Wendt, L.:
Importance of superemitter natural gas well pads in the Marcellus shale, Environ. Sci. Technol., 53, 4747–4754, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b06965, 2019.
Chan, E., Worthy, D. E., Chan, D., Ishizawa, M., Moran, M. D., Delcloo, A., and Vogel, F.:
Eight-year estimates of methane emissions from oil and gas operations in Western Canada are nearly twice those reported in inventories, Environ. Sci. Technol., 54, 14899–14909, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c04117, 2020.
Conley, S., Franco, G., Faloona, I., Blake, D. R., Peischl, J., and Ryerson, T. B.:
Methane emissions from the 2015 Aliso Canyon blowout in Los Angeles, CA, Science, 351, 1317–1320, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf2348, 2016.
Deighton, J. A., Townsend-Small, A., Sturmer, S. J., Hoschouer, J., and Heldman, L.:
Measurements show that marginal wells are a disproportionate source of methane relative to production, JAPCA J. Air Waste Ma., 70, 1030–1042, https://doi.org/10.1080/10962247.2020.1808115, 2020.
Enverus Drillinginfo: Production, https://app.drillinginfo.com/production (last access: 12 March 2021), 2021.
Heimburger, A. M., Harvey, R. M., Shepson, P. B., Stirm, B. H., Gore, C., Turnbull, J., Cambaliza, M. O., Salmon, O. E., Kerlo, A. E. M., Lavoie, T. N., and Davis, K. J.:
Assessing the optimized precision of the aircraft mass balance method for measurement of urban greenhouse gas emission rates through averaging, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 5, 26, https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.134, 2017.
Iowa Environmental Mesonet of Iowa State University (IEM): ASOS Network, https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/request/download.phtml?network=NM_ASOS (last access: 20 October 2021), 2021.
IPCC (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change): Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by: Masson-Delmotte, V., Zhai, P., Pirani, A., Connors, S. L., Péan, C., Berger, S., Caud, N., Chen, Y., Goldfarb, L., Gomis, M. I., Huang, M., Leitzell, K., Lonnoy, E., Matthews, J. B. R., Maycock, T. K., Waterfield, T., Yelekçi, O., Yu, R., and Zhou, B., Cambridge University Press, in press, 2021.
Karion, A., Sweeney, C., Kort, E. A., Shepson, P. B., Brewer, A., Cambaliza, M., Conley, S. A., Davis, K., Deng, A., Hardesty, M., and Herndon, S. C.:
Aircraft-based estimate of total methane emissions from the Barnett Shale region, Environ. Sci. Technol., 49, 8124–8131, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b00217, 2015.
Karion, A., Callahan, W., Stock, M., Prinzivalli, S., Verhulst, K. R., Kim, J., Salameh, P. K., Lopez-Coto, I., and Whetstone, J.:
Greenhouse gas observations from the Northeast Corridor tower network, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 699–717, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-699-2020, 2020.
Karion, A., Lopez-Coto, I., Gourdji, S. M., Mueller, K., Ghosh, S., Callahan, W., Stock, M., DiGangi, E., Prinzivalli, S., and Whetstone, J.:
Background conditions for an urban greenhouse gas network in the Washington, DC, and Baltimore metropolitan region, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6257–6273, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6257-2021, 2021.
Keeling, C. D.:
The Concentration and Isotopic Abundances of Carbon Dioxide in Rural and Marine Air, Geochim. Cosmochim. Ac., 24, 277–298, 1961.
Kirchgessner, D. A., Piccot, S. D., and Masemore, S. S.:
An improved inventory of methane emissions from coal mining in the United States, JAPCA J. Air Waste Ma., 50, 1904–1919, https://doi.org/10.1080/10473289.2000.10464227, 2000.
Lamb, B. K., Cambaliza, M. O., Davis, K. J., Edburg, S. L., Ferrara, T. W., Floerchinger, C., Heimburger, A. M. F., Herdon, S., Lauvaux, T., Lavoie, T., Lyon, D. R., Miles, N., Prasad, K. R., Richardson, S., Roscioli, J. R., Salmon, O. E., Shepson, P. B., Stirm, B. H., and Whetstone, J.:
Direct and indirect measurements and modeling of methane emissions in Indianapolis, Indiana, Environ. Sci. Technol., 50, 8910–8917. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b01198, 2016.
Lin, J. C., Bares, R., Fasoli, B., Garcia, M., Crosman, E., and Lyman, S.:
Declining methane emissions and steady, high leakage rates observed over multiple years in a western US oil/gas production basin, Sci. Rep.-UK, 11, 1–12, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01721-5, 2021.
Lyon, D. R., Hmiel, B., Gautam, R., Omara, M., Roberts, K. A., Barkley, Z. R., Davis, K. J., Miles, N. L., Monteiro, V. C., Richardson, S. J., Conley, S., Smith, M. L., Jacob, D. J., Shen, L., Varon, D. J., Deng, A., Rudelis, X., Sharma, N., Story, K. T., Brandt, A. R., Kang, M., Kort, E. A., Marchese, A. J., and Hamburg, S. P.:
Concurrent variation in oil and gas methane emissions and oil price during the COVID-19 pandemic, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6605–6626, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6605-2021, 2021.
Maasakkers, J. D., Jacob, D. J., Sulprizio, M. P., Turner, A. J., Weitz, M., Wirth, T., Hight, C., DeFigueiredo, M., Desai, M., Schmeltz, R., and Hockstad, L.:
Gridded national inventory of US methane emissions, Environ. Sci. Technol., 50, 13123–13133, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b02878, 2016.
Maasakkers, J. D., Jacob, D. J., Sulprizio, M. P., Scarpelli, T. R., Nesser, H., Sheng, J.-X., Zhang, Y., Hersher, M., Bloom, A. A., Bowman, K. W., Worden, J. R., Janssens-Maenhout, G., and Parker, R. J.:
Global distribution of methane emissions, emission trends, and OH concentrations and trends inferred from an inversion of GOSAT satellite data for 2010–2015, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 7859–7881, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7859-2019, 2019.
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., and Phillips, N.:
Methane emissions from natural gas infrastructure and use in the urban region of Boston, Massachusetts, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 112, 1941–1946, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1416261112, 2015.
Miles, N. L., Richardson, S. J., Lauvaux, T., Davis, K. J., Balashov, N. V., Deng, A., Turnbull, J. C., Sweeney, C., Gurney, K. R., Patarasuk, R., Razlivanov, I., Cambaliza, M. O. L., and Shepson, P. B.:
Quantification of urban atmospheric boundary layer greenhouse gas dry mole fraction enhancements in the dormant season: Results from the Indianapolis Flux Experiment (INFLUX), Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 5, 27, https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.127, 2017.
Miles, N. L., Martins, D. K., Richardson, S. J., Rella, C. W., Arata, C., Lauvaux, T., Davis, K. J., Barkley, Z. R., McKain, K., and Sweeney, C.:
Calibration and field testing of cavity ring-down laser spectrometers measuring CH4, CO2, and δ13CH4 deployed on towers in the Marcellus Shale region, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 1273–1295, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-1273-2018, 2018.
Milkov, A. V., Schwietzke, S., Allen, G.,Sherwood, O. A., and Etiope, G.:
Using global isotopic data to constrain the role of shale gas production in recent increases in atmospheric methane, Sci. Rep.-UK, 10, 4199, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61035-w, 2020.
Mitchell, A. L., Tkacik, D. S., Roscioli, J. R., Herndon, S. C., Yacovitch, T. I., Martinez, D. M., Vaughn, T. L., Williams, L. L., Sullivan, M. R., Floerchinger, C., and Omara, M.:
Measurements of methane emissions from natural gas gathering facilities and processing plants: Measurement results, Environ. Sci. Technol., 49, 3219–3227, https://doi.org/10.1021/es5052809, 2015.
Monteiro, V., Miles, N. L., Richardson, S. J., Barkley, Z. R., Haupt, B. J., and Davis, K. J.:
Permian Basin: in-situ tower greenhouse gas data, Data Commons, Penn State [data set], https://doi.org/10.26208/98y5-t941, 2021.
Moraes, L. E. and Fadel, J.:
Minimizing environmental impacts of livestock production using diet optimization models, in: Sustainable Animal Agriculture, edited by: Kebreab, E., CABI, Boston, MA, 67–82, https://doi.org/10.1079/9781780640426.0067, 2013.
Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium: National Land Cover Database (NLCD), https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=3ccf118ed80748909eb85c6d262b426f (last access: 15 October 2021), 2019.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): Hydrogen Sulfide – Hazards, https://www.osha.gov/hydrogen-sulfide/hazards (last access: 6 January 2022), 2022.
Ocko, I. B., Sun, T., Shindell, D., Oppenheimer, M., Hristov, A. N., Pacala, S. W., Mauzerall, D. L., Xu Y., and Hamburg, S. P.:
Acting rapidly to deploy readily available methane mitigation measures by sector can immediately slow global warming, Environ. Res. Lett., 16, 054042, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abf9c8, 2021.
Omara, M., Sullivan, M. R., Li, X., Subramanian, R., Robinson, A. L., and Presto, A. A.:
Methane emissions from conventional and unconventional natural gas production sites in the Marcellus Shale Basin, Environ. Sci. Technol., 50, 2099–2107, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b05503, 2016.
Pandey, S., Gautam, R., Houweling, S., Van Der Gon, H. D., Sadavarte, P., Borsdorff, T., Hasekamp, O., Landgraf, J., Tol, P., Van Kempen, T., and Hoogeveen, R.:
Satellite observations reveal extreme methane leakage from a natural gas well blowout, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 116, 26376–26381, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1908712116, 2019.
PermianMAP: Permian methane analysis project, https://permianmap.org/ (last access: 10 January 2022), 2022.
Plant, G., Kort, E. A., Floerchinger, C., Gvakharia, A., Vimont, I., and Sweeney, C.:
Large fugitive methane emissions from urban centers along the US East Coast, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, 8500–8507, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082635, 2019.
Qu, Z., Jacob, D. J., Shen, L., Lu, X., Zhang, Y., Scarpelli, T. R., Nesser, H., Sulprizio, M. P., Maasakkers, J. D., Bloom, A. A., Worden, J. R., Parker, R. J., and Delgado, A. L.:
Global distribution of methane emissions: a comparative inverse analysis of observations from the TROPOMI and GOSAT satellite instruments, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14159–14175, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14159-2021, 2021.
Rella, C. W., Chen, H., Andrews, A. E., Filges, A., Gerbig, C., Hatakka, J., Karion, A., Miles, N. L., Richardson, S. J., Steinbacher, M., Sweeney, C., Wastine, B., and Zellweger, C.:
High accuracy measurements of dry mole fractions of carbon dioxide and methane in humid air, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 837–860, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-837-2013, 2013.
Richardson, S. J., Miles, N. L., Davis, K. J., Lauvaux, T., Martins, D. K., Turnbull, J. C., McKain, K., Sweeney, C., and Cambaliza, M. O. L.:
Tower measurement network of in-situ CO2, CH4, and CO in support of the Indianapolis FLUX (INFLUX) Experiment, Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 5, 59, https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.140, 2017.
Robertson, A. M., Edie, R., Field, R. A., Lyon, D., McVay, R., Omara, M., Zavala-Araiza, D., and Murphy, S. M.:
New Mexico Permian Basin measured well pad methane emissions are a factor of 5–9 times higher than US EPA estimates, Environ. Sci. Technol., 54, 13926–13934, 2020.
Röckmann, T., Eyer, S., van der Veen, C., Popa, M. E., Tuzson, B., Monteil, G., Houweling, S., Harris, E., Brunner, D., Fischer, H., Zazzeri, G., Lowry, D., Nisbet, E. G., Brand, W. A., Necki, J. M., Emmenegger, L., and Mohn, J.:
In situ observations of the isotopic composition of methane at the Cabauw tall tower site, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 10469–10487, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10469-2016, 2016.
Sargent, M., Barrera, Y., Nehrkorn, T., Hutyra, L. R., Gately, C. K., Jones, T., McKain, K., Sweeney, Colm, Hegarty, J., Hardiman, B., Wang, J. A., and Wofsy, S. C.:
Anthropogenic and biogenic CO2 fluxes in the Boston urban region, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 115, 7491–7496. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1803715115, 2018.
Sargent, M. R., Floerchinger, C., McKain, K., Budney, J., Gottlieb, E. W., Hutyra, L. R., Rudek, J., and Wofsy, S. C.:
Majority of US urban natural gas emissions unaccounted for in inventories, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 118, e2105804118, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2105804118, 2021.
Schwietzke, S., Sherwood, O. A., Bruhwiler, L. M., Miller, J. B., Etiope, G., Dlugokencky, E. J., Michel, S. E., Arling, V. A., Vaughn, B. H., White, J. W., and Tans, P. P.:
Upward revision of global fossil fuel methane emissions based on isotope database, Nature, 538, 88–91, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19797, 2016.
Schwietzke, S., Pétron, G., Conley, S., Pickering, C., Mielke-Maday, I., Dlugokencky, E. J., Tans, P. P., Vaughn, T., Bell, C., Zimmerle, D., and Wolter, S.:
Improved mechanistic understanding of natural gas methane emissions from spatially resolved aircraft measurements, Environ. Sci. Technol., 51, 7286–7294, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b01810, 2017.
Turner, A. J., Jacob, D. J., Wecht, K. J., Maasakkers, J. D., Lundgren, E., Andrews, A. E., Biraud, S. C., Boesch, H., Bowman, K. W., Deutscher, N. M., Dubey, M. K., Griffith, D. W. T., Hase, F., Kuze, A., Notholt, J., Ohyama, H., Parker, R., Payne, V. H., Sussmann, R., Sweeney, C., Velazco, V. A., Warneke, T., Wennberg, P. O., and Wunch, D.:
Estimating global and North American methane emissions with high spatial resolution using GOSAT satellite data, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 7049–7069, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7049-2015, 2015.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA): Inventory of US greenhouse gas emissions and sinks: 1990–2017, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks-1990-2017 (last access: 17 May 2022), 2019.
Verhulst, K. R., Karion, A., Kim, J., Salameh, P. K., Keeling, R. F., Newman, S., Miller, J., Sloop, C., Pongetti, T., Rao, P., Wong, C., Hopkins, F. M., Yadav, V., Weiss, R. F., Duren, R. M., and Miller, C. E.:
Carbon dioxide and methane measurements from the Los Angeles Megacity Carbon Project – Part 1: calibration, urban enhancements, and uncertainty estimates, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 8313–8341, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8313-2017, 2017.
Wennberg, P. O., Mui, W., Wunch, D., Kort, E. A., Blake, D. R., Atlas, E. L., Santoni, G. W., Wofsy, S. C., Diskin, G. S., Jeong, S., and Fischer, M. L.:
On the sources of methane to the Los Angeles atmosphere, Environ. Sci. Technol., 46, 17, 9282–9289, https://doi.org/10.1021/es301138y, 2012.
Yadav, V., Duren, R., Mueller, K., Verhulst, K. R., Nehrkorn, T., Kim, J., Weiss, F., Keeling, R., Sander, S., Fischer, M. L., Newman, S., Falk., M., Kuwayama, T., Hopkins, F., Rafiq, T., Whetstone, J., and Miller, C.:
Spatio-temporally resolved methane fluxes from the Los Angeles Megacity, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos.:
Atmospheres, 124, 5131–5148. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD030062, 2019.
Yver Kwok, C., Laurent, O., Guemri, A., Philippon, C., Wastine, B., Rella, C. W., Vuillemin, C., Truong, F., Delmotte, M., Kazan, V., Darding, M., Lebègue, B., Kaiser, C., Xueref-Rémy, I., and Ramonet, M.:
Comprehensive laboratory and field testing of cavity ring-down spectroscopy analyzers measuring H2O, CO2, CH4 and CO, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 3867–3892, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-3867-2015, 2015.
Zhang, Y., Gautam, R., Pandey, S., Omara, M., Maasakkers, J. D., Sadavarte, P., Lyon, D., Nesser, H., Sulprizio, M. P., Varon, D. J., Zhang, R., Houweling, S., Zavala-Araiza, D., Alvarez, R. A., Lorente, A., Hamburg, S. P., Aben, I., and Jacob, D. J.:
Quantifying methane emissions from the largest oil-producing basin in the United States from space, Sci. Adv., 6, eaaz5120, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz5120, 2020.
Short summary
We describe a network of five ground-based in situ towers, equipped to measure concentrations of methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and the isotopic ratio of methane, in the Permian Basin, United States. The main goal is to use methane concentrations with atmospheric models to determine methane emissions from one of the Permian sub-basins. These datasets can improve emissions estimations, leading to best practices in the oil and natural gas industry, and policies for emissions reduction.
We describe a network of five ground-based in situ towers, equipped to measure concentrations of...
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint