Articles | Volume 15, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3761-2023
© Author(s) 2023. 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-15-3761-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Data description paper
| 
24 Aug 2023
Data description paper |
| 24 Aug 2023
| 24 Aug 2023
Developing a spatially explicit global oil and gas infrastructure database for characterizing methane emission sources at high resolution
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Ritesh Gautam
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Madeleine A. O'Brien
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Anthony Himmelberger
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
Alex Franco
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
Kelsey Meisenhelder
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
Grace Hauser
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
David R. Lyon
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
Apisada Chulakadabba
School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Earth and
Planetary Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Christopher Chan Miller
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Earth and
Planetary Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA
02138, USA
Climate Change Research Center, University of New South Wales, Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia
Jonathan Franklin
School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Earth and
Planetary Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Steven C. Wofsy
School of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Earth and
Planetary Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Steven P. Hamburg
Environmental Defense Fund, New York, NY 10010, USA
MethaneSAT, LLC, Austin, TX 78701, USA
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Reducing methane emissions from the oil/gas sector can mitigate near-term climate warming and the losses of a valuable energy resource. We analyze data collected using MethaneAIR to assess methane emissions in regions accounting for 70 % of United States onshore oil/gas production in 2023. We estimate total oil/gas methane emissions across all measured regions to be ~8 Tg/yr, equivalent to 1.6 % of produced gas, which is five times higher than reported by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1513–1532, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1513-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1513-2025, 2025
Short summary
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We utilize peer-reviewed facility-level oil and gas methane emission rate data gathered in prior work to estimate the relative contributions of methane sources emitting at different emission rates in the United States. We find that the majority of total methane emissions in the US oil and gas sector stem from a large number of small sources emitting in aggregate, corroborating findings from several other studies.
Christopher Chan Miller, Sébastien Roche, Jonas S. Wilzewski, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Amir H. Souri, Eamon Conway, Bingkun Luo, Jenna Samra, Jacob Hawthorne, Kang Sun, Carly Staebell, Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Joshua S. Benmergui, Jonathan E. Franklin, Bruce C. Daube, Yang Li, Joshua L. Laughner, Bianca C. Baier, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5429–5454, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5429-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5429-2024, 2024
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MethaneSAT is an upcoming satellite mission designed to monitor methane emissions from the oil and gas (O&G) industry globally. Here, we present observations from the first flight campaign of MethaneAIR, a MethaneSAT-like instrument mounted on an aircraft. MethaneAIR can map methane with high precision and accuracy over a typically sized oil and gas basin (~200 km2) in a single flight. This paper demonstrates the capability of the upcoming satellite to routinely track global O&G emissions.
Mark Omara, Anthony Himmelberger, Katlyn MacKay, James P. Williams, Joshua Benmergui, Maryann Sargent, Steven C. Wofsy, and Ritesh Gautam
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Brian Nathan, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Stijn Naus, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Lucas A. Estrada, Alba Lorente, Tobias Borsdorff, Robert J. Parker, and Ilse Aben
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Heesung Chong, Gonzalo González Abad, Caroline R. Nowlan, Christopher Chan Miller, Alfonso Saiz-Lopez, Rafael P. Fernandez, Hyeong-Ahn Kwon, Zolal Ayazpour, Huiqun Wang, Amir H. Souri, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Ewan O'Sullivan, Jhoon Kim, Ja-Ho Koo, William R. Simpson, François Hendrick, Richard Querel, Glen Jaross, Colin Seftor, and Raid M. Suleiman
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Eamon K. Conway, Amir H. Souri, Joshua Benmergui, Kang Sun, Xiong Liu, Carly Staebell, Christopher Chan Miller, Jonathan Franklin, Jenna Samra, Jonas Wilzewski, Sebastien Roche, Bingkun Luo, Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Jacob Hohl, Bruce Daube, Iouli Gordon, Kelly Chance, and Steven Wofsy
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The work presented here describes the processes required to convert raw sensor data for the MethaneAIR instrument to geometrically calibrated data. Each algorithm is described in detail. MethaneAIR is the airborne simulator for MethaneSAT, a new satellite under development by MethaneSAT LLC, a subsidiary of the EDF. MethaneSAT's goals are to precisely map over 80 % of the production sources of methane emissions from oil and gas fields across the globe to a high degree of accuracy.
Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Thomas Lauvaux, Joshua S. Benmergui, Jonathan E. Franklin, Christopher Chan Miller, Jonas S. Wilzewski, Sébastien Roche, Eamon Conway, Amir H. Souri, Kang Sun, Bingkun Luo, Jacob Hawthrone, Jenna Samra, Bruce C. Daube, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Yang Li, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Jeff S. Rutherford, Evan D. Sherwin, Adam Brandt, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5771–5785, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5771-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5771-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We show that MethaneAIR, a precursor to the MethaneSAT satellite, demonstrates accurate point source quantification during controlled release experiments and regional observations in 2021 and 2022. Results from our two independent quantification methods suggest the accuracy of our sensor and algorithms is better than 25 % for sources emitting 200 kg h−1 or more. Insights from these measurements help establish the capabilities of MethaneSAT and MethaneAIR.
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.
Huiqun Wang, Gonzalo González Abad, Chris Chan Miller, Hyeong-Ahn Kwon, Caroline R. Nowlan, Zolal Ayazpour, Heesung Chong, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Ewan O'Sullivan, Kang Sun, Robert Spurr, and Robert J. Hargreaves
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-66, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-66, 2023
Preprint withdrawn
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A pipeline for retrieving Total Column Water Vapor from satellite blue spectra is developed. New constraints are considered. Water-leaving radiance is important over the oceans. Results agree with reference datasets well under clear conditions. Due to high sensitivity to clouds, strict data filtering criteria are required. All-sky retrievals can be corrected using machine learning. GPS stations’ representation errors follow a power law relationship with grid resolutions.
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
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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.
Zichong Chen, Daniel J. Jacob, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Robert N. Stavins, Robert C. Stowe, Hannah Nesser, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Alba Lorente, Daniel J. Varon, Xiao Lu, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Drew C. Pendergrass, and Sarah Hancock
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5945–5967, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5945-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5945-2023, 2023
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We quantify methane emissions from individual countries in the Middle East and North Africa by inverse analysis of 2019 TROPOMI satellite observations of atmospheric methane. We show that the ability to simply relate oil/gas emissions to activity metrics is compromised by stochastic nature of local infrastructure and management practices. We find that the industry target for oil/gas methane intensity is achievable through associated gas capture, modern infrastructure, and centralized operations.
Hao Guo, Clare M. Flynn, Michael J. Prather, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, Louisa Emmons, Forrest Lacey, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Arlene M. Fiore, Gus Correa, Lee T. Murray, Glenn M. Wolfe, Jason M. St. Clair, Michelle Kim, John Crounse, Glenn Diskin, Joshua DiGangi, Bruce C. Daube, Roisin Commane, Kathryn McKain, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Chelsea Thompson, Thomas F. Hanisco, Donald Blake, Nicola J. Blake, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, James W. Elkins, Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 99–117, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-99-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-99-2023, 2023
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We have prepared a unique and unusual result from the recent ATom aircraft mission: a measurement-based derivation of the production and loss rates of ozone and methane over the ocean basins. These are the key products of chemistry models used in assessments but have thus far lacked observational metrics. It also shows the scales of variability of atmospheric chemical rates and provides a major challenge to the atmospheric models.
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
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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.
Daniel J. Jacob, Daniel J. Varon, Daniel H. Cusworth, Philip E. Dennison, Christian Frankenberg, Ritesh Gautam, Luis Guanter, John Kelley, Jason McKeever, Lesley E. Ott, Benjamin Poulter, Zhen Qu, Andrew K. Thorpe, John R. Worden, and Riley M. Duren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9617–9646, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9617-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9617-2022, 2022
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We review the capability of satellite observations of atmospheric methane to quantify methane emissions on all scales. We cover retrieval methods, precision requirements, inverse methods for inferring emissions, source detection thresholds, and observations of system completeness. We show that current instruments already enable quantification of regional and national emissions including contributions from large point sources. Coverage and resolution will increase significantly in coming years.
Ilissa B. Ocko and Steven P. Hamburg
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9349–9368, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9349-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9349-2022, 2022
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Hydrogen is considered a key strategy to decarbonize the global economy. However, hydrogen is also a short-lived indirect greenhouse gas that can easily leak into the atmosphere. Given that the climate impacts from hydrogen emissions are not well understood, especially in the near term, we assess impacts over all timescales for plausible emissions rates. We find that hydrogen leakage can cause more warming than widely perceived; thus, attention is needed to minimize emissions.
Kang Sun, Mahdi Yousefi, Christopher Chan Miller, Kelly Chance, Gonzalo González Abad, Iouli E. Gordon, Xiong Liu, Ewan O'Sullivan, Christopher E. Sioris, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3721–3745, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3721-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3721-2022, 2022
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This study of upper atmospheric airglow from oxygen is motivated by the need to measure oxygen simultaneously with methane and CO2 in satellite remote sensing. We provide an accurate understanding of the spatial, temporal, and spectral distribution of airglow emissions, which will help in the satellite remote sensing of greenhouse gases and constraining the chemical and physical processes in the upper atmosphere.
Vanessa C. Monteiro, Natasha L. Miles, Scott J. Richardson, Zachary Barkley, Bernd J. Haupt, David Lyon, Benjamin Hmiel, and Kenneth J. Davis
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 2401–2417, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2401-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-2401-2022, 2022
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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.
Carlos Alberti, Frank Hase, Matthias Frey, Darko Dubravica, Thomas Blumenstock, Angelika Dehn, Paolo Castracane, Gregor Surawicz, Roland Harig, Bianca C. Baier, Caroline Bès, Jianrong Bi, Hartmut Boesch, André Butz, Zhaonan Cai, Jia Chen, Sean M. Crowell, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Dragos Ene, Jonathan E. Franklin, Omaira García, David Griffith, Bruno Grouiez, Michel Grutter, Abdelhamid Hamdouni, Sander Houweling, Neil Humpage, Nicole Jacobs, Sujong Jeong, Lilian Joly, Nicholas B. Jones, Denis Jouglet, Rigel Kivi, Ralph Kleinschek, Morgan Lopez, Diogo J. Medeiros, Isamu Morino, Nasrin Mostafavipak, Astrid Müller, Hirofumi Ohyama, Paul I. Palmer, Mahesh Pathakoti, David F. Pollard, Uwe Raffalski, Michel Ramonet, Robbie Ramsay, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, William Simpson, Wolfgang Stremme, Youwen Sun, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Yao Té, Gizaw Mengistu Tsidu, Voltaire A. Velazco, Felix Vogel, Masataka Watanabe, Chong Wei, Debra Wunch, Marcia Yamasoe, Lu Zhang, and Johannes Orphal
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2433–2463, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2433-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2433-2022, 2022
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Space-borne greenhouse gas missions require ground-based validation networks capable of providing fiducial reference measurements. Here, considerable refinements of the calibration procedures for the COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON) are presented. Laboratory and solar side-by-side procedures for the characterization of the spectrometers have been refined and extended. Revised calibration factors for XCO2, XCO and XCH4 are provided, incorporating 47 new spectrometers.
Lei Hu, Stephen A. Montzka, Fred Moore, Eric Hintsa, Geoff Dutton, M. Carolina Siso, Kirk Thoning, Robert W. Portmann, Kathryn McKain, Colm Sweeney, Isaac Vimont, David Nance, Bradley Hall, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2891–2907, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2891-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2891-2022, 2022
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The unexpected increase in CFC-11 emissions between 2012 and 2017 resulted in concerns about delaying the stratospheric ozone recovery. Although the subsequent decline of CFC-11 emissions indicated a mitigation in part to this problem, the regions fully responsible for these large emission changes were unclear. Here, our new estimate, based on atmospheric measurements from two global campaigns and from NOAA, suggests Asia primarily contributed to the global CFC-11 emission rise during 2012–2017.
Xiao Lu, Daniel J. Jacob, Haolin Wang, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Yuzhong Zhang, Tia R. Scarpelli, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Hannah Nesser, A. Anthony Bloom, Shuang Ma, John R. Worden, Shaojia Fan, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Ritesh Gautam, Deborah Gordon, Michael D. Moran, Frances Reuland, Claudia A. Octaviano Villasana, and Arlyn Andrews
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 395–418, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-395-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-395-2022, 2022
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We evaluate methane emissions and trends for 2010–2017 in the gridded national emission inventories for the United States, Canada, and Mexico by inversion of in situ and satellite methane observations. We find that anthropogenic methane emissions for all three countries are underestimated in the national inventories, largely driven by oil emissions. Anthropogenic methane emissions in the US peak in 2014, in contrast to the report of a steadily decreasing trend over 2010–2017 from the US EPA.
Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, Dale F. Hurst, Geoff S. Dutton, Bradley D. Hall, J. David Nance, Ben R. Miller, Stephen A. Montzka, Laura P. Wolton, Audra McClure-Begley, James W. Elkins, Emrys G. Hall, Allen F. Jordan, Andrew W. Rollins, Troy D. Thornberry, Laurel A. Watts, Chelsea R. Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Ilann Bourgeois, Thomas B. Ryerson, Bruce C. Daube, Yenny Gonzalez Ramos, Roisin Commane, Gregory W. Santoni, Jasna V. Pittman, Steven C. Wofsy, Eric Kort, Glenn S. Diskin, and T. Paul Bui
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6795–6819, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6795-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6795-2021, 2021
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We built UCATS to study atmospheric chemistry and transport. It has measured trace gases including CFCs, N2O, SF6, CH4, CO, and H2 with gas chromatography, as well as ozone and water vapor. UCATS has been part of missions to study the tropical tropopause; transport of air into the stratosphere; greenhouse gases, transport, and chemistry in the troposphere; and ozone chemistry, on both piloted and unmanned aircraft. Its design, capabilities, and some results are shown and described here.
Charles A. Brock, Karl D. Froyd, Maximilian Dollner, Christina J. Williamson, Gregory Schill, Daniel M. Murphy, Nicholas J. Wagner, Agnieszka Kupc, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Jason C. Schroder, Douglas A. Day, Derek J. Price, Bernadett Weinzierl, Joshua P. Schwarz, Joseph M. Katich, Siyuan Wang, Linghan Zeng, Rodney Weber, Jack Dibb, Eric Scheuer, Glenn S. Diskin, Joshua P. DiGangi, ThaoPaul Bui, Jonathan M. Dean-Day, Chelsea R. Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Ilann Bourgeois, Bruce C. Daube, Róisín Commane, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15023–15063, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15023-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15023-2021, 2021
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The Atmospheric Tomography Mission was an airborne study that mapped the chemical composition of the remote atmosphere. From this, we developed a comprehensive description of aerosol properties that provides a unique, global-scale dataset against which models can be compared. The data show the polluted nature of the remote atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere and quantify the contributions of sea salt, dust, soot, biomass burning particles, and pollution particles to the haziness of the sky.
Hao Guo, Clare M. Flynn, Michael J. Prather, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, Louisa Emmons, Forrest Lacey, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Arlene M. Fiore, Gus Correa, Lee T. Murray, Glenn M. Wolfe, Jason M. St. Clair, Michelle Kim, John Crounse, Glenn Diskin, Joshua DiGangi, Bruce C. Daube, Roisin Commane, Kathryn McKain, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Chelsea Thompson, Thomas F. Hanisco, Donald Blake, Nicola J. Blake, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, James W. Elkins, Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13729–13746, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13729-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13729-2021, 2021
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The NASA Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission built a climatology of the chemical composition of tropospheric air parcels throughout the middle of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The level of detail allows us to reconstruct the photochemical budgets of O3 and CH4 over these vast, remote regions. We find that most of the chemical heterogeneity is captured at the resolution used in current global chemistry models and that the majority of reactivity occurs in the
hottest20 % of parcels.
Taylor S. Jones, Jonathan E. Franklin, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Kristian D. Hajny, Johannes C. Paetzold, Adrian Wenzel, Conor Gately, Elaine Gottlieb, Harrison Parker, Manvendra Dubey, Frank Hase, Paul B. Shepson, Levi H. Mielke, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13131–13147, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13131-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13131-2021, 2021
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Methane emissions from leaks in natural gas pipes are often a large source in urban areas, but they are difficult to measure on a city-wide scale. Here we use an array of innovative methane sensors distributed around the city of Indianapolis and a new method of combining their data with an atmospheric model to accurately determine the magnitude of these emissions, which are about 70 % larger than predicted. This method can serve as a framework for cities trying to account for their emissions.
Yenny Gonzalez, Róisín Commane, Ethan Manninen, Bruce C. Daube, Luke D. Schiferl, J. Barry McManus, Kathryn McKain, Eric J. Hintsa, James W. Elkins, Stephen A. Montzka, Colm Sweeney, Fred Moore, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano Jost, Thomas B. Ryerson, Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, Chelsea R. Thompson, Eric Ray, Paul O. Wennberg, John Crounse, Michelle Kim, Hannah M. Allen, Paul A. Newman, Britton B. Stephens, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Benjamin A. Nault, Eric Morgan, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 11113–11132, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11113-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11113-2021, 2021
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Vertical profiles of N2O and a variety of chemical species and aerosols were collected nearly from pole to pole over the oceans during the NASA Atmospheric Tomography mission. We observed that tropospheric N2O variability is strongly driven by the influence of stratospheric air depleted in N2O, especially at middle and high latitudes. We also traced the origins of biomass burning and industrial emissions and investigated their impact on the variability of tropospheric N2O.
Carly Staebell, Kang Sun, Jenna Samra, Jonathan Franklin, Christopher Chan Miller, Xiong Liu, Eamon Conway, Kelly Chance, Scott Milligan, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3737–3753, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3737-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3737-2021, 2021
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Given the high global warming potential of CH4, the identification and subsequent reduction of anthropogenic CH4 emissions presents a significant opportunity for climate change mitigation. Satellites are an integral piece of this puzzle, providing data to quantify emissions at a variety of spatial scales. This work presents the spectral calibration of MethaneAIR, the airborne instrument used as a test bed for the forthcoming MethaneSAT satellite.
David R. Lyon, Benjamin Hmiel, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Katherine A. Roberts, Zachary R. Barkley, Kenneth J. Davis, Natasha L. Miles, Vanessa C. Monteiro, Scott J. Richardson, Stephen Conley, Mackenzie L. Smith, Daniel J. Jacob, Lu Shen, Daniel J. Varon, Aijun Deng, Xander Rudelis, Nikhil Sharma, Kyle T. Story, Adam R. Brandt, Mary Kang, Eric A. Kort, Anthony J. Marchese, and Steven P. Hamburg
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6605–6626, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6605-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6605-2021, 2021
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The Permian Basin (USA) is the world’s largest oil field. We use tower- and aircraft-based approaches to measure how methane emissions in the Permian Basin changed throughout 2020. In early 2020, 3.3 % of the region’s gas was emitted; then in spring 2020, the loss rate temporarily dropped to 1.9 % as oil price crashed. We find this short-term reduction to be a result of reduced well development, less gas flaring, and fewer abnormal events despite minimal reductions in oil and gas production.
Benjamin Birner, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Eric J. Morgan, Britton B. Stephens, Marianna Linz, Wuhu Feng, Chris Wilson, Jonathan D. Bent, Steven C. Wofsy, Jeffrey Severinghaus, and Ralph F. Keeling
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12391–12408, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12391-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12391-2020, 2020
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With new high-precision observations from nine aircraft campaigns and 3-D chemical transport modeling, we show that the argon-to-nitrogen ratio (Ar / N2) in the lowermost stratosphere provides a useful constraint on the “age of air” (the time elapsed since entry of an air parcel into the stratosphere). Therefore, Ar / N2 in combination with traditional age-of-air indicators, such as CO2 and N2O, could provide new insights into atmospheric mixing and transport.
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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.
We acquire, integrate, and analyze ~ 6 million geospatial oil and gas infrastructure data...
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