Quantifying fossil and biospheric CO2 fluxes in California using ground-based and satellite observations

Marc Fischer, Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, mlfischer@lbl.gov (Presenter)
Heather Graven, Imperial College London, h.graven@imperial.ac.uk
Ralph Keeling, UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography, rkeeling@ucsd.edu
Christian Frankenberg, Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Caltech, christian.frankenberg@jpl.nasa.gov
Tom Guilderson, Center for AMS, tguilderson@llnl.gov
Seongeun Jeong, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, sjeong@lbl.gov
Nick Parazoo, UCLA, nicholas.c.parazoo@jpl.nasa.gov
Bill Callahan, Earth Networks, bcallahan@earthnetworks.com
Ying Hsu, California Air Resources Board, yhsu@arb.ca.gov
John Miller, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, john.b.miller@noaa.gov
Tim Lueker, UCSD Scripps Institution of Oceanography, tlueker@ucsd.edu
Sally Newman, Caltech, sally@gps.caltech.edu
Brian LaFranchi, Sandia National Laboratory, bwlafra@sandia.gov
Hope Michelson, Sandia National Laboratory, hamiche@sandia.gov
Ray Bambha, Sandia National Laboratory, rpbambh@sandia.gov

We report progress on the development of a prototype data collection and analysis system to leverage remote sensed data from the OCO-2 satellite and provide regional fossil and biosphere CO2 fluxes and state-annual evaluation of fossil CO2 emissions inventories in California. In the first year of the project, we have developed and deployed a flask sampling network encompassing 10 collaborative tower measurement sites across California. We performed a field campaign to collect air samples every three days for the month of May, 2014 and started a second campaign covering October 15 to November 14, 2014. We also began a pseudo-data modeling experiment that evaluates the potential to estimate fossil CO2 emissions using only radiocarbon-derived fossil fuel CO2 concentration measured in flask samples, and later the potential to estimate both fossil and biosphere CO2 fluxes using the OCO-2 column CO2 retrievals supplemented by flask sampling and in situ total CO2 measurements. Initial results from the flask-only pseudo-data experiment suggest that sub-weekly sampling at the towers included in this experiment might be expected to yield a posterior uncertainty in monthly mean state-total fossil fuel CO2 emissions comparable to or better than those provided by bottom-up inventory approaches.

Associated Project(s): 

• Graven (CMS 2013)