• \
    Start Submission Become a Reviewer

    Reading: The space and time impacts on U.S. regional atmospheric CO2 concentrations from a high resol...

    Download

     A- A+
    Alt. Display

    Original Research Papers

    The space and time impacts on U.S. regional atmospheric CO2 concentrations from a high resolution fossil fuel CO2 emissions inventory

    Authors:

    Katherine D. Corbin ,

    Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), Marine and Atmospheric Research, Aspendale, Victoria, AU
    X close

    A. Scott Denning,

    Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, US
    X close

    Kevin R. Gurney

    Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, US
    X close

    Abstract

    To improve fossil fuel CO2 emissions estimates, high spatial and temporal resolution inventories are replacing coarse resolution, annual-mean estimates distributed by population density. Because altering the emissions changes a key boundary condition to inverse-estimated CO2 fluxes, it is essential to analyse the atmospheric impacts of redistributing anthropogenic emissions. Using a coupled ecosystem–atmosphere model, we compare 2004 atmospheric CO2 concentrations resulting from coarse and high-resolution inventories. Using fossil fuel CO2 emissions inventories with coarse spatial and temporal resolution creates spatially coherent biases in the atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The largest changes occur from using seasonally varying emissions: in heavily populated areas along the west coast and the eastern United States, the amplitude of the near-surface CO2 concentration seasonal cycle changed by >10 ppm, with higher concentrations in summer and lower concentrations in fall. Due to changes in the spatial distribution, spatially coherent annualmean concentration differences >6 ppm occur; and including the diurnal cycle causes changes >3 ppm. To avoid significant errors in CO2 source and sink estimates from atmospheric inversions, it is essential to include seasonality in fossil fuel emissions, as well as to utilize higher-resolution, process-based spatial distributions.

    How to Cite: Corbin, K.D., Denning, A.S. and Gurney, K.R., 2010. The space and time impacts on U.S. regional atmospheric CO2 concentrations from a high resolution fossil fuel CO2 emissions inventory. Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 62(5), pp.506–511. DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0889.2010.00480.x
      Published on 01 Jan 2010
    Peer Reviewed
     CC BY 4.0
     Accepted on 21 Jun 2010            Submitted on 29 Dec 2009

    References

    1. Andres , R. J. , Marland , G. , Fung , I. and Matthews , E . 1996 . A 1° x 10 distribution of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel consumption and cement manufacture. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 10 , 419 - 429 .  

    2. Biasing , T. J. , Broniak , C. T. and Marland , G. 2005. The annual cycle of fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions in the United States . Tellus 57B , 107 – 115 .  

    3. Corbin , K. D. , Denning , A. S. , Lu , L. , Wang , J.-W. and Baker , I. T . 2008 . Using a high-resolution coupled ecosystem-atmosphere model to es-timate representation errors in inversions of satellite CO2 retrievals . J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos . 113 ( D02301 ), doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JDO08716 .  

    4. Cragg , M. and Kahn , M. E. 2009. Carbon geography: the political econ-omy of congressional support for legislation intended to mitigate greenhouse gas production. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper #14963 .  

    5. Energy Information Administration. 2007 . Emissions of greenhouse gases. In: Report DOE/EIA-0573 , Office of Integrated Analysis and Forecasting, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC, 64.  

    6. Enting, I. 2002. Inverse Problems in Atmospheric Constituent Transport . Cambridge University Press , New York, NY .  

    7. Gregg , J. S. , Losey , L. M. , Andres , R. J. , Biasing , T. J. and Marland , G . 2009 . The temporal and spatial distribution of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel use in North America. J. AppL Met. Clim . 48 , doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JAMC2115.1 .  

    8. Gurney , K. R. , Chen , Y. H. , Maki , T. , Kawa , S. R. , Andrews , A. and co-authors . 2005 . Sensitivity of atmospheric CO2 inversions to seasonal and interannual variations in fossil fuel emissions. J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos . 110 ( D10308 ), doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JDO05373 .  

    9. Gurney , K. R. , Mendoza , D. L. , Thou , Y. , Fischer , M. L ., Miller and co-authors . 2009 . High resolution fossil fuel combustion CO2 emission fluxes for the United States. Environ. Sci. Technol . 43 , doi: https://doi.org/10.1021/es900806c .  

    10. Kawa , S. R. , Erickson BI , D. J. , Pawson , S. and Thu , Z. 2004. Global CO2 transport simulations using meteorological data from the NASA data assimilation system, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos . 109 ( D18312 ), doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2004JD004554 .  

    11. Marland , G. and Rotty , R. M . 1984 . Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels: a procedure for estimation and results for 1950-1982 . Tellus 36B , 232 – 261 .  

    12. Parazoo , N. C. , Denning , A. S. , Kawa , S. R. , Corbin , K. D. , Lokupitiya , R. S. and co-authors . 2008 . Mechanisms for synoptic variations of atmospheric CO2 in North America, South America, and Europe. Atmos. Chem. Phys . 8 , 7239 - 7254 .  

    13. Parshall , L. , Gurney , K. R. , Hammer , S. A. , Mendoza , D. L. , Zhou , Y. and co-authors . 2009 . Modeling energy consumption and CO2 emissions at the urban scale: methodological challenges and insights from the United States, Energy Policy 38 ( 9 ), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/enpol.2009.07.006 .  

    14. Raupach , M. R. , Marland , G. , Ciais , R , Le Quere , C. , Canadell , J. G. and co-authors . 2007 . Global and regional drivers of accelerating CO2 emissions. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci . 104 ( 24 ), 10288 - 10293 .  

    15. Rogers , E. , Black , T. , Collins , W. , Manikin , G ., Mesinger, E and co-authors . 2000 . Changes to the NCEP Meso Eta analysis and forecast system: assimilation of satellite radiances and increase in resolution. http://www.emc.ncep.noaa.gov/mmb/mmbp11/eta22tpb.  

    16. Schuh , A. E. , Denning , A. S. , Corbin , K. D. , Baker , I. T. , Uliasz , M. and co-authors . 2009 . A regional high-resolution carbon flux in-version of North America for 2004. Biogeosci. Discuss . 6 , 10195 - 10241 .  

    17. Wang , J.-W. , Denning , A. S. , Lu , L. , Baker , I. T. , Corbin , K. D. and co-authors . 2007 . Observations and simulations of synoptic, regional, and local variations in atmospheric CO2. J. Geophys. Res,-Atmos . 112 ( D04108 ), doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007410 .  

    Jump to Discussions Related content
    comments powered by Disqus