Research Projects

An accurate methane (CH4) emission inventory is critical for the design and implementation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction measures. Inventory estimates of California’s GHG emissions are based on international protocols that may not be representative of California conditions for non-CO2 GHGs. Thus, there is a need to independently verify current emission estimates. This project will use an inverse modeling tool to quantify CH4 emissions in California through the application of air quality models to back-calculate emissions based on ambient measurement. The measurement datasets include data from the CH4 monitoring network being deployed by ARB in the Central Valley of California, two mobile platforms to be deployed by ARB during the 2010 CalNex field campaign, and other sources. The inverse modeling package used in this project will also be transferred to ARB to allow staff to perform inverse modeling for future applications. This project is expected to provide an independent test of the current CH4 emission estimate in California and also provide useful information for improving CH4 emission inventory in California.