Research Projects

Assembly Bill 32 (Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, AB 32) requirements make it necessary for the Air Resources Board (ARB) to develop and evaluate a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory for California. Some of the current inventory estimates of GHGs are uncertain, especially methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Atmospheric GHG measurements from tall towers, when combined with inverse modeling estimation techniques, have the potential to independently quantify GHG emissions. The research proposed here constitutes a focused effort to evaluate California’s GHG emissions inventory.
The proposed project is divided into three tasks: 1) continue to collect a long-term dataset of GHG and carbon monoxide (CO) measurements from the tall tower near Walnut Grove, California, adding continuous N2O measurements to the existing measurement suite, and compiling a one-year measurement record for inverse modeling; 2) expand the ARB GHG research measurement network to a new tower site in the Riverside/San Bernardino area, capturing GHG and CO emissions from the entire South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB), and compile a one-year measurement record for inverse modeling; 3) apply inverse modeling to include the new Riverside/San Bernardino measurement site and the full suite of measured GHG and CO in order to evaluate the inverse modeling methodology using ARB’s independently confirmed CO emissions inventory and to evaluate ARB’s GHG emissions inventory.