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Title: Methane emissions from dairies in the Los Angeles Basin

Journal Article · · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online)
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [2];  [2]; ORCiD logo [5];  [5]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [1]
  1. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
  2. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States). Dept. of Meteorology
  3. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  4. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
  5. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab.

We estimate the amount of methane (CH4) emitted by the largest dairies in the southern California region by combining measurements from four mobile solar-viewing ground-based spectrometers (EM27/SUN), in situ isotopic 13/12CH4 measurements from a CRDS analyzer (Picarro), and a high-resolution atmospheric transport simulation with a Weather Research and Forecasting model in large-eddy simulation mode (WRF-LES). The remote sensing spectrometers measure the total column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of CH4 and CO2 (XCH4 and XCO2) in the near infrared region, providing information on total emissions of the dairies at Chino. Differences measured between the four EM27/SUN ranged from 0.2 to 22ppb (part per billion) and from 0.7 to 3ppm (part per million) for XCH4 and XCO2, respectively. To assess the fluxes of the dairies, these differential measurements are used in conjunction with the local atmospheric dynamics from wind measurements at two local airports and from the WRF-LES simulations at 111m resolution. Our top-down CH4 emissions derived using the Fourier transform spectrometers (FTS) observations of 1.4 to 4.8ppts-1 are in the low end of previous top-down estimates, consistent with reductions of the dairy farms and urbanization in the domain. However, the wide range of inferred fluxes points to the challenges posed by the heterogeneity of the sources and meteorology. Inverse modeling from WRF-LES is utilized to resolve the spatial distribution of CH4 emissions in the domain. Both the model and the measurements indicate heterogeneous emissions, with contributions from anthropogenic and biogenic sources at Chino. A Bayesian inversion and a Monte Carlo approach are used to provide the CH4 emissions of 2.2 to 3.5ppts-1 at Chino.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States); Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; LANL Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); W. M. Keck Foundation (United States); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396; 1337512
OSTI ID:
1463494
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-18-21241
Journal Information:
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online), Vol. 17, Issue 12; ISSN 1680-7324
Publisher:
European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 37 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (18)

MERLIN: A French-German Space Lidar Mission Dedicated to Atmospheric Methane journal October 2017
Carbon dioxide and methane measurements from the Los Angeles Megacity Carbon Project – Part 1: calibration, urban enhancements, and uncertainty estimates journal January 2017
Southern California megacity CO 2 , CH 4 , and CO flux estimates using ground- and space-based remote sensing and a Lagrangian model journal January 2018
Analysis of total column CO2 and CH4 measurements in Berlin with WRF-GHG journal January 2019
Diagnosing spatial error structures in CO2 mole fractions and XCO2 column mole fractions from atmospheric transport journal January 2019
Emissions of methane in Europe inferred by total column measurements journal January 2019
Long open-path measurements of greenhouse gases in air using near-infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy journal January 2018
Automated enclosure and protection system for compact solar-tracking spectrometers journal January 2018
GreenHouse gas Observations of the Stratosphere and Troposphere (GHOST): an airborne shortwave-infrared spectrometer for remote sensing of greenhouse gases journal January 2018
Using the tracer flux ratio method with flight measurements to estimate dairy farm CH4 emissions in central California journal January 2019
Quantifying CH4 emissions from hard coal mines using mobile sun-viewing Fourier transform spectrometry journal January 2019
Net CO2 fossil fuel emissions of Tokyo estimated directly from measurements of the Tsukuba TCCON site and radiosondes journal January 2020
Vista-LA: Mapping methane-emitting infrastructure in the Los Angeles megacity journal January 2018
Assessment of errors and biases in retrievals of X CO 2 , X CH 4 , X CO , and X N 2 O from a 0.5 cm –1 resolution solar-viewing spectrometer journal January 2016
Quantifying the loss of processed natural gas within California's South Coast Air Basin using long-term measurements of ethane and methane journal January 2016
Emissions of methane in Europe inferred by total column measurements text January 2019
Differential column measurements using compact solar-tracking spectrometers journal January 2016
Quantifying CH₄ emissions from hard coal mines using mobile sun-viewing Fourier transform spectrometry text January 2019

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