Methane and Ethane Measurements from a New TCCON Station in Los Angeles
Abstract
The Los Angeles urban region emits large amounts of methane (~0.44Tg/year) into the atmosphere. It is currently unclear exactly how much of this is biogenic (landfills, cattle), and how much is from natural gas (natural seeps or fugitive emissions from the natural gas infrastructure). Since natural gas contains ethane, whereas biogenic emissions contain none, simultaneous measurements of ethane and methane offer the possibility of separating the biogenic versus natural gas emissions of methane. We investigate this using total column measurements from a new Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) remote sensing station in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, which began measurements in July 2012. These measurements will be put into the context of historical remote sensing and in situ measurements described by Wennberg et al., 2012 (doi:10.1021/es301138y).
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFMGC51G..05W
- Keywords:
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- 0365 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Troposphere: composition and chemistry;
- 0428 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Carbon cycling;
- 0480 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Remote sensing;
- 0493 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Urban systems