Compilation and analyses of emissions inventories for the NOAA atmospheric chemistry project. Progress report, August 1997

Abstract

Global inventories of anthropogenic emissions of oxides of nitrogen for circa 1985 and 1990 and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) for circa 1990 have been compiled by this project. Work on the inventories has been carried out under the umbrella of the Global Emissions Inventory Activity of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry program. Global emissions of NOx for 1985 are estimated to be 21 Tg N/yr, with approximately 84% originating in the Northern Hemisphere. The global emissions for 1990 are 31 Tg N/yr for NOx and 173 Gg NMVOC/yr. Ongoing research activities for this project continue to address emissions of both NOx and NMVOCs. Future tasks include: evaluation of more detailed regional emissions estimates and update of the default 1990 inventories with the appropriate estimates; derivation of quantitative uncertainty estimates for the emission values; and development of emissions estimates for 1995.