Global Emission Database Research Articles

Spatial Distribution of Forest Fire Emissions: A Case Study in Three Mexican Ecoregions

This study shows a simplified approach for calculating emissions associated with forest fires in Mexico, based on different satellite observation products: the biomass, burnt area, emission factors, and burning efficiency. Biomass loads were based on a Mexican biomass map, updated with the net primary productivity products. The burning efficiency was estimated from a Random Forest Regression (RFR) model, which considered the fuel, weather and topographical conditions. The burned areas were the downloaded Maryland University MCD64c6 product. The emission factors were obtained from well-known estimations, corrected by a dedicated US Forest Service and Mexican campaign. The uncertainty was estimated from an integrative method. Our method was applied to a four-year period, 2011–2014, in three Mexican ecoregions. The total burned in the study region was 12,898 km2 (about 4% of the area), producing 67.5 (±20) Tg of CO2. Discrepancies of the land cover maps were found to be the main cause of a low correlation between our estimations and the Global Emission Database (GFED). The emissions were clearly associated to precipitation patterns. They mainly affected dry and tropical forests (almost 50% of all emissions). Six priority areas were identified, where prevention or mitigation measures must be implemented.

High-resolution atmospheric emission inventory of the argentine energy sector. Comparison with edgar global emission database

This study presents a 2014 high-resolution spatially disaggregated emission inventory (0.025° × 0.025° horizontal resolution), of the main activities in the energy sector in Argentina. The sub-sectors considered are public generation of electricity, oil refineries, cement production, transport (maritime, air, rail and road), residential and commercial. The following pollutants were included: greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O), ozone precursors (CO, NOx, VOC) and other specific air quality indicators such as SO2, PM10, and PM2.5. This work could contribute to a better geographical allocation of the pollutant sources through census based population maps. Considering the sources of greenhouse gas emissions, the total amount is 144 Tg CO2eq, from which the transportation sector emits 57.8 Tg (40%); followed by electricity generation, with 40.9 Tg (28%); residential + commercial, with 31.24 Tg (22%); and cement and refinery production, with 14.3 Tg (10%). This inventory shows that 49% of the total emissions occur in rural areas: 31% in rural areas of medium population density, 13% in intermediate urban areas and 7% in densely populated urban areas. However, if emissions are analyzed by extension (per square km), the largest impact is observed in medium and densely populated urban areas, reaching more than 20.3 Gg per square km of greenhouse gases, 297 Mg/km2 of ozone precursors gases and 11.5 Mg/km2 of other air quality emissions. A comparison with the EDGAR global emission database shows that, although the total country emissions are similar for several sub sectors and pollutants, its spatial distribution is not applicable to Argentina. The road and residential transport emissions represented by EDGAR result in an overestimation of emissions in rural areas and an underestimation in urban areas, especially in more densely populated areas. EDGAR underestimates 60 Gg of methane emissions from road transport sector and fugitive emissions from refining activities.

Russian anthropogenic black carbon: Emission reconstruction and Arctic black carbon simulation

AbstractDevelopment of reliable source emission inventories is particularly needed to advance the understanding of the origin of Arctic haze using chemical transport modeling. This study develops a regional anthropogenic black carbon (BC) emission inventory for the Russian Federation, the largest country by land area in the Arctic Council. Activity data from combination of local Russia information and international resources, emission factors based on either Russian documents or adjusted values for local conditions, and other emission source data are used to approximate the BC emissions. Emissions are gridded at a resolution of 0.1° × 0.1° and developed into a monthly temporal profile. Total anthropogenic BC emission of Russia in 2010 is estimated to be around 224 Gg. Gas flaring, a commonly ignored black carbon source, contributes a significant fraction of 36.2% to Russia's total anthropogenic BC emissions. Other sectors, i.e., residential, transportation, industry, and power plants, contribute 25.0%, 20.3%, 13.1%, and 5.4%, respectively. Three major BC hot spot regions are identified: the European part of Russia, the southern central part of Russia where human population densities are relatively high, and the Urals Federal District where Russia's major oil and gas fields are located but with sparse human population. BC simulations are conducted using the hemispheric version of Community Multi‐scale Air Quality Model with emission inputs from a global emission database EDGAR (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research)‐HTAPv2 (Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution) and EDGAR‐HTAPv2 with its Russian part replaced by the newly developed Russian BC emissions, respectively. The simulation using the new Russian BC emission inventory could improve 30–65% of absorption aerosol optical depth measured at the AERONET sites in Russia throughout the whole year as compared to that using the default HTAPv2 emissions. At the four ground monitoring sites (Zeppelin, Barrow, Alert, and Tiksi) in the Arctic Circle, surface BC simulations are improved the most during the Arctic haze periods (October–March). The poor performance of Arctic BC simulations in previous studies may be partly ascribed to the Russian BC emissions built on out‐of‐date and/or missing information, which could result in biases to both emission rates and the spatial distribution of emissions. This study highlights that the impact of Russian emissions on the Arctic haze has likely been underestimated, and its role in the Arctic climate system needs to be reassessed. The Russian black carbon emission source data generated in this study can be obtained via http://abci.ornl.gov/download.shtml or http://acs.engr.utk.edu/Data.php.

Greenhouse gas scenarios for Austria: a comparison of different approaches to emission trends

In the present paper, national and externally organized projections of greenhouse gas emissions for Austria were compared to gain insight on the underlying scenario data assumptions. National greenhouse gas emission trends extend until 2030, an assessment of European Union (EU) countries to 2050. In addition, data for 2000–2100 was extracted from the global emission database described by the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP). By identifying trends in these projections, it was possible to produce (a) a long-term assessment of national scenarios until 2100, (b) an assessment of the ambition level toward national climate strategies, and (c) a standardized method to compare trends across countries. By extracting RCP data, Austrian’s methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide emissions up to 2100 could be projected for all sources as well as specific sectors. With respect to the RCP scenario emission data, national projections did not seem to employ the mitigation potentials available for the most stringent RCP scenario, RCP2.6. Comparing projections that supported the EU Climate Strategy 2030 with national projections revealed similar trends. Because RCP2.6 is the only scenario consistent with a 2 °C global warming target, and it is much more ambitious than any of the national or European projections, further measures will be required if Austria is to adequately contribute to this widely accepted policy goal.

On-road traffic emissions in a megacity

A new annual bottom–up emission inventory of criteria pollutants and greenhouse gases from on-road mobile sources was developed for 2006 for the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, Argentina, within a four-year regional project aimed at providing tools for chemical weather forecast in South America. Under the scarcity of local emission factors, we collected data from measuring campaigns performed in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia and compiled a data set of regional emission factors representative of Latin American fleets and driving conditions. The estimated emissions were validated with respect to downscaled national estimates and the EDGAR global emission database. Our results highlight the role of older technologies accounting in average for almost 80% of the emissions of all species. The area exhibits higher specific emissions than developed countries, with figures two times higher for criteria pollutants. We analyzed the effect on emissions of replacing gasoline by compressed natural gas, occurring in Argentina since 1995. We identified (i) a relationship between number of vehicles and a compound socioeconomic indicator, and (ii) time-lags in vehicle technologies between developed and developing countries, which can be respectively applied for spatial disaggregation and the development of projections for other Latin American cities. The results may also be employed to complement global emission inventories and by local policy makers as an environmental management tool.