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Estimating methane emissions from biological and fossil‐fuel sources in the San Francisco Bay Area
Author(s) -
Jeong Seongeun,
Cui Xinguang,
Blake Donald R.,
Miller Ben,
Montzka Stephen A.,
Andrews Arlyn,
Guha Abhinav,
Martien Philip,
Bambha Ray P.,
LaFranchi Brian,
Michelsen Hope A.,
Clements Craig B.,
Glaize Pierre,
Fischer Marc L.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2016gl071794
Subject(s) - bay , methane , fossil fuel , environmental science , methane emissions , natural gas , petroleum , environmental chemistry , waste management , ecology , geology , oceanography , chemistry , engineering , biology , paleontology
We present the first sector‐specific analysis of methane (CH 4 ) emissions from the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA) using CH 4 and volatile organic compound (VOC) measurements from six sites during September – December 2015. We apply a hierarchical Bayesian inversion to separate the biological from fossil‐fuel (natural gas and petroleum) sources using the measurements of CH 4 and selected VOCs, a source‐specific 1 km CH 4 emission model, and an atmospheric transport model. We estimate that SFBA CH 4 emissions are 166–289 Gg CH 4 /yr (at 95% confidence), 1.3–2.3 times higher than a recent inventory with much of the underestimation from landfill. Including the VOCs, 82 ± 27% of total posterior median CH 4 emissions are biological and 17 ± 3% fossil fuel, where landfill and natural gas dominate the biological and fossil‐fuel CH 4 of prior emissions, respectively.