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Fluxes of Atmospheric Greenhouse‐Gases in Maryland (FLAGG‐MD): Emissions of Carbon Dioxide in the Baltimore, MD‐Washington, D.C. Area
Author(s) -
Ahn D. Y.,
Hansford J. R.,
Howe S. T.,
Ren X. R.,
Salawitch R. J.,
Zeng N.,
Cohen M. D.,
Stunder B.,
Salmon O. E.,
Shepson P. B.,
Gurney K. R.,
Oda T.,
LopezCoto I.,
Whetstone J.,
Dickerson R. R.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1029/2019jd032004
Subject(s) - hysplit , greenhouse gas , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , carbon dioxide , aerosol , chemistry , geography , ecology , organic chemistry , geology , biology
Abstract To study emissions of CO 2 in the Baltimore, MD‐Washington, D.C. (Balt‐Wash) area, an aircraft campaign was conducted in February 2015, as part of the Fluxes of Atmospheric Greenhouse‐Gases in Maryland (FLAGG‐MD) project. During the campaign, elevated mole fractions of CO 2 were observed downwind of the urban center and local power plants. Upwind flight data and Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model analyses help account for the impact of emissions outside the Balt‐Wash area. The accuracy, precision, and sensitivity of CO 2 emissions estimates based on the mass balance approach were assessed for both power plants and cities. Our estimates of CO 2 emissions from two local power plants agree well with their Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS) records. For the 16 power plant plumes captured by the aircraft, the mean percentage difference of CO 2 emissions was −0.3%. For the Balt‐Wash area as a whole, the 1 CO 2 emission rate uncertainty for any individual aircraft‐based mass balance approach experiment was ±38%. Treating the mass balance experiments, which were repeated seven times within 9 days, as individual quantifications of the Balt‐Wash CO 2 emissions, the estimation uncertainty was ±16% (standard error of the mean at 95% CL). Our aircraft‐based estimate was compared to various bottom‐up fossil fuel CO 2 (FFCO 2 ) emission inventories. Based on the FLAGG‐MD aircraft observations, we estimate 1.9 ± 0.3 MtC of FFCO 2 from the Balt‐Wash area during the month of February 2015. The mean estimate of FFCO 2 from the four bottom‐up models was 2.2 ± 0.3 MtC.