2010 C2H6 global emission inventory
Date
2016
Authors
Zitely, Tzompa-Sosa
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Abstract
Recent measurements over the Northern Hemisphere indicate that the long-term
decline in the atmospheric burden of ethane (C2H6) has ended, and the abundance increased dramatically between 2010 and 2014. The rise in the abundance of C2H6 has been attributed to oil and natural gas extraction in North America. Existing global C2H6 emission inventories are based on outdated activity maps that do not account for current oil and natural gas exploitation regions. We present an updated global C2H6 emission inventory based on 2010 satellite-derived CH4 fluxes with adjusted C2H6 emissions over the U.S. from the National Emission Inventory (NEI 2011). We contrast our global 2010 C2H6 emission inventory with one developed for 2001. The C2H6 difference between global anthropogenic emissions is subtle (7.9 versus 7.2 Tg yr-1), but the spatial distribution of the emissions is distinct. In the 2010 C2H6 inventory, fossil fuel sources in the Northern Hemisphere represent half of global C2H6 emissions and 95% of global fossil fuel emissions. Over the U.S., un-adjusted NEI 2011 C2H6 emissions produce mixing ratios that are 14-50 % of those observed by aircraft
observations (2008-2014). When the NEI 2011 C2H6 emission totals are scaled by a factor of 1.4, the model largely reproduces a regional suite of observations,
with the exception of the central U.S., where it continues to under-predict
observed mixing ratios in the lower troposphere. We estimate monthly mean
contributions of fossil fuel C2H6 emissions to ozone and peroxyacetyl nitrate
surface mixing ratios over North America of ~1% and ~8%, respectively.
Description
Each of the twelve netcdf files contain monthly ethane (C2H6) global emissions corresponding to the year 2010 as described in Tzompa-Sosa et al. (JGR, in press). The emission categories included in these files are total, anthropogenic, biofuel, and biomass burning sources.
Department of Atmospheric Science
Department of Atmospheric Science
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Associated Publications
Tzompa-Sosa, Z. A., et al. (2017),Revisiting global fossil fuel and biofuelemissions of ethane,J. Geophys. Res.Atmos.,122, 2493–2512, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JD025767.