Collaborative Research: Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Urban Areas

温室气体(温室气体、二氧化碳、甲烷、N2O、一些氯氟烃)的长期排放在调节地球气候方面起着至关重要的作用。城市环境日益成为包括气候变化在内的许多重大环境问题的核心。全球人类排放的温室气体(GHGs)有很大一部分来自城市或附近城市。如何衡量一个特大城市的碳平衡？社会必须能够了解和预测排放的温室气体在城市大气中的分布，以便评估排放清单的有效性和任何减排计划的效力。自我报告的“自下而上”温室气体排放清单中的不确定性来自活动使用数据和广义换算系数，其不确定性往往大于减排目标[气专委，2006；国家研究委员会，2010年]。这一缺点可能可以通过自上而下(逆)建模来解决，该建模使用大气中的温室气体测量，结合传输建模和先验通量约束来量化源排放。该项目以对波士顿城市穹顶的碳通量进行观测和建模为中心，具有潜在的广泛影响，包括：1)使用和改进WRF-Stilt模型(它将研究天气预报模型与拉格朗日粒子扩散模型相耦合)，以将大气(观测)与大城市的地表通量联系起来；2)该模型在区域和潜在的全球范围内应用，以验证监管、限额和贸易甚至全球条约的需求；3)对学生和公众的教育。在拟议的研究期间，项目数据、结果和软件将继续公开提供。

AbstractLong lived greenhouse gas (GHG; CO2, CH4, N2O, some CFCs) emissions play a critical role in regulating the Earth's climate. Urban environments increasingly lie at the core of many major environmental issues including climate change. Much of the human induced greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted globally originate in or nearby cities. How do you measure the carbon balance of a mega-city? Society must be able to understand and predict the distribution of emitted GHGs within the urban atmosphere in order to assess the validity of emissions inventories, and the efficacy of any emission reduction programs. Uncertainties in self-reported 'bottom up' GHG emission inventories, derived from activity use data and generalized conversion factors, are often larger than emission reduction goals [IPCC, 2006; NRC, 2010]. This shortcoming can potentially be addressed by top-down (inverse) modeling that uses GHG measurements in the atmosphere, coupled with transport modeling and a priori flux constraints, to quantify source emissions.This project, centered on observation and modeling of carbon fluxes in the Boston urban dome, has potentially broad impact, including: 1) use and refinement of the WRF-STILT model (which couples a research weather forecasting model with a Lagrangian particle dispersion model) to connect atmospheric (observation) with surface fluxes in large cities; 2) Regional and potentially worldwide applications of the model to verify regulatory, cap and trade and even global treaty needs; 3) Education of students and the public. Project data, results, and software will continue to be made publicly available during the proposed research.