What would dense atmospheric observation networks bring to the quantification of city CO<sub>2</sub> emissions?
Cities currently covering only a very small portion ( < 3 %) of the world's land surface directly release to the atmosphere about 44 % of global energy-related CO<sub>2</sub>, but they are associated with 71–76 % of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from global final e...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2016-06-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Online Access: | https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/16/7743/2016/acp-16-7743-2016.pdf |
| _version_ | 1818873049956483072 |
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| author | L. Wu G. Broquet P. Ciais V. Bellassen V. Bellassen F. Vogel F. Chevallier I. Xueref-Remy Y. Wang |
| author_facet | L. Wu G. Broquet P. Ciais V. Bellassen V. Bellassen F. Vogel F. Chevallier I. Xueref-Remy Y. Wang |
| author_sort | L. Wu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Cities currently covering only a very small portion ( < 3 %) of
the world's land surface directly release to the atmosphere about 44 % of
global energy-related CO<sub>2</sub>, but they are associated with 71–76 % of
CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from global final energy use. Although many cities have
set voluntary climate plans, their CO<sub>2</sub> emissions are not evaluated by
the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) procedures that play a key
role for market- or policy-based mitigation actions. Here we analyze the
potential of a monitoring tool that could support the development of such
procedures at the city scale. It is based on an atmospheric inversion method
that exploits inventory data and continuous atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub>
concentration measurements from a network of stations within and around
cities to estimate city CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. This monitoring tool is
configured for the quantification of the total and sectoral CO<sub>2</sub>
emissions in the Paris metropolitan area (∼ 12 million inhabitants and 11.4 TgC emitted in 2010) during the month of January 2011.
Its performances are evaluated in terms of uncertainty reduction based on
observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs). They are analyzed as a
function of the number of sampling sites (measuring at 25 m a.g.l.) and as a function of the network design. The instruments
presently used to measure CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations at research stations are
expensive (typically ∼ EUR 50 k per sensor), which has
limited the few current pilot city networks to around 10 sites. Larger
theoretical networks are studied here to assess the potential benefit of
hypothetical operational lower-cost sensors. The setup of our inversion
system is based on a number of diagnostics and assumptions from previous
city-scale inversion experiences with real data. We find that, given our
assumptions underlying the configuration of the OSSEs, with 10 stations
only the uncertainty for the total city CO<sub>2</sub> emission during 1 month
is significantly reduced by the inversion by ∼ 42 %. It can
be further reduced by extending the network, e.g., from 10 to 70 stations,
which is promising for MRV applications in the Paris metropolitan area. With
70 stations, the uncertainties in the inverted emissions are reduced
significantly over those obtained using 10 stations: by 32 % for commercial
and residential buildings, by 33 % for road transport, by 18 % for the
production of energy by power plants, and by 31 % for total emissions.
These results indicate that such a high number of stations would be likely
required for the monitoring of sectoral emissions in Paris using this
observation–model framework. They demonstrate some high potential that
atmospheric inversions can contribute to the monitoring and/or the
verification of city CO<sub>2</sub> emissions (baseline) and CO<sub>2</sub> emission
reductions (commitments) and the advantage that could be brought by the
current developments of lower-cost medium precision (LCMP) sensors. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T12:48:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bebe69a6e936495ab7f05366799dd885 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T12:48:32Z |
| publishDate | 2016-06-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| spelling | doaj.art-bebe69a6e936495ab7f05366799dd8852022-12-21T20:20:39ZengCopernicus PublicationsAtmospheric Chemistry and Physics1680-73161680-73242016-06-01167743777110.5194/acp-16-7743-2016What would dense atmospheric observation networks bring to the quantification of city CO<sub>2</sub> emissions?L. Wu0G. Broquet1P. Ciais2V. Bellassen3V. Bellassen4F. Vogel5F. Chevallier6I. Xueref-Remy7Y. Wang8Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), UMR CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette, FranceLaboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), UMR CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette, FranceLaboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), UMR CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette, FranceCDC Climat, 75009 Paris, Francenow at: INRA, UMR 1041 CESAER, 21000 Dijon, FranceLaboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), UMR CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette, FranceLaboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), UMR CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette, FranceLaboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), UMR CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette, FranceLaboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), UMR CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif sur Yvette, FranceCities currently covering only a very small portion ( < 3 %) of the world's land surface directly release to the atmosphere about 44 % of global energy-related CO<sub>2</sub>, but they are associated with 71–76 % of CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from global final energy use. Although many cities have set voluntary climate plans, their CO<sub>2</sub> emissions are not evaluated by the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) procedures that play a key role for market- or policy-based mitigation actions. Here we analyze the potential of a monitoring tool that could support the development of such procedures at the city scale. It is based on an atmospheric inversion method that exploits inventory data and continuous atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> concentration measurements from a network of stations within and around cities to estimate city CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. This monitoring tool is configured for the quantification of the total and sectoral CO<sub>2</sub> emissions in the Paris metropolitan area (∼ 12 million inhabitants and 11.4 TgC emitted in 2010) during the month of January 2011. Its performances are evaluated in terms of uncertainty reduction based on observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs). They are analyzed as a function of the number of sampling sites (measuring at 25 m a.g.l.) and as a function of the network design. The instruments presently used to measure CO<sub>2</sub> concentrations at research stations are expensive (typically ∼ EUR 50 k per sensor), which has limited the few current pilot city networks to around 10 sites. Larger theoretical networks are studied here to assess the potential benefit of hypothetical operational lower-cost sensors. The setup of our inversion system is based on a number of diagnostics and assumptions from previous city-scale inversion experiences with real data. We find that, given our assumptions underlying the configuration of the OSSEs, with 10 stations only the uncertainty for the total city CO<sub>2</sub> emission during 1 month is significantly reduced by the inversion by ∼ 42 %. It can be further reduced by extending the network, e.g., from 10 to 70 stations, which is promising for MRV applications in the Paris metropolitan area. With 70 stations, the uncertainties in the inverted emissions are reduced significantly over those obtained using 10 stations: by 32 % for commercial and residential buildings, by 33 % for road transport, by 18 % for the production of energy by power plants, and by 31 % for total emissions. These results indicate that such a high number of stations would be likely required for the monitoring of sectoral emissions in Paris using this observation–model framework. They demonstrate some high potential that atmospheric inversions can contribute to the monitoring and/or the verification of city CO<sub>2</sub> emissions (baseline) and CO<sub>2</sub> emission reductions (commitments) and the advantage that could be brought by the current developments of lower-cost medium precision (LCMP) sensors.https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/16/7743/2016/acp-16-7743-2016.pdf |
| spellingShingle | L. Wu G. Broquet P. Ciais V. Bellassen V. Bellassen F. Vogel F. Chevallier I. Xueref-Remy Y. Wang What would dense atmospheric observation networks bring to the quantification of city CO<sub>2</sub> emissions? Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| title | What would dense atmospheric observation networks bring to the quantification of city CO<sub>2</sub> emissions? |
| title_full | What would dense atmospheric observation networks bring to the quantification of city CO<sub>2</sub> emissions? |
| title_fullStr | What would dense atmospheric observation networks bring to the quantification of city CO<sub>2</sub> emissions? |
| title_full_unstemmed | What would dense atmospheric observation networks bring to the quantification of city CO<sub>2</sub> emissions? |
| title_short | What would dense atmospheric observation networks bring to the quantification of city CO<sub>2</sub> emissions? |
| title_sort | what would dense atmospheric observation networks bring to the quantification of city co sub 2 sub emissions |
| url | https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/16/7743/2016/acp-16-7743-2016.pdf |
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