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NASA NTRS1973

Determination of Spatial Distribution of Air Pollution by Dye Laser Measurement of Differential Absorption of Elastic Backscatter

This paper presents the results of an analytical study of a lidar system which uses tunable organic dye lasers to accurately determine spatial distribution of molecular air pollutants. Also described will be experimental work to date on simultaneous multiwavelength output dye laser sources for this system. Basically the scheme determines the concentration of air pollutants by measuring the differential absorption of an (at least) two wavelength lidar signal elastically backscattered by the atmosphere. Only relative measurements of the backscattered intensity at each of the two wavelengths, one on and one off the resonance absorption of the pollutant in question, are required. The various parameters of the scheme are examined and the component elements required for a system of this type discussed, with emphasis on the dye laser source. Potential advantages of simultaneous multiwavelength outputs are described. The use of correlation spectroscopy in this context is examined. Comparisons are also made for the use of infrared probing wavelengths and sources instead of dye lasers. Estimates of the sensitivity and accuracy of a practical dye laser system of this type, made for specific pollutants, snow it to have inherent advantages over other schemes for determining pollutant spatial distribution.

Ahmed, S. A.↗

NASA NTRS2016

Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution (TEMPO)

TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) was selected in 2012 by NASA as the first Earth Venture Instrument, for launch between 2018 and 2021. It will measure atmospheric pollution for greater North America from space using ultraviolet and visible spectroscopy. TEMPO observes from Mexico City, Cuba, and the Bahamas to the Canadian oil sands, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, hourly and at high spatial resolution (approximately 2.1 kilometers N/S by 4.4 kilometers E/W at 36.5 degrees N, 100 degrees W). TEMPO provides a tropospheric measurement suite that includes the key elements of tropospheric air pollution chemistry, as well as contributing to carbon cycle knowledge. Measurements are made hourly from geostationary (GEO) orbit, to capture the high variability present in the diurnal cycle of emissions and chemistry that are unobservable from current low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that measure once per day. The small product spatial footprint resolves pollution sources at sub-urban scale. Together, this temporal and spatial resolution improves emission inventories, monitors population exposure, and enables effective emission-control strategies. TEMPO takes advantage of a commercial GEO host spacecraft to provide a modest cost mission that measures the spectra required to retrieve ozone (O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), formaldehyde (H2CO), glyoxal (C2H2O2), bromine monoxide (BrO), IO (iodine monoxide),water vapor, aerosols, cloud parameters, ultraviolet radiation, and foliage properties. TEMPO thus measures the major elements, directly or by proxy, in the tropospheric O3 chemistry cycle. Multi-spectral observations provide sensitivity to O3 in the lowermost troposphere, substantially reducing uncertainty in air quality predictions. TEMPO quantifies and tracks the evolution of aerosol loading. It provides these near-real-time air quality products that will be made publicly available. TEMPO will launch at a prime time to be the North American component of the global geostationary constellation of pollution monitoring together with the European Sentinel-4 (S4) and Korean Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) instruments.

tropospheric measurement suite↗

NASA NTRS2018

Interactions Between Asian Air Pollution and Monsoon System: South Asia (ROSES-2014 ACMAP)

Asia's rapid economic growth over the past several decades has brought a remarkable increase in air pollution levels in that region. High concentrations of aerosols (also known as particulate matter or PM) from pollution sources pose major health hazards to half of the world population in Asia including South Asia. How do pollution and dust aerosols regulate the monsoon circulation and rainfall via scattering and absorbing solar radiation, changing the atmospheric heating rates, and modifying the cloud properties? We conducted a series of regional model experiments with NASA-Unified Weather Research and Forecast (NUWRF) regional model with coupled aerosol-chemistry-radiation-microphysics processes over South Asia for winter, pre-monsoon, and monsoon seasons to address this question. This study investigates the worsening air quality problem in South Asia by focusing on the interactions between pollution and South Asian monsoon, not merely focusing on the increase of pollutant emissions.

regional model experiments with NASA-Unified Weath↗

NASA NTRS2018

Atmospheric Trace Gas (NO2 and Ozone) Dynamics over Coastal Waters near Polluted Urban Regions

At the interface between the land, oceans, and atmosphere, coastal regions are highly dynamic environments, characterized by strong variability in both water and air quality. Variability in atmospheric composition is associated with highly variable anthropogenic emissions, as well as complex meteorological processes that influence the circulation and accumulation of atmospheric pollutants at the land-ocean interface. Assessing the spatial and temporal dynamics of atmospheric pollutants, aerosols, and absorbing trace gases in coastal areas is critical for improving modeling of coastal tropospheric air quality, developing accurate satellite retrievals of coastal ocean color and biological processes, determining impacts of atmospheric pollution on human health, and assessing the ecological implications of atmospheric pollutant deposition for coastal terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.Here, we present new measurements of atmospheric trace gas (NO2, and ozone) dynamics across a range of estuarine and coastal waters near urban regions. Measurements were conducted from research vessels using NASA's shipboard Pandora spectrometers, as part of recent multidisciplinary, multiplatform field campaigns, including the 2016 KORUS OC/AQ field campaign in the Yellow Sea and East Sea/Sea of Japan, the 2017/2018 OLWETS field campaign in the Chesapeake Bay estuary, and the 2018 LISTOS field campaign in the Long Island Sound. Shipboard measurements over these coastal waters were integrated with measurements from a ground-based Pandora network to examine differences in air quality over the land and over the ocean. Measurements were combined with air-parcel back-trajectory simulations to determine the origin of air masses over the coastal ocean. Comparisons with satellite retrievals of atmospheric composition reveal the benefits and limitations of polar-orbit satellite observations in capturing variability in atmospheric pollution gradients over land-water boundaries.

Tzortziou, Maria↗

DOE OSTI2022

Strategic roadmap to assess forest vulnerability under air pollution and climate change

Abstract Although it is an integral part of global change, most of the research addressing the effects of climate change on forests have overlooked the role of environmental pollution. Similarly, most studies investigating the effects of air pollutants on forests have generally neglected the impacts of climate change. We review the current knowledge on combined air pollution and climate change effects on global forest ecosystems and identify several key research priorities as a roadmap for the future. Specifically, we recommend (1) the establishment of much denser array of monitoring sites, particularly in the South Hemisphere; (2) further integration of ground and satellite monitoring; (3) generation of flux‐based standards and critical levels taking into account the sensitivity of dominant forest tree species; (4) long‐term monitoring of N, S, P cycles and base cations deposition together at global scale; (5) intensification of experimental studies, addressing the combined effects of different abiotic factors on forests by assuring a better representation of taxonomic and functional diversity across the ~73,000 tree species on Earth; (6) more experimental focus on phenomics and genomics; (7) improved knowledge on key processes regulating the dynamics of radionuclides in forest systems; and (8) development of models integrating air pollution and climate change data from long‐term monitoring programs.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2012

Satellite-based Estimates of Ambient Air Pollution and Global Variations in Childhood Asthma Prevalence

Background: The effect of ambient air pollution on global variations and trends in asthma prevalence is unclear. Objectives: Our goal was to investigate community-level associations between asthma prevalence data from the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) and satellite-based estimates of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter < 2.5 microm (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and modelled estimates of ozone. Methods: We assigned satellite-based estimates of PM2.5 and NO2 at a spatial resolution of 0.1deg × 0.1deg and modeled estimates of ozone at a resolution of 1deg × 1deg to 183 ISAAC centers. We used center-level prevalence of severe asthma as the outcome and multilevel models to adjust for gross national income (GNI) and center- and country-level sex, climate, and population density. We examined associations (adjusting for GNI) between air pollution and asthma prevalence over time in centers with data from ISAAC Phase One (mid-1900s) and Phase Three (2001-2003). Results: For the 13- to 14-year age group (128 centers in 28 countries), the estimated average within-country change in center-level asthma prevalence per 100 children per 10% increase in center-level PM2.5 and NO2 was -0.043 [95% confidence interval (CI): -0.139, 0.053] and 0.017 (95% CI: -0.030, 0.064) respectively. For ozone the estimated change in prevalence per parts per billion by volume was -0.116 (95% CI: -0.234, 0.001). Equivalent results for the 6- to 7-year age group (83 centers in 20 countries), though slightly different, were not significantly positive. For the 13- to 14-year age group, change in center-level asthma prevalence over time per 100 children per 10% increase in PM2.5 from Phase One to Phase Three was -0.139 (95% CI: -0.347, 0.068). The corresponding association with ozone (per ppbV) was -0.171 (95% CI: -0.275, -0.067). Conclusion: In contrast to reports from within-community studies of individuals exposed to traffic pollution, we did not find evidence of a positive association between ambient air pollution and asthma prevalence as measured at the community level.

Air pollution↗

NASA NTRS2016

Aura OMI Observations of Regional SO2 and NO2 Pollution Changes from 2005 to 2015

The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard NASA's Aura satellite has been providing global observations of the ozone layer and key atmospheric pollutant gases, such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), since October 2004. The data products from the same instrument provide consistent spatial and temporal coverage and permit the study of anthropogenic and natural emissions on local-to-global scales. In this paper, we examine changes in SO2 and NO2 over some of the world's most polluted industrialized regions during the first decade of OMI observations. In terms of regional pollution changes, we see both upward and downward trends, sometimes in opposite directions for NO2 and SO2, for different study areas. The trends are, for the most part, associated with economic and/or technological changes in energy use, as well as regional regulatory policies. Over the eastern US, both NO2 and SO2 levels decreased dramatically from 2005 to 2015, by more than 40 and 80 percent, respectively, as a result of both technological improvements and stricter regulations of emissions. OMI confirmed large reductions in SO2 over eastern Europe's largest coal-fired power plants after installation of flue gas desulfurization devices. The North China Plain has the world's most severe SO2 pollution, but a decreasing trend has been observed since 2011, with about a 50 percent reduction in 2012-2015, due to an economic slowdown and government efforts to restrain emissions from the power and industrial sectors. In contrast, India's SO2 and NO2 levels from coal power plants and smelters are growing at a fast pace, increasing by more than 100 and 50 percent, respectively, from 2005 to 2015. Several SO2 hot spots observed over the Persian Gulf are probably related to oil and gas operations and indicate a possible underestimation of emissions from these sources in bottom-up emission inventories. Overall, OMI observations have proved valuable in documenting rapid changes in air quality over different parts of the world during last decade. The baseline established during the first 11 years of OMI is indispensable for the interpretation of air quality measurements from current and future satellite atmospheric composition missions.

SO2 and NO2↗

NASA NTRS2016

Aura OMI observations of regional SO2 and NO2 pollution changes from 2005 to 2015

The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard NASA's Aura satellite has been providing global observations of the ozone layer and key atmospheric pollutant gases, such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2/ and sulfur dioxide (SO2/, since October 2004. The data products from the same instrument provide consistent spatial and temporal coverage and permit the study of anthropogenic and natural emissions on local-to-global scales. In this paper, we examine changes in SO2 and NO2 over some of the world's most polluted industrialized regions during the first decade of OMI observations. In terms of regional pollution changes, we see both upward and downward trends, sometimes in opposite directions for NO2 and SO2, for different study areas. The trends are, for the most part, associated with economic and/or technological changes in energy use, as well as regional regulatory policies. Over the eastern US, both NO2 and SO2 levels decreased dramatically from 2005 to 2015, by more than 40 and 80 %, respectively, as a result of both technological improvements and stricter regulations of emissions. OMI confirmed large reductions in SO2 over eastern Europe's largest coal-fired power plants after installation of flue gas desulfurization devices. The North China Plain has the world's most severe SO2 pollution, but a decreasing trend has been observed since 2011, with about a 50% reduction in 2012- 2015, due to an economic slowdown and government efforts to restrain emissions from the power and industrial sectors. In contrast, India's SO2 and NO2 levels from coal power plants and smelters are growing at a fast pace, increasing by more than 100 and 50 %, respectively, from 2005 to 2015. Several SO2 hot spots observed over the Persian Gulf are probably related to oil and gas operations and indicate a possible underestimation of emissions from these sources in bottom-up emission inventories. Overall, OMI observations have proved valuable in documenting rapid changes in air quality over different parts of the world during last decade. The baseline established during the first 11 years of OMI is indispensable for the interpretation of air quality measurements from current and future satellite atmospheric composition missions.

Pollution trends↗

NASA NTRS2020

Influence of Dynamic Ozone Dry Deposition on Ozone Pollution

Identifying the contributions of chemistry and transport to observed ozone pollution using regional‐to‐global models relies on accurate representation of ozone dry deposition. We use a recently developed configuration of the NOAA GFDL chemistry‐climate model – in which the atmosphere and land are coupled through dry deposition—to investigate the influence of ozone dry deposition on ozone pollution over northern midlatitudes. In our model, deposition pathways are tied to dynamic terrestrial processes, such as photosynthesis and water cycling through the canopy and soil. Small increases in winter deposition due to more process‐based representation of snow and deposition to surfaces reduce hemispheric‐scale ozone throughout the lower troposphere by 5–12 ppb, improving agreement with observations relative to a simulation with the standard configuration for ozone dry deposition. Declining snow cover by the end of the 21st‐century tempers the previously identified influence of rising methane on winter ozone. Dynamic dry deposition changes summer surface ozone by −4 to +7 ppb. While previous studies emphasize the importance of uptake by plant stomata, new diagnostic tracking of depositional pathways reveals a widespread impact of nonstomatal deposition on ozone pollution. Daily variability in both stomatal and nonstomatal deposition contribute to daily variability in ozone pollution. Twenty‐first century changes in summer deposition result from a balance among changes in individual pathways, reflecting differing responses to both high carbon dioxide (through plant physiology versus biomass accumulation) and water availability. Our findings highlight a need for constraints on the processes driving ozone dry deposition to test representation in regional‐to‐global models.

dry deposition↗

DOE OSTI2020

Co-benefits of subnationally differentiated carbon pricing policies in China: Alleviation of heavy PM 2.5 pollution and improvement in environmental equity

Carbon policies differentiated according to regional disparities have been recognized and recommended. However, the air quality co-benefits of differentiated policies remain unclear. Here we combine a multi-regional dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model and an extend response surface model (ERSM) to investigate the impact of nationally uniform and subnationally differentiated carbon pricing policies on fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) concentrations in China. All policies examined lead to the same accumulated national CO 2 emissions (2020–2050), with the 2030 emissions attaining China's national abatement target. We find that, when subnational policies differentiated according to provincial PM 2.5 concentrations are implemented, the higher-than-average carbon price over more polluted provinces results in twice as much reduction in CO 2 and air pollutant emissions in 2050 as the national policy. As a result, the subnational policies cause larger PM 2.5 concentration reductions in these provinces (9%–18%) than the national policy (7%–11%). Also, the subnational policies eliminate high PM 2.5 exposure of over 45 μg/m 3 which 12% people suffer from under the national policy. Overall, the subnational policies substantially reduce regional disparity in PM 2.5 pollution and hence improve environmental equity. The results suggest that subnationally differentiated carbon policies are a promising instrument to mitigate severe pollution and promote environmental equity.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗

DOE OSTI2020

Estimation of abatement potentials and costs of air pollution emissions in China

Understanding the air pollution emission abatement potential and associated control cost is a prerequisite to design cost ef?cient control policies. In this study, a linear programming algorithm model, International Control Cost Estimate Tool, was updated with cost data for applications of 56 types of end-of-pipe technologies and ?ve types of renewable energy in 10 major sectors namely power generation, industry combustion, cement pro-duction, iron and steel production, other industry processes, domestic combustion, transportation, solvent use, livestock rearing, and fertilizer use. The updated model was implemented to estimate the abatement potential and marginal cost of multiple pollutants in China. The total maximum abatement potentials of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), primary particulate matter (PM2.5), non-volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), and ammonia (NH3) in China were estimated to be 19.2, 20.8, 9.1, 17.2 and 8.6 Mt, respectively, which accounted for 89.7%, 89.9%, 94.6%, 74.0%, and 80.2% of their total emissions in 2014, respectively. The associated control cost of such reductions was estimated as 92.5, 469.7, 75.7, 449.0, and 361.8 billion CNY in SO2, NOx, primary PM2.5, NMVOCs and NH3, respectively. Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Zhejiang, and Guangdong provinces exhibited large abatement potentials for all pollutants. Provincial disparity analysis shows that high GDP regions tend to have higher reduction potential and total abatement costs. End-of-pipe technologies tended be a cost-ef?cient way to control pollution in industries processes (i.e., cement plants, iron and steel plants, lime production, building ceramic production, glass and brick production), whereas such technologies were less cost- effective in fossil fuel-related sectors (i.e., power plants, industry combustion, domestic combustion, and transportation) compared with renewable energy. The abatement potentials and marginal abatement cost curves developed in this study can further be used as a crucial component in an integrated model to design optimized cost-ef?cient control policies.

Zhang, Fenfen↗

DOE OSTI2020

Air pollution control strategies directly limiting national health damages in the US

Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) from fuel combustion significantly contributes to global and US mortality. Traditional air pollution control strategies typically focus on emission reductions for specific air pollutants or sectors to maintain air pollutant concentrations within acceptable levels. Here we directly set national PM 2.5 mortality cost reduction targets within a global human-earth system model with US state-level energy systems, identifying endogenously the control actions, sectors, and locations that most cost-effectively reduce PM 2.5 mortality. Our results show that substantial health benefits can be cost-effectively achieved by using electricity to replace sources with high primary PM 2.5 emission intensities, including industrial coal, building biomass, and industrial liquids. Increasing the stringency of PM 2.5 reduction targets expedites the phaseout of high emission intensity sources, leading to larger declines in major air pollutant emissions, but very limited co-benefits in reducing CO 2 emissions. Control strategies achieve the greatest mortality cost reductions in the East North Central and Middle Atlantic states.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2022

Extensive urban air pollution footprint evidenced by submicron organic aerosols molecular composition

Transport and transformation of urban air pollutants are among the major factors driving the changes in the atmospheric composition in the downwind rural/remote areas of a megacity. Here, we assess the impacts of urban air pollution in a subtropical forest through characterization of the organic markers in submicron aerosol particles. The aerosol samples were collected and analyzed using TD-PTR-ToF-MS, where 163 ions were detected. The concentration of these extracted ions accounts for 83% of the mass of submicron organic aerosols, which are accordingly characterized by a median formula of C 7 H 10 O 2 . Molecular speciation indicates that urban and biomass burning pollution contributed substantially to the budget of organic aerosols, which were enhanced particularly by the liquid water content and acidity of the aerosols. Our results evidence that the footprint of urban air pollution was extended to its downwind forested areas and caused changes in the concentration and composition of submicron aerosols.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2024

Towards non-contact pollution monitoring in sewers with hyperspectral imaging

Monitoring water quality in sewers is challenging, particularly because state-of-the-art technologies require contact with the raw wastewater. The presence of fat, oil, grease, and solids makes automated grab sampling difficult and causes sensor fouling. To overcome these limitations, non-contact methods based on light reflectance, such as hyperspectral imaging (HSI), are gaining attention. However, HSI has never been tested for raw wastewater. To assess its accuracy for measuring pollution, we developed a laboratory setup and performed targeted experiments with a combination of raw and diluted wastewater, as well as synthetic turbidity stock solutions. We measured seven pollution variables: chemical oxygen demand, turbidity, dissolved organic compounds, ammonium, total nitrogen, phosphate, and sulphates. We used automated pixel selection and partial least squares regression to retrieve pollution information from the hyperspectral images. Our results, based on 144 samples, suggest that HSI can estimate pollution levels with a precision in the range of state-of-the-art absorbance spectrophotometric methods. Additionally, we found that the combination of pixel and wavelength selection, enabled by the hyperspectral data structure, significantly influences the performance of partial least square modelling. Overall, our findings indicate that HSI is a promising technology for non-contact monitoring of water quality in raw wastewater.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2023

Policy-relevant differences between secondhand and thirdhand smoke: strengthening protections from involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke pollutants

Starting in the 1970s, individuals, businesses and the public have increasingly benefited from policies prohibiting smoking indoors, saving thousands of lives and billions of dollars in healthcare expenditures. Smokefree policies to protect against secondhand smoke exposure, however, do not fully protect the public from the persistent and toxic chemical residues from tobacco smoke (also known as thirdhand smoke) that linger in indoor environments for years after smoking stops. Nor do these policies address the economic costs that individuals, businesses and the public bear in their attempts to remediate this toxic residue. We discuss policy-relevant differences between secondhand smoke and thirdhand smoke exposure: persistent pollutant reservoirs, pollutant transport, routes of exposure, the time gap between initial cause and effect, and remediation and disposal. We examine four policy considerations to better protect the public from involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke pollutants from all sources. We call for (a) redefining smokefree as free of tobacco smoke pollutants from secondhandandthirdhand smoke; (b) eliminating exemptions to comprehensive smoking bans; (c) identifying indoor environments with significant thirdhand smoke reservoirs; and (d) remediating thirdhand smoke. We use the case of California as an example of how secondhand smoke-protective laws may be strengthened to encompass thirdhand smoke protections. The health risks and economic costs of thirdhand smoke require that smokefree policies, environmental protections, real estate and rental disclosure policies, tenant protections, and consumer protection laws be strengthened to ensure that the public is fully protected from and informed about the risks of thirdhand smoke exposure.

Public, Environmental & Occupational Health↗

DOE OSTI2020

Update of Emission Factors of Greenhouse Gases and Criteria Air Pollutants, and Generation Efficiencies of the U.S. Electricity Generation Sector

The last decade has seen a steady evolution of the electricity generation sector. Fuels used for electricity generation have shifted from coal to cleaner energy sources such as natural gas and renewables including solar, wind, and other renewable sources. The share of U.S. electricity generated from coal decreased from 45% in 2010 to 24% in 2019, and is expected to decrease further to 13% by 2050. The conversion efficiency of electricity generation has also increased gradually for fuels such as natural gas due as less-efficient old generators are retired and more-efficient generators replace them. These changes in the electricity generation industry are likely to cause changes in the emissions from power generation units. Emission factors of greenhouse gases (GHG) including CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O, and criteria air pollutants (CAPs) including CO, NO x , PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and SO x , from power plants are important parameters for estimating life-cycle emissions associated with vehicle electrification, energy systems, and the production of materials and chemicals. The electricity generation technologies and associated emission factors in the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Technologies (GREET) model need to be updated to reflect recent developments in the electricity generation sector. The most recent update of the electricity generation emission factors in GREET adopted a mixed method. The emission factors of CH 4 , N 2 O, NO x , and SOx were estimated using a “topdown” approach by dividing the total emissions by the total net electricity generation, because emission data of these pollutants are readily available in the Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGRID). For other CAPs such as CO, VOC, PM 10 , and PM 2.5 , emission data were not reported in eGRID. A “bottom-up” method was used to estimate the emission factors for these pollutants by considering generic uncontrolled emission factors and the pollutant removal efficiencies of emission control technologies adopted in the electricity generation sector. However, the uncontrolled emission factors and the emission removal efficiencies of various emission control technologies considered in the 2012 study came from the legacy AP-42 emission factors, and may not reflect the actual emission performances of the electricity generation sector of today. To leverage new data that recently became available, especially emission data measured from continuous emission monitoring systems (CEMS), we developed a new “top-down” approach to estimate efficiencies and GHG and CAP emission factors for electricity generation from combustion of individual fuel types by individual combustion technologies on the basis of power-generation data from U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) form EIA-923, and plant emission data from Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Air Markets Division (CAMD) dataset and National Emissions Inventory (NEI) dataset. Detailed discussion of the method and data used in this study can be found in Section 2.1. With this topdown approach, we aim to improve the estimates of energy efficiencies and emission factors for power plants using a more consistent methodology, and to update the emission factors, generation efficiencies, and generation technologies mixes in GREET to reflect recent technology advancements in the electricity generation sector.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

DOE OSTI2022

Opinion: Coordinated development of emission inventories for climate forcers and air pollutants

Emissions into the atmosphere of fine particulate matter, its precursors, and precursors to tropospheric ozone impact not only human health and ecosystems, but also the climate by altering Earth's radiative balance. Accurately quantifying these impacts across local to global scales historically and in future scenarios requires emission inventories that are accurate, transparent, complete, comparable, and consistent. In an effort to better quantify the emissions and impacts of these pollutants, also called short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is developing a new SLCF emissions methodology report. This report would supplement existing IPCC reporting guidance on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventories, which are currently used by inventory compilers to fulfill national reporting requirements under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and new requirements of the Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) under the Paris Agreement starting in 2024. We review the relevant issues, including how air pollutant and GHG inventory activities have historically been structured, as well as potential benefits, challenges, and recommendations for coordinating GHG and air pollutant inventory efforts. We argue that, while there are potential benefits to increasing coordination between air pollutant and GHG inventory development efforts, we also caution that there are differences in appropriate methodologies and applications that must jointly be considered.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

DOE OSTI2020

A global anthropogenic emission inventory of atmospheric pollutants from sector- and fuel-specific sources (1970–2017): an application of the Community Emissions Data System (CEDS)

Global anthropogenic emission inventories remain vital for understanding the sources of atmospheric pollution and the associated impacts on the environment, human health, and society. Rapid changes in today's society require that these inventories provide contemporary estimates of multiple atmospheric pollutants with both source sector and fuel type information to understand and effectively mitigate future impacts. To fill this need, we have updated the open-source Community Emissions Data System (CEDS) (Hoesly et al., 2019) to develop a new global emission inventory, CEDSGBD-MAPS. This inventory includes emissions of seven key atmospheric pollutants (NOx; CO; SO2; NH3; non-methane volatile organic compounds, NMVOCs; black carbon, BC; organic carbon, OC) over the time period from 1970–2017 and reports annual country-total emissions as a function of 11 anthropogenic sectors (agriculture; energy generation; industrial processes; on-road and non-road transportation; separate residential, commercial, and other sectors (RCO); waste; solvent use; and international shipping) and four fuel categories (total coal, solid biofuel, the sum of liquid-fuel and natural-gas combustion, and remaining process-level emissions). The CEDSGBD-MAPS inventory additionally includes monthly global gridded (0.5°?×?0.5°) emission fluxes for each compound, sector, and fuel type to facilitate their use in earth system models. CEDSGBD-MAPS utilizes updated activity data, updates to the core CEDS default scaling procedure, and modifications to the final procedures for emissions gridding and aggregation. Relative to the previous CEDS inventory (Hoesly et al., 2018), these updates extend the emission estimates from 2014 to 2017 and improve the overall agreement between CEDS and two widely used global bottom-up emission inventories. The CEDSGBD-MAPS inventory provides the most contemporary global emission estimates to date for these key atmospheric pollutants and is the first to provide global estimates for these species as a function of multiple fuel types and source sectors. Dominant sources of global NOx and SO2 emissions in 2017 include the combustion of oil, gas, and coal in the energy and industry sectors as well as on-road transportation and international shipping for NOx. Dominant sources of global CO emissions in 2017 include on-road transportation and residential biofuel combustion. Dominant global sources of carbonaceous aerosol in 2017 include residential biofuel combustion, on-road transportation (BC only), and emissions from the waste sector. Global emissions of NOx, SO2, CO, BC, and OC all peak in 2012 or earlier, with more recent emission reductions driven by large changes in emissions from China, North America, and Europe. In contrast, global emissions of NH3 and NMVOCs continuously increase between 1970 and 2017, with agriculture as a major source of global NH3 emissions and solvent use, energy, residential, and the on-road transport sectors as major sources of global NMVOCs. Due to similar development methods and underlying datasets, the CEDSGBD-MAPS emissions are expected to have consistent sources of uncertainty as other bottom-up inventories. The CEDSGBD-MAPS source code is publicly available online through GitHub: https://github.com/emcduffie/CEDS/tree/CEDS_GBD-MAPS (last access: 1 December 2020). The CEDSGBD-MAPS emission inventory dataset (both annual country-total and monthly global gridded files) is publicly available under https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3754964 (McDuffie et al., 2020c).

Mcduffie, Erin↗