Vulcan System Details C02 Emissions By The Hour

摘要

A new, high-resolution, interactive map of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels has found that the emissions aren't all where we thought. "For example, we've been attributing too many emissions to the northeastern United States, and it's looking like the southeastern U.S. is a much larger source than we had estimated previously," says Kevin Gurney, an assistant professor of Earth and atmospheric science at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and leader of the project. The maps and system, called Vulcan, show carbon dioxide emissions at more than 100 times more detail than was available before. Until now, data on carbon dioxide emissions were reported, in the best cases, monthly at the level of an entire state. The Vulcan model examines emissions at local levels on an hourly basis. Researchers say the maps are more accurate than previous data because they are based on greenhouse gas emissions instead of estimates based on population in areas of the United States. To create the Vulcan maps, the research team developed a method to extract the carbon dioxide information by transforming data on local air pollution, such as carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide emissions, which are tracked by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Energy, and other governmental agencies.