by Kevin R. Gurney, Jianming Liang, Risa Patarasuk, Yang Song, Jianhua Huang, Geoffrey Roest
The emission of greenhouse gases into the Earth atmosphere is driving climate change. The largest single emission category is the release of carbon dioxide from the combustion of fossil fuels. Cities account for roughly 70% of the global emissions of fossil fuel carbon dioxide. Understanding where and when these emissions occur is critical to the science of climate change and to guiding the steps needed to lower these emissions. The Vulcan version 3.0 fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions data product quantifies all of these emissions for the entire U.S. domain at spatial scales of 1 km2 for every hour from the years 2010–2015. It is constructed from a large number of publicly available data sources such as pollution reporting, energy statistics, powerplant stack monitoring, and traffic counts. This data product is freely available for scientific research and policy guidance purposes and offers insights, understanding, and application to practical questions.
Leave a Reply