Quantifying the loss of processed natural gas within California's South Coast Air Basin using long-term measurements of ethane and methane

Wunch, Debra; Toon, Geoffrey C.; Hedelius, Jacob K.; Vizenor, Nicholas; Roehl, Coleen M.; Saad, Katherine M.; Blavier, Jean-François L.; Blake, Donald R.; Wennberg, Paul O.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14091-2016

Articles | Volume 16, issue 22

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14091-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14091-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 22

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

15 Nov 2016

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 15 Nov 2016

Quantifying the loss of processed natural gas within California's South Coast Air Basin using long-term measurements of ethane and methane

Debra Wunch, Geoffrey C. Toon, Jacob K. Hedelius, Nicholas Vizenor, Coleen M. Roehl, Katherine M. Saad, Jean-François L. Blavier, Donald R. Blake, and Paul O. Wennberg

Data sets

TCCON data from California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA, Release GGG2014R1 P. O. Wennberg, D. Wunch, C. Roehl, J.-F. L. Blavier, G. C. Toon, and N. Allen https://doi.org/10.14291/tccon.ggg2014.pasadena01.R1/1182415

TCCON data from Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA, Release GGG2014R0 P. O. Wennberg, D. Wunch, Y. Yavin, G. C. Toon, J.-F. Blavier, N. Allen, and G. Keppel-Aleks https://doi.org/10.14291/tccon.ggg2014.jpl01.R0/1149163

TCCON data from Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA, Release GGG2014R0 P. O. Wennberg, C. Roehl, J.-F. Blavier, D. Wunch, J. Landeros, and N. Allen https://doi.org/10.14291/tccon.ggg2014.jpl02.R0/1149297

MkIV Ground-based Vertical Column Abundances 1985–2015 G. C. Toon and J.-F. Blavier http://mark4sun.jpl.nasa.gov/ground.html

Short summary

This paper investigates the cause of the known underestimate of bottom-up inventories of methane in California's South Coast Air Basin (SoCAB). We use total column measurements of methane, ethane, carbon monoxide, and other trace gases beginning in the late 1980s to calculate emissions and attribute sources of excess methane to the atmosphere. We conclude that more than half of the excess methane to the SoCAB atmosphere is attributable to processed natural gas.