Articles | Volume 19, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2991-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2991-2019
Research article
 | 
07 Mar 2019
Research article |  | 07 Mar 2019

Characterizing uncertainties in atmospheric inversions of fossil fuel CO2 emissions in California

Kieran Brophy, Heather Graven, Alistair J. Manning, Emily White, Tim Arnold, Marc L. Fischer, Seongeun Jeong, Xinguang Cui, and Matthew Rigby

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Cited articles

Andres, R. J., Boden, T. A., Bréon, F.-M., Ciais, P., Davis, S., Erickson, D., Gregg, J. S., Jacobson, A., Marland, G., Miller, J., Oda, T., Olivier, J. G. J., Raupach, M. R., Rayner, P., and Treanton, K.: A synthesis of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel combustion, Biogeosciences, 9, 1845–1871, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-9-1845-2012, 2012. 
Asefi-Najafabady, S., Rayner, P. J., Gurney, K. R., McRobert, A., Song, Y., Coltin, K., Huang, J., Elvidge, C., and Baugh, K.: A multiyear, global gridded fossil fuel CO2 emission data product: Evaluation and analysis of results, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 119, 10213–10231, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JD021296, 2014. 
Bagley, J. E., Jeong, S., Cui, X., Newman, S., Zhang, J., Priest, C., Campos-Pineda, M., Andrews, A. E., Bianco, L., Lloyd, M., and Lareau, N.: Assessment of an atmospheric transport model for annual inverse estimates of California greenhouse gas emissions, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 122, 1901–1918, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JD025361, 2017. 
Basu, S., Miller, J. B., and Lehman, S.: Separation of biospheric and fossil fuel fluxes of CO2 by atmospheric inversion of CO2 and 14CO2 measurements: Observation System Simulations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 5665–5683, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5665-2016, 2016. 
Boden, T., Andres, B., and Marland, G.: Global CO2 Emissions from Fossil-Fuel Burning, Cement Manufacture, and Gas Flaring: 1751–2014, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, available at: https://cdiac.ess-dive.lbl.gov/ftp/ndp030/global.1751_2014.ems (last access: 1 March 2019), 2017. 
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Short summary
We investigate potential errors and uncertainties related to the spatial and temporal prior representation of emissions and modelled atmospheric transport for the inversion of California's fossil fuel CO2 emissions. Our results indicate that uncertainties in posterior total state fossil fuel CO2 estimates arising from the choice of prior emissions or atmospheric transport model are on the order of 15 % or less for the ground-based network in California we consider.
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