Articles | Volume 22, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3911-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3911-2022
Research article
 | 
25 Mar 2022
Research article |  | 25 Mar 2022

Quantifying fossil fuel methane emissions using observations of atmospheric ethane and an uncertain emission ratio

Alice E. Ramsden, Anita L. Ganesan, Luke M. Western, Matthew Rigby, Alistair J. Manning, Amy Foulds, James L. France, Patrick Barker, Peter Levy, Daniel Say, Adam Wisher, Tim Arnold, Chris Rennick, Kieran M. Stanley, Dickon Young, and Simon O'Doherty

Related authors

Revealing the significant acceleration of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) emissions in eastern Asia through long-term atmospheric observations
Haklim Choi, Alison L. Redington, Hyeri Park, Jooil Kim, Rona L. Thompson, Jens Mühle, Peter K. Salameh, Christina M. Harth, Ray F. Weiss, Alistair J. Manning, and Sunyoung Park
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7309–7330, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7309-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7309-2024, 2024
Short summary
Global nitrous oxide budget (1980–2020)
Hanqin Tian, Naiqing Pan, Rona L. Thompson, Josep G. Canadell, Parvadha Suntharalingam, Pierre Regnier, Eric A. Davidson, Michael Prather, Philippe Ciais, Marilena Muntean, Shufen Pan, Wilfried Winiwarter, Sönke Zaehle, Feng Zhou, Robert B. Jackson, Hermann W. Bange, Sarah Berthet, Zihao Bian, Daniele Bianchi, Alexander F. Bouwman, Erik T. Buitenhuis, Geoffrey Dutton, Minpeng Hu, Akihiko Ito, Atul K. Jain, Aurich Jeltsch-Thömmes, Fortunat Joos, Sian Kou-Giesbrecht, Paul B. Krummel, Xin Lan, Angela Landolfi, Ronny Lauerwald, Ya Li, Chaoqun Lu, Taylor Maavara, Manfredi Manizza, Dylan B. Millet, Jens Mühle, Prabir K. Patra, Glen P. Peters, Xiaoyu Qin, Peter Raymond, Laure Resplandy, Judith A. Rosentreter, Hao Shi, Qing Sun, Daniele Tonina, Francesco N. Tubiello, Guido R. van der Werf, Nicolas Vuichard, Junjie Wang, Kelley C. Wells, Luke M. Western, Chris Wilson, Jia Yang, Yuanzhi Yao, Yongfa You, and Qing Zhu
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 2543–2604, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2543-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-2543-2024, 2024
Short summary
Direct high-precision radon quantification for interpreting high frequency greenhouse gas measurements
Dafina Kikaj, Edward Chung, Alan D. Griffiths, Scott D. Chambers, Grant Foster, Angelina Wenger, Penelope Pickers, Chris Rennick, Simon O'Doherty, Joseph Pitt, Kieran Stanley, Dickon Young, Leigh S. Fleming, Karina Adcock, and Tim Arnold
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-54,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-54, 2024
Preprint under review for AMT
Short summary
Atmospheric oxygen as a tracer for fossil fuel carbon dioxide: a sensitivity study in the UK
Hannah Chawner, Eric Saboya, Karina E. Adcock, Tim Arnold, Yuri Artioli, Caroline Dylag, Grant L. Forster, Anita Ganesan, Heather Graven, Gennadi Lessin, Peter Levy, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Alistair Manning, Penelope A. Pickers, Chris Rennick, Christian Rödenbeck, and Matthew Rigby
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4231–4252, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4231-2024, 2024
Short summary
First validation of high-resolution satellite-derived methane emissions from an active gas leak in the UK
Emily Dowd, Alistair J. Manning, Bryn Orth-Lashley, Marianne Girard, James France, Rebecca E. Fisher, Dave Lowry, Mathias Lanoisellé, Joseph R. Pitt, Kieran M. Stanley, Simon O'Doherty, Dickon Young, Glen Thistlethwaite, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Emanuel Gloor, and Chris Wilson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1599–1615, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1599-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1599-2024, 2024
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Gases | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling and Data Analysis | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
On the uncertainty of anthropogenic aromatic volatile organic compound emissions: model evaluation and sensitivity analysis
Kevin Oliveira, Marc Guevara, Oriol Jorba, Hervé Petetin, Dene Bowdalo, Carles Tena, Gilbert Montané Pinto, Franco López, and Carlos Pérez García-Pando
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7137–7177, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7137-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7137-2024, 2024
Short summary
A mechanism of stratospheric O3 intrusion into the atmospheric environment: a case study of the North China Plain
Yuehan Luo, Tianliang Zhao, Kai Meng, Jun Hu, Qingjian Yang, Yongqing Bai, Kai Yang, Weikang Fu, Chenghao Tan, Yifan Zhang, Yanzhe Zhang, and Zhikuan Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7013–7026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7013-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7013-2024, 2024
Short summary
Influence of atmospheric circulation on the interannual variability of transport from global and regional emissions into the Arctic
Cheng Zheng, Yutian Wu, Mingfang Ting, and Clara Orbe
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6965–6985, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6965-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6965-2024, 2024
Short summary
Surface networks in the Arctic may miss a future methane bomb
Sophie Wittig, Antoine Berchet, Isabelle Pison, Marielle Saunois, and Jean-Daniel Paris
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6359–6373, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6359-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6359-2024, 2024
Short summary
Potential of using CO2 observations over India in a regional carbon budget estimation by improving the modelling system
Vishnu Thilakan, Dhanyalekshmi Pillai, Jithin Sukumaran, Christoph Gerbig, Haseeb Hakkim, Vinayak Sinha, Yukio Terao, Manish Naja, and Monish Vijay Deshpande
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5315–5335, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5315-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5315-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

AGAGE Team: Mace Head trace gas observations, AGAGE [data set], https://agage2.eas.gatech.edu/data_archive/agage/gc-md/complete/macehead/ (last access: 9 February 2022) 2021. a
Andrieu, C. and Thoms, J.: A tutorial on adaptive MCMC, Stat. Comput., 18, 343–373, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11222-008-9110-y, 2008. a
Baier, B. C., Sweeney, C., Choi, Y., Davis, K. J., DiGangi, J. P., Feng, S., Fried, A., Halliday, H., Higgs, J., Lauvaux, T., Miller, B. R., Montzka, S. A., Newberger, T., Nowak, J. B., Patra, P., Richter, D., and Walega, J., and Weibring, P.: Multispecies Assessment of Factors Influencing Regional and Enhancements During the Winter 2017 ACT-America Campaign, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 125, e2019JD031339, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031339, 2020. a
Barkley, Z. R., Lauvaux, T., Davis, K. J., Deng, A., Fried, A., Weibring, P., Richter, D., Walega, J. G., DiGangi, J., Ehrman, S. H., Ren, X., and Dickerson, R. R.: Estimating Methane Emissions From Underground Coal and Natural Gas Production in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46, 4531–4540, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082131, 2019. a
Boschetti, F., Thouret, V., Maenhout, G. J., Totsche, K. U., Marshall, J., and Gerbig, C.: Multi-species inversion and IAGOS airborne data for a better constraint of continental-scale fluxes, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 9225–9241, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9225-2018, 2018. a
Download
Short summary
Quantifying methane emissions from different sources is a key focus of current research. We present a method for estimating sectoral methane emissions that uses ethane as a tracer for fossil fuel methane. By incorporating variable ethane : methane emission ratios into this model, we produce emissions estimates with improved uncertainty characterisation. This method will be particularly useful for studying methane emissions in areas with complex distributions of sources.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint