{"id":436655,"date":"2022-04-22T21:00:03","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T18:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/breakthrough-in-estimating-fossil-fuel-carbon-dioxide-emissions\/"},"modified":"2022-04-22T21:00:03","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T18:00:03","slug":"breakthrough-in-estimating-fossil-fuel-carbon-dioxide-emissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/breakthrough-in-estimating-fossil-fuel-carbon-dioxide-emissions\/","title":{"rendered":"#Breakthrough in estimating fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3b728fe66b5\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3b728fe66b5\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/breakthrough-in-estimating-fossil-fuel-carbon-dioxide-emissions\/#%E2%80%9CBreakthrough_in_estimating_fossil_fuel_carbon_dioxide_emissions%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Breakthrough in estimating fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CBreakthrough_in_estimating_fossil_fuel_carbon_dioxide_emissions%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Breakthrough in estimating fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2022\/breakthrough-in-estima.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/hires\/2022\/breakthrough-in-estima.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory, Norfolk, UK. Credit: Grant Foster\">\n<figure class=\"article-img\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2022\/breakthrough-in-estima.jpg\" alt=\"Breakthrough in estimating fossil fuel CO2 emissions\" title=\"Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory, Norfolk, UK. Credit: Grant Foster\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-darken text-low-up text-truncate-js text-truncate mt-3\">\n                Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory, Norfolk, UK. Credit: Grant Foster<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A team of scientists led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) has made a major breakthrough in detecting changes in fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions more quickly and frequently.<\/p>\n<section class=\"article-banner first-banner ads-336x280\">\n         <!-- \/4988204\/Phys_Story_InText_Box --><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>In a study published today they quantified regional fossil fuel CO<sub>2<\/sub> emissions reductions during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020\u20132021, using atmospheric measurements of CO<sub>2<\/sub> and oxygen (O<sub>2<\/sub>) from the Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory, on the north Norfolk coast in the U.K.<\/p>\n<p>The estimate uses a new method for separating CO<sub>2<\/sub> signals from land plants and fossil fuels in the atmosphere. Previously it has not been possible to quantify changes in regional-scale fossil fuel CO<sub>2<\/sub> emissions with high accuracy and in near real-time.<\/p>\n<p>Existing atmospheric-based methods have largely been unsuccessful at separating fossil fuel CO<sub>2<\/sub> from large natural CO<sub>2<\/sub> variability, so that estimates of changes, such as those occurring in response to the lockdowns, must rely on indirect data sources, which can take months or years to compile.<\/p>\n<p>The atmospheric O<sub>2<\/sub>-based method, published in the journal <i><a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science<\/a> Advances,<\/i> is in good agreement with three lower frequency U.K. emissions estimates produced during the pandemic by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Global Carbon Budget and Carbon Monitor, which used different methods and combinations of data, for example those based on energy usage.<\/p>\n<p>Crucially, as well as being completely independent of the other estimates, this <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roach can be calculated much more quickly.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers are also able to detect changes in emissions with higher frequency, such as daily estimates, and can clearly see two periods of reductions associated with two U.K. lockdown periods, separated by a period of emissions recovery when COVID restrictions were eased, during the summer of 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers at UEA\u2014home of the U.K.&#8217;s only high-precision atmospheric O<sub>2<\/sub> measurement laboratory\u2014worked with colleagues at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Germany.<\/p>\n<p>The study&#8217;s lead author, Dr. Penelope Pickers, of UEA&#8217;s Center for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, said: &#8220;If humans are to reduce our CO<sub>2<\/sub> emissions from fossil fuels and our impact on the climate, we first need to know how much emissions are changing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our study is a major achievement in atmospheric science. Several others, based solely on CO<sub>2<\/sub> data, have been unsuccessful, owing to large emissions from land plants, which obscure fossil fuel CO<sub>2<\/sub> signals in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Using atmospheric O<sub>2<\/sub> combined with CO<sub>2<\/sub> to isolate fossil fuel CO<sub>2<\/sub> in the atmosphere has enabled us to detect and quantify these important signals using a &#8216;top-down&#8217; approach for the first time. Our findings indicate that a network of continuous measurement sites has strong potential for providing this evaluation of fossil fuel CO<sub>2<\/sub> at regional levels.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Currently, fossil fuel CO<sub>2<\/sub> emissions are officially reported with a &#8220;bottom-up&#8221; approach, using accounting methods that combine emission factors with energy statistics to calculate emissions.<\/p>\n<p>These are then compiled into national inventories of estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the atmosphere from anthropogenic sources and activities, such as domestic buildings, vehicles, and industrial processes.<\/p>\n<p>However, inventories can be inaccurate, especially in less developed countries, which makes it more difficult to meet climate targets.<\/p>\n<p>It can also take years for the inventory assessments to be completed, and at the regional scale, or on a monthly or weekly basis, the uncertainties are much larger.<\/p>\n<p>An alternative method of estimating GHG emissions is to use a &#8220;top-down&#8221; approach, based on atmospheric measurements and modeling.<\/p>\n<p>The U.K. emissions inventory is already successfully informed and supported by independent top-down assessments for some key GHGs, such as methane and nitrous oxide.<\/p>\n<p>But for CO<sub>2<\/sub>, the most important GHG for climate change, this has never before been feasible, because of the difficulties distinguishing between CO<sub>2<\/sub> emissions from fossil fuels and land plant sources in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Pickers said: &#8220;The time taken for inventories to be completed makes it hard to characterize changes in emissions that happen suddenly, such as the reductions associated with the COVID pandemic lockdowns.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need reliable fossil fuel CO<sub>2<\/sub> emissions estimates quickly and at finer scales, so that we can monitor and inform climate change policies to prevent reaching 2\u00b0C of global warming.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our O<sub>2<\/sub>-based approach is cost-effective and provides high frequency information, with the potential to provide fossil fuel CO<sub>2<\/sub> estimates quickly and at finer spatial scales, such as for counties, states or cities.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The team used 10 years of high-precision, hourly measurements of atmospheric O<sub>2<\/sub> and CO<sub>2<\/sub> from Weybourne Atmospheric Observatory, which are supported by the U.K.&#8217;s National Center for Atmospheric Science. Having long-term measurements of these climatically important gases was crucial to the success of the study.<\/p>\n<p>To detect a COVID signal, they had to first remove the effects of atmospheric transport on their O<sub>2<\/sub> and CO<sub>2<\/sub> datasets, using a machine learning model.<\/p>\n<p>They trained the machine learning model on pre-pandemic data, to estimate the fossil fuel CO<sub>2<\/sub> they would have expected to observe at Weybourne if the pandemic had never occurred.<\/p>\n<p>They then compared this estimate to the fossil fuel CO<sub>2<\/sub> that was actually observed during 2020-2021, which revealed the relative reduction in CO<sub>2<\/sub> emissions.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Novel quantification of regional fossil fuel CO<sub>2<\/sub> reductions during COVID-19 lockdowns using atmospheric oxygen measurements,&#8221; by Penelope A. Pickers et al., is published in <i>Science Advances <\/i>on Friday, April 22, 2022.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<hr class=\"mb-4\"\/>\n<div class=\"article-main__more p-4\">\n                                                                                                <strong>More information:<\/strong><br \/>\n                                                Penelope A. Pickers, Novel quantification of regional fossil fuel CO2 reductions during COVID-19 lockdowns using atmospheric oxygen measurements, <i>Science Advances<\/i> (2022).  <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-doi=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1126\/sciadv.abl9250\">DOI: 10.1126\/sciadv.abl9250<\/a>. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.abl9250\">www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.abl9250<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"d-inline-block text-medium my-4\">\n                                                Provided by<br \/>\n                                                                                                    University of East Anglia<br \/>\n                                                                                                        <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"icon_open\" href=\"http:\/\/www.uea.ac.uk\/\"><br \/>\n                                                        <svg>\n                                                            <use href=\"https:\/\/phys.b-cdn.net\/tmpl\/v6\/img\/svg\/sprite.svg#icon_open\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\"\/>\n                                                        <\/svg><br \/>\n                                                    <\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>                                        <!-- print only --><\/p>\n<div class=\"d-none d-print-block\">\n<p>                                                 <strong>Citation<\/strong>:<br \/>\n                                                 Breakthrough in estimating fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions (2022, April 22)<br \/>\n                                                 retrieved 24 April 2022<br \/>\n                                                 from https:\/\/phys.org\/<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>\/2022-04-breakthrough-fossil-fuel-carbon-dioxide.html<\/p>\n<p>                                            This document is subject to copyright. 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Credit: Grant Foster A team of scientists led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) has made a major breakthrough in detecting changes in fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions more quickly and frequently. In a study published today they quantified regional fossil&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":436656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/hires\/2022\/breakthrough-in-estima.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-436655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sciencee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}