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NASA Mountaintop Sensor Finds High Methane over LA
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4440[font face=Serif]January 13, 2015
[font size=5]NASA Mountaintop Sensor Finds High Methane over LA[/font]
[font size=3]A NASA study using two years of observations from a novel mountaintop instrument finds that Los Angeles' annual emissions of methane, an important greenhouse gas, are 18 to 61 percent higher than widely used estimates. The study is the first to demonstrate the feasibility of long-term mapping of greenhouse gases across an urban area from an elevated -- but still earthbound -- site.
"For the first time, we've been able to provide an accurate estimate of total methane emissions from the Los Angeles basin, whatever their sources," said senior research scientist Stanley Sander of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, the new instrument's principal investigator. "Altogether, it's a very significant increase in the estimate."
Methane is extremely efficient at trapping heat and warming the planet. Its urban sources include gas pipeline leaks, landfills, wastewater treatment plants and transportation.
...
Over the sprawling 30-by-70-mile LA basin (50 by 110 kilometers), methane emissions were estimated to be 430,000 U.S. tons (0.39 teragrams) per year. This is significantly larger than the value obtained by the common method of adding up estimated emissions from all known methane sources.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-241-2015[font size=5]NASA Mountaintop Sensor Finds High Methane over LA[/font]
[font size=3]A NASA study using two years of observations from a novel mountaintop instrument finds that Los Angeles' annual emissions of methane, an important greenhouse gas, are 18 to 61 percent higher than widely used estimates. The study is the first to demonstrate the feasibility of long-term mapping of greenhouse gases across an urban area from an elevated -- but still earthbound -- site.
"For the first time, we've been able to provide an accurate estimate of total methane emissions from the Los Angeles basin, whatever their sources," said senior research scientist Stanley Sander of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, the new instrument's principal investigator. "Altogether, it's a very significant increase in the estimate."
Methane is extremely efficient at trapping heat and warming the planet. Its urban sources include gas pipeline leaks, landfills, wastewater treatment plants and transportation.
...
Over the sprawling 30-by-70-mile LA basin (50 by 110 kilometers), methane emissions were estimated to be 430,000 U.S. tons (0.39 teragrams) per year. This is significantly larger than the value obtained by the common method of adding up estimated emissions from all known methane sources.
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