North American Methane Flux Estimates from Satellite Inversion

Methane emission estimates for North America are derived from an inversion of the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model constrained by GOSAT satellite observations. The data separates emissions into nine distinct sectors, including wetlands, livestock, and oil/gas. The product was generated by NASA's Carbon Monitoring System via GES DISC, with a noted last update in 2012.

Use Cases

• Analyze spatial patterns of total methane flux across the 0.5° x 0.667° grid for North America.
• Compare emission contributions between sectors like wetlands, livestock, and oil/gas.
• Track temporal changes in methane flux from specific sources such as coal or waste.
• Validate regional emission models using satellite-constrained inversion data.
• Assess the impact of policy on sectoral emissions like oil/gas or landfills over time.

Strengths

• Emissions are disaggregated into nine specific source sectors.
• Data is produced by a NASA program using satellite observations and a chemical transport model.
• The nested inversion approach aims to resolve large point sources and minimize aggregation errors.

Limitations

• The product has been deleted due to an identified error, requiring users to switch to a replacement dataset.
• Specific metrics like row count, column count, and file size are unknown.
• The data's last update was in 2012, indicating it may not reflect current emission conditions.

Provenance

Source

NASA Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) via GES DISC.

Collection Method

Inversion of the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model constrained by Greenhouse Gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) observations.

Geography

North America.