1996: Global Methane Inventory

Team Members: Harvey Augenbaum

Research Objectives

To compile and distribute a current, complete and internationally-recognized inventory of methane sources and emissions. (1) Standardize the programs, code and formats of the original series of data sets which reflect conditions for 1984. (2) Update the 1984 data sets of the Global Emissions Inventory Activity (GEIA) reference year of 1985 and to 1990 implementing the methodological recommendations of the GEIA's Methane Worksing Group. These recommendations primarily affect the agricultural (rice) and animal sources since numerous measurements and other data relating to these sources have become available in the last 5 years. (3) Formally document and publish these data and make the integrated suite of methane emission data available to the research community.

Tools: Methane inventory by Matthews , Fung and Lerner at GISS, 1° resolution, benchmark emissions, including wetlands, animals and rice cultivation. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), United Nations country data and other sources available on the Internet. IPCC and GEIA recommended methodologies. Excel and software packages developed at GISS will be used for database management and graphical display.

Tasks: Focus on second objective. In particular, required data and ancillary information will be identified and organized into a form usable by students for the project. A demonstration product can be completed from a subset of the larger data set anticipated for the inventory. This could take the form of either a global or regional inventory of a single methane source category (such as rice cultivation areas), or an inventory of all major methane source categories for one country. The continuation of the project during the academic year is anticipated to build on the data sets prepared during the summer and to extend the summer's demonstration product to encompass, ultimately, all major methane sources of the world. After or accompanying the compilation of information on source categories, estimates of methane emissions from these sources can be undertaken.