AQAST Tiger Team Progress Report
Satellite Signatures of Trace Gases Associated with US Oil and Gas Extraction
Prepared 15 Oct. 2014
Period: 1 October 2013 – 30 September 2014
Principal Investigator:
Anne M. Thompson
Co-Is/Team Members:
Debra Kollonige, UMCP / ESSIC
R. Brad Pierce, NOAA / CIMSS
Russ Dickerson, UMCP
Daniel Jacob, Harvard Univ.
Gabi Pfister, NCAR
Dave Edwards, NCAR
Jana Milford, CU Boulder
Daven Henze, CU Boulder
Overall Objectives of the Tiger Team Proposal 1. Evaluate satellite products for Air Quality (AQ) applications specific to understanding trace
gas burdens near and downwind of four main regions with active US Oil & Natural Gas
(ONG) extraction sites.
2. Characterize impact of ONG emissions on regional AQ including Appalachian Basin (PA,
MD, OH, and WV), Williston Basin (ND), and UT-CO-WY Basins.
3. Support AQ model/emission inventory comparisons using our combined satellite and in-situ
datasets.
Accomplishments in Year 1:
1. Experiments/Campaigns:
a. A. Thompson:
i. Completed the 4th
NASA DISCOVER-AQ deployment with NATIVE in
Colorado July-August 2014. At the NOAA Platteville site, methane, VOCs,
and other trace gases were measured with meteorological variables.
ii. Shared near real time campaign data analysis and air quality updates during
DISCOVER-AQ Colorado through social media using in situ and satellite
observations. (ie. Twitter - @MDGatorTeam, blog -
http://mdgatorteam.blogspot.com/, etc.)
iii. Began analyzing regional methane and related trace gas variability at the
surface and in the lower troposphere during all four deployments of the NASA
DISCOVER-AQ campaign (Edgewood, MD [2011]; Porterville, CA [2013];
Smith Point, TX [2013]; Platteville, CO [2014] Figures 1a &1b).
b. R. Dickerson:
i. Began flights to measure CO2 and CH4 from urban areas and oil and natural
gas operations (Figures 2a &2b).
ii. Established Cooperative Agreement with NIST for measurement technology
of greenhouse gas flux entitled the “Flux of Atmospheric Greenhouse Gases
in Maryland: FLAGG-MD.”
iii. Implemented improved chemical mechanism in the EPA regulatory models
CMAQ and CAMx for the Maryland SIP and used initial and boundary
conditions provided by AQAST colleagues.
iv. Investigated the sources of methane, ethane, and other trace species associated
with oil/gas production using in situ and satellite observations. (Figure 3a &
Schneising et al [2014])
v. Summarized for publication the use of NASA data from DISCOVER-AQ –
published in the journal Environmental Management.
c. D. Edwards / G. Pfister:
i. Completed the successful NCAR/NSF FRAPPE campaign in collaboration
with the 4th
deployment of NASA’s DISCOVER-AQ July/August 2014.
ii. Provided link to rich dataset of trace gases to characterize emissions from
ONG on regional and local scales in Colorado (Figure 3b).
2. Modeling/Emissions:
a. B. Pierce:
i. Compared OMI BEHR NO2 and 2008 WRAP and 2011 NEI emission
inventories, which show reasonable (0.3-0.6) correlations for urban areas and
some ONG regions in the Western US.
1. OMI BEHR NO2 shows reasonable (0.3-0.6) correlations with
aggregated 2008 WRAP NO2 emissions for urban areas (Salt Lake
City, Phoenix, Denver/ Denver-Julesburg Basin) and some Western
US O&G regions (Uinta, Piceance Basins).
2. OMI BEHR NO2 shows reduced (0.3-0.4) correlations with
aggregated 2011 NEI NO emissions for Western urban areas (Salt
Lake City, Phoenix, Denver/ Denver-Julesburg Basin) only.
ii. Compared VIIRS DNB and 2011 NEI emissions, which show improved
(0.3-0.7) correlations for urban areas (Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Denver/
Denver-Julesburg Basin, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Atlanta) and some ONG
regions (Green River, Piceance, Permian, Barnett, Haynesville-Bossie North,
Eagle Ford).
iii. Performed preliminary July 2007 36km CMAQ oil and gas sensitivity studies
using LADCO base emissions plus WRAP oil and gas emissions that show
July 2007 mean surface ozone sensitivities up to 0.3 ppbv over Eastern Utah
associated primarily with up to 10ppbv increases in NOx emissions within the
San Juan Basin (Figure 4).
b. J. Milford / D. Henze:
i. Liason to the NSF Sustainable Research Network project, “Routes to
Sustainability for Natural Gas Development and Water and Air Resources in
the Rocky Mountain Region”, which is based at CU-Boulder.
ii. Co-organized the NSF AirWaterGas Workshop on Air Quality and Oil and
Gas Development in the Rocky Mountain Region, held in Boulder CO,
October 2013.
iii. Co-organized and chaired a session on Air Quality for the conference Water
and AQ Issues in Oil and Gas Development: The Evolving Framework of
Regulation and Management, sponsored by the Getches-Wilkinson Center for
Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment, in conjunction with the Air-
Water-Gas Sustainability Research Network held in Boulder CO, June 2013.
iv. Provided link to processed GIS data for ONG production and emissions in
western U.S. including CO, WY, UT, NM, and MT.
3. Satellite Analysis:
a. D. Kollonige:
i. Investigated case studies of methane leakage from ONG activities in the
Marcellus Shale region (PA) and the possible detection from satellite methane
observations during episodes. Meteorological situations (clouds, frontal
passages) contaminated daily/short-term satellite measurements.
ii. Comparing NASA DISCOVER-AQ P3B methane profiles with TES
retrievals, particularly the Representative Tropospheric Volume Mixing Ratio
(RTVMR) product, in the troposphere during deployments with available
satellite measurements (CA initially, which shows good correlation).
iii. Examined methane monthly time-series of states within focus regions for
2006-2011, which indicated different yearly variability between Eastern and
Western US states.
iv. Produced maps of RTVMR methane (Figure 5) and the anomalies
above/below background concentration from TES for 2006-2011 for the entire
U.S. Comparisons of 2006-2008 vs. 2009-2011 show the largest increase in
methane also corresponds to largest positive methane anomalies in the Greater
Green River Basin of Wyoming. The Appalachian Basin also had positive
methane anomalies during those time periods.
v. Beginning analysis of other trace gas from in situ (ie. DISCOVER-AQ
measurements) and satellite measurements to help with source attribution of
observed methane from TES.
b. B. Pierce:
i. Compared 2008 and 2011 OMI BEHR NO2 columns that show general
declines in mean and median NO2 columns within the WestJumpAQMS
urban NO2 columns. The Williston Basin in North Dakota shows decreases in
low NO2 columns and increases in high NO2 columns between 2008 and
2011.
ii. Determined the use of VIIRS DNB aggregated radiances to enhance OMI
NO2 spatial resolution shows promise and provides a means of generating
high resolution NO2 retrievals on a swath-by-swath basis that is suitable for
regional AQ model evaluation and data assimilation applications.
c. D. Jacob:
i. Analyzed GOSAT methane retrievals and detected sensitivity to multiple
ONG basins.
ii. Tested OMI HCHO oversampling for identification and quantification of
NMVOC emissions from ONG operations.
Plan for Year 2 of AQAST Tiger Team Renewal: See Proposal, submitted 15 Oct 2014
List of Meetings & Presentations Related to this Grant - Year 1:
Kollonige, D. E. and A. M. Thompson. Satellite-derived Signatures of Trace Gases from US.
Oil and Gas Operations. AGU Fall Meeting (oral presentation), Dec. 2013, San Francisco,
CA.
AQAST Science Team meeting presentations by: (1) Thompson & Kollonige- Jan 2014 in
Houston, TX and (2) Thompson, Kollonige, Pierce, Edwards, Dickerson, Wecht, and Zhu-
June 2014 in Cambridge, MA.
Pierce, R. B. and D. E. Kollonige, "Satellite Signatures of Trace Gases Associated with US
Oil and Gas Extraction", 2014 Midwest and Central States Air Quality Workshop, April 22-
24, 2014 St Louis, MO.
Edwards, D. and G. Pfister, “FRAPPÉ: The Front Range Air Pollution and Photochemistry
Éxperiment”, Air Quality and Oil & Gas Development in the Rocky Mountain Region
Workshop, October 2013, Boulder, CO.
Other presentations & outreach by Edwards/Pfister for FRAPPE include: talks to Colorado
Energy Coalition, Boulder Valley Rotary Club, & Boulder Frasier Meadows Retirement
Community, public open house, and educator workshops.
List of Publications Related to this Grant - Year 1:
Crawford, J. H., R. R. Dickerson, and J. C. Hains (2014), DISCOVER-AQ: Observations and early
results, Environ. Manag., September.
Flynn, C. M., et al. (2014), Relationship between column-density and surface mixing ratio:
Statistical analysis of O3 and NO2 data from the July 2011 Maryland DISCOVER-AQ mission,
Atmospheric Environment, 92, 429-441.
Goldberg, D. L., et al. (2014), Higher surface ozone concentrations over the Chesapeake Bay than
over the adjacent land: Observations and models from the DISCOVER-AQ and CBODAQ
campaigns, Atmospheric Environment, 84, 9-19.
He, H., et al. (2014), An elevated reservoir of air pollutants over the Mid-Atlantic States during the
2011 DISCOVER-AQ campaign: Airborne measurements and numerical simulations, Atmospheric
Environment, 85, 18-30.
Schneising, O., J. P. Burrows R. R. Dickerson, M. Buchwitz, M. Reuter, and H. Bovensmann
(2014), Remote sensing of fugitive methane emissions from oil and gas production in North
American tight geologic formations, DOI: 10.1002/2014EF000265, Earth's Future.
Vinciguerra, T., S. Ehrman, R.R. Dickerson et al., Regional Air Quality Impacts of Hydraulic
Fracturing and Natural Gas Activity: Evidence from Ambient VOC Observations, Atmos. Environ.,
submitted 2014.
Wecht, K.J., D.J. Jacob, C. Frankenberg, Z. Jiang, and D.R. Blake (2014), Mapping of North
America methane emissions with high spatial resolution by inversion of SCIAMACHY satellite
data, J. Geophys. Res., 119, 7741-7756.
Yang, K., et al. (2014), Advancing measurements of tropospheric NO2 from space: New algorithm
and first global results from OMPS, Geophysical Research Letters, 41(13), 4777-4786.
Zhu, L., D. J. Jacob, L. J. Mickley, E. A. Marais, D. S. Cohan, Y. Yoshida, B. N. Duncan, G.
González Abad K. V. Chan (2014), Anthropogenic emissions of highly reactive volatile organic
compounds in eastern Texas inferred from oversampling of satellite (OMI) measurements of HCHO
columns, submitted to Environ. Res. Lett. 2014.
Figure 1: (a) Preliminary DISCOVER-AQ Colorado P3B data showing CH4/CO ratios along a
flight on July 20, 2014 over Colorado. Higher ratios are generally found in Weld County
(northeast Colorado) where ONG activity is prominent. (b) Preliminary DISCOVER-AQ
Platteville ground site data also on July 20, 2014. High pulses of trace gases appear to be from
gas wellpad located southwest of the site. (Thompson/Kollonige)
Oil & Gas
Activities
Urban pollution (a)
(b)
Figure 2: (a) Preliminary data
from FLAGG-MD and
INFLUX campaign on 10/1/14
near Indianapolis, IN. Note
that when the aircraft were
flying at the same altitude the
concentrations are in close
agreement. (b) Preliminary data
from FLAGG-MD and
INFLUX campaign on 10/5/14.
Winds were out of the SW and
concentrations are higher
downwind. (Dickerson)
(a)
(b)
Figure 3: (a) From Vinciguera et al., 2014. The ratio of ethane to TNMOC observed at
Essex, MD is shown by box and whisker plots. In addition, the production rates from the
Marcellus shale in Pennsylvania and West Virginia are shown in green. A strong correlation
was observed with an r2 value of 0.82. (b) Preliminary FRAPPE C-130 measurements of
ethane in northeast Colorado, which give a distribution of a trace gas associated with ONG
extraction (Edwards/Pfister).
Ethane C-130 Measurements
(b) (a)
Figure 4: July 2007 monthly mean differences in surface ozone (ppbv) based on 36km CMAQ
simulations using LADCO base emissions with and without WRAP oil and gas emissions for
NOx (upper left), VOC (upper right), NOx+VOC (lower left). The July 2007 monthly mean
differences in NOx (ppbv) due to oil and gas emissions are shown in the lower right panel
(Pierce).
Figure 5: Tropospheric
Emission Spectrometer
(TES) RTVMR mean
methane (in ppbv) for the
time periods of 2006-2008
and 2009-2011. Regions of
research focus with ONG
activity are enclosed with
red boxes and US. Basins
within are marked in gray
contours and numbered. List
of US. Basins includes: 1-
Williston Basin, 2- Green
River Basin, 3- Denver
Basin, 4- San Juan Basin, 5-
Appalachian Basin, 6-
Powder River Basin, 7-
Uinta Basin, and 8- Ft.
Worth Basin. (Kollonige)
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