Satellite Signatures of Trace Gases Associated with US Oil and Gas Extraction

Transcription

1 AQAST Tiger Team Progress Report Satellite Signatures of Trace Gases Associated with US Oil and Gas Extraction Prepared 15 Oct Period: 1 October 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

2 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 4 th NASA DISCOVER-AQ deployment with NATIVE in Colorado July-August 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 blog - 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 CO 2 and CH 4 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 4 th deployment of NASA s DISCOVER-AQ July/August 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 ( ) correlations for urban areas and some ONG regions in the Western US.

3 1. OMI BEHR NO2 shows reasonable ( ) 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 ( ) 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 ( ) 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 km 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 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 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 , 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 for the entire

4 U.S. Comparisons of vs 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 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

5 results, Environ. Manag., September. Flynn, C. M., et al. (2014), Relationship between column-density and surface mixing ratio: Statistical analysis of O 3 and NO 2 data from the July 2011 Maryland DISCOVER-AQ mission, Atmospheric Environment, 92, 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, 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, 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: /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 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, Yang, K., et al. (2014), Advancing measurements of tropospheric NO 2 from space: New algorithm and first global results from OMPS, Geophysical Research Letters, 41(13), 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

6 Oil & Gas Activities (a) Urban pollution (b) 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, High pulses of trace gases appear to be from gas wellpad located southwest of the site. (Thompson/Kollonige)

7 (a) 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) (b)

8 Ethane C-130 Measurements (a) (b) Figure 3: (a) From Vinciguera et al., 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 r 2 value of (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).

9 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).

10 Figure 5: Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) RTVMR mean methane (in ppbv) for the time periods of and 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)