A new atmospheric super-site to evaluate London’s greenhouse gas emissions

Cities and regions are increasingly setting the agenda on greenhouse gas emissions reduction. A prime example is London, a key member of the “C40” group of cities (www.c40.org), which has set the ambitious target to reduce CO2 emissions by 60% by 2025. For such targets to be credible, a clear verification strategy must be developed. However, at present, progress is monitored solely via “bottom-up” reporting, which relies on statistics of economic activity, and factors that describe the emissions intensity of potential sources. The UK is now paving the way towards national-scale “top-down” emissions evaluation, using atmospheric measurements. The Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) funds a world-leading network of greenhouse gas measurements (the Deriving Emissions Related to Climate Change, DECC, network), run by the University of Bristol, which are used to estimate the UK’s emissions using atmospheric chemical transport models in collaboration with the Met Office. To date, the network has been successful at constraining emissions of non-CO2 gases at the national scale. However, estimates of flux at the urban scale remain challenging, particularly for CO2, which has a diverse range of natural and anthropogenic sources.

Aims and Methods
You will use a combination of space- and ground-based observations of greenhouse gases and other tracers to develop an emissions evaluation strategy, focused on the South-East of England. Data sources will include: a) A new “whole atmosphere” monitoring station at Heathfield, to the south of London; b) The OCO-2 satellite, which measures CO2 from space; c) High-precision measurement of greenhouse gases and ozone depleting substances from the DECC-network. The Heathfield site is a 200m telecommunications tower with a gas monitoring laboratory run by NPL. The site already contains state-of-the-art greenhouse gas measurement instrumentation, and you will help to install and characterise a new suite of sensors for measuring other atmospheric constituents.

The major challenge for inferring London’s carbon budget from atmospheric concentration data is that CO2 is emitted from both the natural and anthropogenic sectors. We will explore new sources of information by combining in situ and remotely sensed data, and the use of “ancilliary tracers” that the whole-atmosphere site will provide. The new methods will move us toward the evaluation of London’s CO2 inventory at the source-sector level, information that is of vital importance to the BEIS and the Greater London Authority.

Candidate
The project would suit a student with a first degree in physical sciences and a desire to develop a range new skills (field, lab and modelling). The project does not require a background in Chemistry.

Case Award
The student will spend a minimum of 3 months at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) over the duration of the project. The CASE supervisor, Dr. Tim Arnold will hold meetings with the supervisory team every two weeks, and will visit Bristol on a quarterly basis.

Training
The student will receive training in atmospheric lab and field measurements and modelling methods from ACRG staff, NPL, the Met Office and international partners (e.g. MIT). The student will benefit from world-leading metrology expertise at NPL during their training in atmospheric measurement there. The student will join several on-going international collaborations, including the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE), of which the ACRG is a key member. It is envisaged that the student will spend at least two weeks working with AGAGE collaborators (e.g. MIT or the Scripps Institution of Oceanography) to facilitate knowledge sharing in measurement techniques inverse methods. The student will participate in at least one field visit to a UK DECC network monitoring site and an AGAGE station (e.g. in Barbados, Svalbard, California, Ireland, etc.) to learn about trace gas measurements.

More information on the application process can be found here: http://nercgw4plus.ac.uk/research-themes/prospective-students/