Methane Emissions Show Recent Decline but Strong Seasonality in Two US Northeastern Cities.

ABSTRACT: Urban methane emissions estimated using atmospheric observations have been found to exceed estimates derived by using traditional inventory methods in several northeastern US cities. In this work, we leveraged a nearly five-year record of observations from a dense tower network coupled with a newly developed high-resolution emissions map to quantify methane emission rates in Washington, DC, and Baltimore, Maryland. Annual emissions averaged over 2018-2021 were 80.1 [95% CI: 61.2, 98.9] Gg in the Washington, DC urban area and 47.4 [95% CI: 35.9, 58.5] Gg in the Baltimore urban area, with a decreasing trend of approximately 4-5% per year in both cities. We also find wintertime emissions 44% higher than summertime emissions, correlating with natural gas consumption. We further attribute a lar

SUBMITTER: Karion A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10702491 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature