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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