Project Vulcan is a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

/ DOE funded effort under the North American Carbon Program (NACP) to quantify North American fossil fuel

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

(CO₂)

emissions Emission may refer to: Chemical products * Emission of air pollutants, notably: ** Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue ** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion ** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit rad ...

at space/time scales much finer than has been achieved in the past. The initial purpose of the Vulcan Project was to aid in quantification of the North American

carbon budget A carbon budget is a concept used in politics of climate change to help set greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets in a fair and effective way. It examines the "maximum amount of cumulative net global anthropogenic carbon dioxide () emission ...

, to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and

sinks A sink (also known as ''basin'' in the UK) is a bowl-shaped plumbing fixture for washing hands, dishwashing, and other purposes. Sinks have a tap (faucet) that supplies hot and cold water and may include a spray feature to be used for faste ...

, and to support the demands posed by higher resolution CO₂ observations. The detail and scope of the Vulcan CO₂ inventory has now made it a valuable tool for policymakers, demographers, social scientists and the public at large. Project Vulcan has achieved U.S. fossil fuel CO₂ emissions at <10 km spatial scales and an hourly time scale, based on datasets such as air quality emissions reporting, census data, highway statistics, energy statistics, and econometric data. Furthermore, Vulcan includes significant process-level detail, dividing the emissions into economic sectors and sub-sectors in addition to 23 fuel types. It has been produced for the year 2002, and an annual product spanning 1980-2006 will be available by late-2009. The first Vulcan inventory (v1.0) was released to the public in early April 2008. Version 1.1 was released in February 2009, and Version 1.2 is due out in early August 2009. In addition to the data release, establishment of the Vulcan website and a press release, a video of various aspects of atmospheric transport was released on

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

’s

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

website and portions of the Vulcan inventory are available on

Google Earth Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...

. As of 2015, version 2.2 has been published on a site hosted by

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

References

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External links

Project VulcanVulcan emissions/transport simulationVulcan Google Earth flyoverDr. Gurney's Google Tech Talk on Carbon emissions quantification
Climate change in Canada Climate change in the United States Greenhouse gas inventories NASA programs United States Department of Energy

See also

References

External links