FFDAS: Correctly Estimating Greenhouse Gas

FFDAS: Correctly Estimating Greenhouse Gas

Climate science has always been derided by the fossil fuel lobbyists. Unfortunately the attitude of the general public is no better many times. Consider the fuss that was made when Al Gore was proved wrong after citing a climate science report that did not translate into reality. While no scientific report can be 100% accurate when it comes to the ever changing climate (or at least that is what one would think so far), this may be about to change as well.

To cite a recent media report, a system “globally consistent, independent emissions assessments” are needed rather than self reporting, errors and lack of empirical verification. While climate change research is still at a nascent state compared to its more advanced brethren, researchers are constantly trying to find new and more accurate ways to measure greenhouse gas emissions and assess the impact of climate change more correctly.

Keeping this in mind, researchers are developing the FFDAS or the Fossil Fuel Data Assimilation System which is going to estimate carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel in an accurate manner. The scientists have quantified 15 years of carbon dioxide emissions to calibrate this for every hour and for earth down to the city scale. This is also set to replace less reliable scales for measuring greenhouse gas emissions.

FFDAS uses information from diverse sources namely satellite feeds, national fuel accounts and a new international database on power plants to create high resolution planetary amps. Such maps provide reliable and precise (and most importantly) independent assessments of the greenhouse gas emissions on earth. This will be data which common man can comprehend and policy makers can use.

Just because climate science is developing does not mean greenhouse gas emissions are not lethal. In fact, the less of them we have, the better it will be for human health and welfare. Many nations have embarked on clean energy programmes in a bid to counter the adverse impact of burning fossil fuels.

The research team led by Kevin Robert Gurney who is associate professor at the Arizona State University have used space based nightime lights which is a new population database. They have also used national statistics on fuel use and a global data base on power plants to arrive at advanced CO2 maps broken down by categories such as year, region and hour.

"With this system, we are taking a big step toward creating a global monitoring system for greenhouse gases, something that is needed as the world considers how best to meet greenhouse gas reductions," Gurney has been qupted as saying adding "Now we can provide all countries with detailed information about their CO2 emissions and show that independent, scientific monitoring of greenhouse gases is possible."

"The accuracy of the FFDAS results is confirmed by independent, ground-based data in the United States," according to Salvi Asefi-Najafabady, lead author of the report and postdoctoral researcher at ASU as quoted by media reports. "This makes us confident that the system is working well and can provide useable, policy-salient information." New initiatives by countries such as South Korea to counter GHG emissions is also a welcome move. Research and policy along with the industry must combine to combat rising GHG emissions. Initiatives in the area of clean energy will have a lot of profits and benefits at the same time which is a win-win situation.