Constraining black carbon emission inventories with observations
type: CreativeWork
description: Black carbon (BC) is a tiny particle in the atmosphere that plays an important role in affecting the Earth’s energy balance. It can absorb solar radiation, interact with clouds, and reduce the albedo of snow. More accurate quantification of the long-term climatic influence of BC requires estimates of its emissions over time. This dissertation improves the long-term estimation of historical BC emissions by applying observational constraints and provides more accurate and comprehensive emission information for modeling studies. This work develops a method to constrain the historical BC emission inventory for the U.S. from 1960 to 2000 based top-down constraints (ambient observations) and bottom-up constraints (emission measurements). Measurements of BC concentration in California and New Jersey are compared with predicted concentration trends for 1960 to 2000. Based on seasonal and weekly patterns in observations, discrepancies between observations and predicted concentrations are attributed to particular sources, indicating needed adjustment in the emission factors. Then, emission measurements further substantiate these adjustments for the identified sources. In addition, this work also investigates other possible sources for discrepancy between model and measurement, including bias in modeled meteorology, model resolution, and inconsistencies in reported fuel consumption, which were not addressed in previous emission constraining studies. Overall, the method built in this work helps improve the historical BC emission inventory and the discrepancy analysis provides better quantification of the biases in model-measurement comparison. Observational constraints indicate emission factor changes in vehicle, industry and residential sectors. Emission factors for pre-regulation vehicles increase by 80% to 250% compared to the previous inventory, and emission factors for residential heating stoves and boilers increase by 70% to 200% for 1980s and before. In addition, new tec…
abstract: Black carbon (BC) is a tiny particle in the atmosphere that plays an important role in affecting the Earth’s energy balance. It can absorb solar radiation, interact with clouds, and reduce the albedo of snow. More accurate quantification of the long-term climatic influence of BC requires estimates of its emissions over time. This dissertation improves the long-term estimation of historical BC emissions by applying observational constraints and provides more accurate and comprehensive emission information for modeling studies. This work develops a method to constrain the historical BC emission inventory for the U.S. from 1960 to 2000 based top-down constraints (ambient observations) and bottom-up constraints (emission measurements). Measurements of BC concentration in California and New Jersey are compared with predicted concentration trends for 1960 to 2000. Based on seasonal and weekly patterns in observations, discrepancies between observations and predicted concentrations are attributed to particular sources, indicating needed adjustment in the emission factors. Then, emission measurements further substantiate these adjustments for the identified sources. In addition, this work also investigates other possible sources for discrepancy between model and measurement, including bias in modeled meteorology, model resolution, and inconsistencies in reported fuel consumption, which were not addressed in previous emission constraining studies. Overall, the method built in this work helps improve the historical BC emission inventory and the discrepancy analysis provides better quantification of the biases in model-measurement comparison. Observational constraints indicate emission factor changes in vehicle, industry and residential sectors. Emission factors for pre-regulation vehicles increase by 80% to 250% compared to the previous inventory, and emission factors for residential heating stoves and boilers increase by 70% to 200% for 1980s and before. In addition, new tec…
author: Sun, Tianye
language: en
keywords: Black Carbon, Emission Inventory, Observations, Climate Change, Diesel Engine, Coal Combustion, Model Resolution
date published: 2020-03-02T22:28:42Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:47Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106417