Reducing CH4 and fossil fuel CO2 emissions remains a top climate mitigation priority for stakeholders around the world. States such as california have committed to ambitious GHG stabilization targets.…

This $181,953 federal grant award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the University of Utah's Office of Sponsored Projects Division is for a research project titled "Reducing CH4 and Fossil Fuel CO2 Emissions". The grant aims to leverage emerging airborne and satellite remote sensing capabilities to provide trusted, timely, and spatially-relevant data and analytics on methane and carbon dioxide emissions at the facility scale. This data is intended to inform policy and mitigation efforts related to greenhouse gas emissions, particularly in regions like California that have set ambitious emissions reduction targets. The award does not utilize a set-aside designation. The University of Utah is a major recipient of federal research funding, with a broad portfolio of contract and grant awards from agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Department of Energy, among others.

Reducing CH4 and fossil fuel CO2 emissions remains a top climate mitigation priority for stakeholders around the world. States such as california have committed to ambitious GHG stabilization targets. State agencies such as the california air resources board (carb) are strongly motivated to verify emissions and inform policy formulation at the scale of major emitting regions, air basins and cities. Additionally, private companies such as chevron have expressed interest in better facility-scale emissions data to reduce their greenhouse gas footprints and product loss. Meanwhile several foundations such as the rocky mountain institute (RMI) are working to establish trusted climate data initiatives through public-private partnerships. A common feature of these interests is a focus on facility-scale point source emitters and their contribution to local emission budgets to prioritize mitigation efforts. A common challenge is that CH4 and CO2 emissions data at those spatial scales is currently sparse, inaccurate or non-existent. There is an urgent need to provide CH4 and CO2 data and analytics that are trusted, timely and at spatial scales relevant to decision making. A tiered observational strategy and integrated data analysis framework have the potential to leverage emerging and planned airborne and satellite remote sensing capabilities to address these challenges and stakeholder needs (ultimately in key regions globally).