A flavour of the International Summer School on Greenhouse Gases

Words and photos by Stephan Matthiesen

Twenty three early career researchers from 8 countries learned about all aspects of greenhouse gas research in the DARE-UK & CLASS International Summer School on Greenhouse Gases, which we organised at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton on 10-16 July 2022. The interdisciplinary one-week class with a mixture of lectures, exercises and excursions introduced key greenhouse gases and the processes that govern their dynamics in the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere as well as important measurement techniques.

The Summer School was held at the National Oceanography in Southampton.

Originally planned for 2020 and delayed twice due to the Covid pandemic, this summer school was a long-awaited opportunity for many of the participants to meet fellow early career researchers from other countries for the first time. The general enthusiasm was already noticeable when everybody arrived on Sunday, and soon a lively atmosphere developed with intense chats and plans for social activities in the evenings. The programme in Sunday afternoon started with an opportunity for all students to introduce their own research in fast-paced two-minute presentations. In an overview lecture, Andrew Watson (University of Exeter) drew on his extensive knowledge and experience to provide unique insights into the challenges facing the research on greenhouse gases.

Monday was focussed on the terrestrial biosphere, lead by Nick Cowan (CEH Edinburgh). Nick explained the role of greenhouse gases in ecosystems, including the non-CO2 species (methane and nitrous oxide) which are particularly relevant in the biosphere. Besides lectures, he demonstrated the use of flux chambers in one of the gardens of the NOC, and in a practical computing exercises the students gained experience analysing sample data from an eddy covariance system. In the evening, the eagerness of the participants for social interaction meant that a pub visit was quickly organised, and we sampled many local drinks while chatting about life and work in different countries.

Nick Cowan demonstrating flux chambers for measuring GHG fluxes from the ground.

The next morning, Mark Lunt (University of Edinburgh) introduced the students to atmospheric modelling of greenhouse gases with lectures and computer practicals, and in the afternoon Neil Humpage (University of Leicester) also used lectures and computer exercises to show students how satellite observations can monitor greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

A visit to the Heathfield tall tower in East Sussex.

Wednesday was excursion day. We drove to Mayfield, a picturesque village in East Sussex, and spent the day (including a very tasty dinner) in the Middle House, an oak-beamed pub built in Tudor times in the 16th century. Of course, the purpose of the visit was not touristic (although there was time to explore the village during coffee breaks): Students visited the nearby Heathfield tall tower in small groups and learned about the instrumentation for monitoring greenhouse gases, and a team from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) had set up various activities and exercises in the pub. One particularly exciting experiment was a GHG camera, an infrared camera with specific filters for the emission wavelengths of carbon dioxide and methane, used e.g. for imaging leaks in gas installations. While some had heard of such cameras before, few had seen them in action, and it was fun actually being able to see the clouds of carbon dioxide that billow up from the mouth when you breathe.

 

Old and new: Discussing inverse modelling of GHGs in the historic Middle House in Mayfield.

The next day (Thursday) we were back in Southampton with a number of lectures by various speakers from NOC on marine greenhouse gases, marine biogeochemistry and air-sea CO2 fluxes. Ian Folger (NOC) also gave a tour of the sediment core archive and the marine robotics facilities at NOC. The other big topic for this day was policy, including a workshop-type activity, led by Chris Pearce (NOC), in which participants were asked to evaluate the implications of various proposed methods of geoengineering. Practical hands-on experience of taking and analysing marine water samples during a boat trip out into the Solent was the focus on Friday, organised by Peter Brown (NOC).

A view from the NOC cafe, research vessel James Cook docked at NOC Southampton.

On the last half day (Saturday morning), the students discussed take-home messages from the school. In small groups, they were given a number of questions to focus on, for example, which insights they gained at the school and which knowledge gaps should be addressed by future research. One question (one that is perhaps not asked often enough) was about barriers to research: what factors make your research or your life as researcher unnecessarily difficult? Participants  a range of practical issues (e.g. funding and ressources) as well as more systemic issues like unsocial working practices and lack of support structures in academia.

On Friday Niskin bottles were used to take water samples from various depths in the Solent so that they can be analysed.

A particular strength of the summer school was the cross-disciplinary approach covering all the different domains (ocean, atmosphere and biosphere). While it is not possible within one short week to adress any topic in great technical detail, there is a clear need for such courses that give a broad overview over the whole research area. Indeed, most of the participants’ own projects don’t fall neatly into one of the traditional disciplines, so the opportunity to learn about the wider picture and interact with like-minded researchers in neighbouring fields was much appreciated.

There is a clear need for more training courses of the scope and level of this summer school. This year’s school was based on similar summer schools in 2015, 2016 und 2017, originally organised as part of the NERC Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Feedback Programme. In each year, we had more applications than places, and it was often hard not being able to offer places to more students who would have benefitted greatly. Therefore, we hope to organise similar summer schools in future.

The Summer School was organised by Peter Brown, Ian Folger, Aoife Grant and Stephan Matthiesen. It was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council as part of the DARE-UK project, and CLASS (Climate-Linked Atlantic Sector Science) project. DARE-UK is a NERC highlight topic NE/S004211/1, CLASS is a NERC National Capability programme (https://projects.noc.ac.uk/class-project/, NE/R015953/1). Additional support is provided by the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.

Future of greenhouse gas monitoring & verification

At the DARE-UK Annual Meeting 2022 we had a discussion on the best path for the future of greenhouse gas monitoring and verification. A summary of the discussion, which took place focussed on five specific areas, operational evaluations, stakeholder needs, measurements, inverse modeling and bottom-up modelling. Full details are below or a pdf document of the discussion can be downloaded.

1. Operational emissions evaluation

What is needed to develop an operational emissions evaluation system for the UK?

a. Who would be the customers?

  • ONS
  • Government/Policy makers: DEFRA/BEIS
  • Other scientists
  • Industry/businesses/energy providers
  • Public
  • IPCC
  • Local authorities who make own net zero goals/decisions

b. What equipment, infrastructure, and services would be required?

Infrastructure: New measurement sites are needed, likely in the north of England/Wales/Scotland/N. Ireland. However, sensitivity analysis is needed to determine an optimal configuration and number of sites required. There will be diminishing returns as new data are added, but the feeling is that we are far from data saturation.

Number of new sites will depend on the resolution and type of deliverable being aimed for (e.g., sector-level emissions). Mobile systems may help to test if and how valuable a new site would be if it was established permanently.

Services: A new, more responsive system may be needed to update emission factors, etc. in the inventory. It was noted that the inventory needs to comply with IPCC guidelines, so there may need to be different approaches for reporting versus “best estimate” emissions. To achieve this, closer coordination will be needed between inventory and “top-down” teams. A wider range of activity data need to be included to provide more accurate estimates and help with higher temporal/spatial resolution.

It was noted that NISC already discusses improvements based on top-down information. A pre-meeting is needed to discuss developments in advance of the NISC.

c. What would you deliver?

  • Near real-time (sub-annual) emission estimates are a priority.
  • Robust uncertainties are needed, as are sector-level estimates, and estimates of emission factors.
  • Estimates need to be disseminated to UNFCCC separately from other stakeholders.

2. Stakeholder needs and monitoring transition to net-zero

a.What stakeholders would be interested in top-down estimates?

  • Regulators
  • Policy makers
  • NGO’s / UNFCCC
  • Companies with emission reporting duties
  • Academic community
  • Carbon accounting and carbon finance initiatives
  • Governments / EU commission

b. What are their requirements?

  • Need for methodology verification / certification
  • Result reporting transferability / standardisation
  • Verifiable baseline to allow measurement of progress and performance. Critical for measures such as carbon pricing for methane or requirements for climate responsible financing.
  • Methodologies need to be appropriate for the purpose. i.e. costs for multinational oil and gas companies will be different to reporting requirements for single farm.
  • Methods need to be developed for all scales, be easy to follow and understand, be robust and cost appropriate. E.g., For the farming community, it would need to be an emission factor-based system rather than regular costly measurement program

Questions were raised on where the onus of emission reporting will ultimately fall. Will programmes such as the Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (https://www.ccacoalition.org/en/resources/oil-and-gas-methane-partnership-ogmp-20-framework) be made compulsory in the near future? Can the academic community become part of the independent verification system?

c. As we transition to net zero how do emissions estimation systems (inventory and top-down) need to change as national GHG emissions profiles change?

  • Systems need to be agile and responsive with near real-time data outputs.
  • Requirement to consider global equity and global integration – e.g. the need for Australia to continue mining for global needs, but emissions can’t only count for Australia.
  • Requirements for offsetting and net negative for some countries.
  • Inclusion of new gases as required, especially important for consideration of hydrogen economy.

3. Measurements

What are the priorities for UK measurement infrastructure in the next 5 years?

a. Are there measurement systems that are “missing” from the UK at present?

b. Are there techniques from DARE-UK or other projects that should be more widely rolled out?

  • Remote Sensors – Bring in commercial satellite, use to pick out point sources that would not be picked up by measurement towers.
  • Offshore oil and gas: Priority for BEIS. Large albedo would make this challenging for remote sensing. Could be a place for future high-res. Instruments.
  • Long term Measurements: Sector-specific measurements are a priority. Need to tailor measurements to answer inventory specific challenges. Biogenic fluxes are a challenge due to variability. Need more autonomy than currently available at Arqiva sites.
  • Isotope measurements: Still need to determine added value. Needs to be co-located with other long-term measurements. Background needs characterizing over longer timescales. Scalable?
  • DOPLAR-LIDAR measurements: Needed to better understanding of the physics of the atmosphere. Can be used to check how well models are performing. Need more meteorological measurements co-located with GHG observations.

4. Inverse modelling

How could top-down modelling systems be improved (Excluding more measurements)?

  1. What are the current limitations?
  2. How could these be overcome?
  • Important to develop methods of evaluating transport model performance. Deliberate release tracer experiments are now very old and based on short campaigns. Trial halocarbon tracer release recently attempted in the Netherlands: DARE-UK team will follow up and determine whether possible in the UK. Tracers of opportunity should be investigated, e.g., xenon from hospitals?
  • Use high resolution models – temporal resolution has not kept up with spatial resolution
  • Spatial resolution depends on surface cover, resolution of processes
  • Use of weather model ensembles, different models of transport, city flows even more detailed, Met Office 100m model
  • Boundary layer venting improvements to NAME, vertical resolution, exploring alternative input variables to NAME to make UM and NAME more consistent. Is the representation of stable boundary layers correct?
  • Improved turbulence data/representation in models.
  • Using different models, different met data, ensembles to capture transport uncertainty
  • Sector-based estimates, but under-constrained and potentially biased. Perhaps for large, national-level regions.
  • Use of co-emitted tracers needed to separate sectors and natural vs anthropogenic

5. Bottom-Up modelling

What improvements are needed for bottom-up models and inventory systems?

  • A priority is access to better spatial (sub-SNAP) data – underlying data is not open for general use at present
  • Measurements and Emission factors – targeted measurements needed of key sources
  • Spatial maps of where carbon is located to account for the carbon in the longer term. No long-term measurements of carbon stock at present.
  • Better understanding of sectors and uncertainties. CH4 in freshwater systems might be overestimated (on the global scale) – drone measurements (bag sampling?).
  • Uncertainties need to be propagated all the way through from the activity data. This uncertainty is not required for stakeholders but is required for scientific use.
  • High resolution maps for city scale modelling. Digital-twinning – down to household resolution. E.g. Hestia in the USA.
  • What is going on in our Peatlands – this is a BEIS priority area. Inventory has included some wetland fluxes (speculative). Carbon sink – net warming – depends on time horizons – it is a balance.
  • Ventilation from caves – CO2 acts as a carrier for Rn (for example) – what about old coal mines?
  • Project based things are going on – bottom-up work going on at Aberdeen
  • Industrial sources are important but getting hold of information is tricky due to confidentiality issues
  • New ideas should be fed through to NISC to help them prioritise improvements.
  • DUKEMS (UK-EMS) historical and forecast data, continuously updated, temporal profile information can be used. All gases and all sectors going back to 2005.
  • Can request activity data from BEIS
  • UK is accepted as world leading from external sources.

Annual Meeting – Open Invite

DARE-UK Annual Meeting Registration open – closing date 25th of July, 2022

This two day Annual Meeting (7th-8th September) at Imperial College London will bring together research activities from the first three years of the DARE-UK project, there will also be external speakers from government and the wider UK greenhouse gas community as well as a discussion session gathering ideas on the best route forward for emissions verification.

7th Sept. | 9am arrival | 10am start | 5:30 pm end
8th Sept. | 8:30am arrival | 9am start | 3:30pm end

Newsletter

Stay up to date with the latest DARE-UK publications in our July 2022 Newsletter – Refinement in Carbon Budget Estimation and using ethane to track methane

COP26 and DARE-UK

Many of us contributed to COP26, sharing our work in poster sessions, seminars and panel discussions as well as carrying out a Glasgow- focussed measurement campaign ahead of and during COP26 Glasgow, November 2021.

Below is a brief summary of our COP26 activities with links to talks and posters.

  • Matt Rigby presented a poster at the ‘Blue Zones’ Earth Information Day entitled ‘UK greenhouse gas emissions evaluated using atmospheric observations.

  • At the WMO session on IG3IS (Integrated Greenhouse Information System), Alistair Manning, lead on integration in DARE-UK, spoke on promoting the use of atmospheric observations to help quantify emissions from point sources on city, national and global scales. The series of talks and discussion was chaired by Oksana Tarasova (Lead of GAW, WMO) and also included talks by Phil DeCola, Riley Duren and Jocelyn Turnbull. Watch the recording of the session here. Alistair Manning’s talk appears at 1 hour 6 mins.                          

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • DARE-UK and NPL hosted a Seminar and Panel Discussion – ‘What role does measurement play in climate action?’ as part of the COP26 Innovation Showcase event: 

    Delegates joined the event from a wide range of sectors including policy, academia and industry. After introductions from Matt Rigby, who chaired the event, Tim Arnold gave the opening talk. Tim highlighted the importance of greenhouse gas (GHG) measurements in climate policy and the delay in climate action that would have occurred had those early measurements not been made.

    Live polling was used to inform the speakers and engage the audience
    Participants were asked what major activities contributes to GHG emissions in the UK

    Four PhD student talks followed, opening with Alice Drinkwater who shared research on global methane changes over time; underscoring the large global increase of methane in 2020. Eric Saboya presented methane measurements and simulations that indicated under-reported fossil gas leaks in central London (image below). Julianne Fernandez talked on how lots of small fossil gas leaks of methane were found using mobile measurements across London. Finally, Thomas Eldridge showed how early satellite measurements could be used to make climate models more precise.

    Eric Saboya described how methane isotopes can be used to identify its sources

    A live tour of the one of the DARE-UK measurement sites was then given by Chris Rennick who showed off instruments used for atmospheric measurements. Rebecca Fisher narrated a video of equipment used for mobile methane measurements and shared findings from campaigns in Glasgow and London.

    Attendees then had the opportunity to ask our experts in academia and industry questions on GHGs and climate change in a panel discussion chaired by Matt. Alistair Manning (Met Office), Anita Ganesan (University of Bristol), John Watterson (Ricardo), Julianne Fernandez (Royal Holloway), Maryam Pourshami (Airbus), and Tim Arnold (NPL/University of Edinburgh) pictured below, shared their experiences working with policy makers, forming industry and public sector partnerships. We learnt more about the different career paths taken by the panel members and heard lots about the promising future of GHG measurements.

    Panel Discussion chaired by Matt Rigby (University of Bristol) with Alistair Manning (Met Office), Anita Ganesan (University of Bristol), John Watterson (Ricardo), Julianne Fernandez (Royal Holloway), Maryam Pourshami (Airbus not pictured), and Tim Arnold (NPL/University of Edinburgh)

DARE-UK International Summer School – 2022

DARE-UK & CLASS International Summer School on Global Greenhouse Gases

10 – 16 July 2022 National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK

Applications Closed

This intensive 1-week course is aimed at PhD students and post-doctoral researchers in the natural sciences who want to develop a solid understanding of the role of key greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the Earth system and the processes that govern their dynamics in the atmosphere, ocean and biosphere.

A previous summer school water sampling aboard the Calista research vessel in the Solent.

The residential course for 25 participants will be based at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton and comprises a combination of lectures, practical exercise, seminars and field/lab work. Organised by international experts in oceanography, atmospheric science and terrestrial biogeochemistry, the course will provide:

  • theoretical background on the role of greenhouse gases in the Earth System
  • field excursions and practical demonstrations in how to measure and model fluxes
  • interaction with leading experts in the field
  • the opportunity to network with other early-career scientists with similar interests.

Topics will include:

  • Greenhouse gases in ocean, atmosphere and biosphere
  • Instrumentation for measuring greenhouse gases: theory and practice
  • Process modelling of greenhouse gas fluxes
  • Satellite observations of greenhouse gases
Computational methods in greenhouse gas modelling will be put into practice.

Staff will be drawn from various institutions, including researchers from the Universities of Bristol, Exeter, Leicester and others, and UK research centres including the National Oceanography Centre, National Physical Laboratory and others.

All participants will be expected to present a poster on their research during the summer school.

The course will run from Sunday, 10th July, to Saturday, 16th July 2022.

Cost

There is a course fee of £375, payable before the course.

This (heavily subsidised) course fee includes all accommodation, meals and field trips during the summer school. Accommodation is in single ensuite rooms.

How to apply

Applications now closed. Places are limited to 25; we will allocate places based on the information you provide in the application form. We will inform you in March 2022 whether you have been accepted.

The course is open to all PhD students and early career scientists, both from the UK and other countries.

Contact

If you have any questions about the summer school or the application process, please contact Stephan Matthiesen (info@stephan-matthiesen.de).

Acknowledgement

The Summer School is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council as part of the DARE-UK project, and CLASS (Climate-Linked Atlantic Sector Science) project. DARE-UK is a NERC highlight topic NE/S004211/1, CLASS is a NERC National Capability programme (https://projects.noc.ac.uk/class-project/, NE/R015953/1). Additional support is provided by the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.

Full Seminar Series available to watch now

We are delighted to share that you can watch external and DARE-UK experts talk about their specialist areas from our Seminar series which took place over 2021:

Carbon Dioxide Inverse Modelling, Mark Lunt (U. Edin) & Ingrid Super (TNO)

Methane Isotopes, Emma Safi (NPL & U Edin) & Natasha Miles (Penn State Uni.)

Anthropogenic Fluxes and Inventories, Pete Levy (CEH) & Hugo Denier (TNO)

Terrestrial Carbon Cycle Modeling, Luke Smallman (U of Edin.) & Silvia Caldararu (MPI Jena)

Radon measurements and modeling, Ute Karstens (Lund Uni.)

Nitrous Oxide from agriculture and the north Western European shelf, Tom Misslebrook (Rothamsted) and Yuri Artioli (Plymouth Marine Laboratory)

DARE UK YouTube Channel

Check out the new ‘DARE UK’ YouTube Channel. You’ll find:

DARE-UK International Summer School – July 2021

DARE-UK International Summer School on Global Greenhouse Gases

Summer School Postponed until July, 2022

The summer school will not be held this year due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. It is expected that the crisis will affect the UK, Europe and the World for at least several months with associated restrictions on events and travelling.

We are planning to run the school in 2021 around the same time of the year (mid-July) with a similar programme, so please check back in the following weeks and months for updates.

We apologise to everybody who was looking forward to this learning opportunity and hope you will be able to apply next year.

In the meantime, please follow current advice from the medical authorities and your own institution to keep yourself save and help other, more vulnerable people manage this crisis.

National Oceanography Center (NOC), Southampton, UK

This intensive 1-week course is aimed at PhD students and post-doctoral researchers in the natural sciences who want to develop a solid understanding of the role of key greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the Earth system and the processes that govern their dynamics in the atmosphere, ocean and biosphere.

A field trip to a forestry research site will form one of the practical days in the week long summer school.

The residential course for 20-25 participants will be based at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton and comprises a combination of lectures, practical exercise, seminars and field/lab work. Organised by international experts in oceanography, atmospheric science and terrestrial biogeochemistry, the course will provide:

  • theoretical background on the role of greenhouse gases in the Earth System
  • field excursions and practical demonstrations in how to measure and model fluxes
  • interaction with leading experts in the field
  • the opportunity to network with other early-career scientists with similar interests.
A previous summer school water sampling aboard the Calista research vessel in the Solent. This will form another of the field trips during the week.

Topics will include:

  • Greenhouse gases in ocean, atmosphere and biosphere, with a focus on carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O)
  • Instrumentation for measuring GHGs: theory and practice
  • Process modelling of GHG fluxes
  • Satellite observations of GHGs
  • Measuring and up-scaling fluxes in the terrestrial biosphere

Staff will be drawn from various institutions, including researchers from the Universities of Bristol, University of Exeter and others, and UK research centres including National Oceanography Centre (NOC), Forestry Research (FR), National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and others.

All participants will be expected to present a poster on their research during the summer school.

The course will start after lunch time on Sunday, 12th July, and finish at noon on Saturday, 18th July; students can travel on those days.

Computational methods in greenhouse gas modelling will be put into practice.

Cost and funding

There is a course fee of £870, payable before the course.

This includes all accommodation, meals and field trips during the summer school. Accommodation is in single standard (non-ensuite) rooms in a student residence.

How to apply – deadline 15 April 2020

The summer school has been postponed until 2021, so registration is not currently possible. Please check back later for updates on the arrangements for 2021.

The course is open to all PhD students and early career scientists, both from the UK and other countries.

Hands on experience with field instrumentation on a previous forest field trip.

Contact

If you have any questions about the summer school or if the application form does not work for you, please contact Stephan Matthiesen (info@stephan-matthiesen.de).

Acknowledgement

The Summer School is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council as part of the DARE-UK project. DARE-UK is a NERC highlight topic NE/S004211/1.

National greenhouse gas reporting needs an overhaul – it’s time to directly measure the atmosphere

Read Matt Rigbys article in ‘The Conversation’ about how DARE-UK will highlight the differences between bottom-up and top-down emissions reporting. “Countries still figure out their emissions by adding up all the sources, without measuring what’s actually in the air”

“National greenhouse gas reporting needs an overhaul – it’s time to directly measure the atmosphere”

How much greenhouse gas is emitted by any individual country? With global emissions of carbon dioxide hitting a record of 36.8 billion tonnes this year, and delegates gathering in Madrid for the latest UN climate talks, it’s a pressing question.

One might assume that we know precisely how much is emitted by any given country, and that such figures are rigorously cross-checked and scrutinised. And in some respects, this is true – countries are….. read more