Project vulcan
Encyclopedia
Project Vulcan is a NASA
/DOE
funded effort under the North American Carbon Program
(NACP) to quantify North American fossil fuel carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions 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
, to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks, 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
’s YouTube
website and portions of the Vulcan inventory are available on Google Earth
.
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
/DOE
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
funded effort under the North American Carbon Program
North American Carbon Program
The North American Carbon Program is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and the sources and sinks of carbon dioxide , methane , and carbon monoxide in North America...
(NACP) to quantify North American fossil fuel carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
(CO2) emissions 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
Carbon budget
Carbon budget refers to the contribution of various sources of carbon dioxide on the planet. Carbon budget has nothing to do with political agendas, climate change legislation, carbon controls, carbon storage, or geopolitical carbon footprint....
, to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks, 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
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
’s YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
website and portions of the Vulcan inventory are available on Google Earth
Google Earth
Google Earth is a virtual globe, map and geographical information program that was originally called EarthViewer 3D, and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a Central Intelligence Agency funded company acquired by Google in 2004 . It maps the Earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite...
.