Independent verification of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is an emerging need as legislation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions becomes increasingly likely. However, relatively few atmospheric measurements have been attempted at the urban scale. The INdianapolis FLUX (INFLUX) project addresses this need, using continuous and intermittent tower-based measurements, aircraft measurements, urban-scale flux modeling, and bottow-up flux modeling.

What Can We Learn?
Objective: To develop and assess methods of quantifying greenhouse gas emissions at the urban scale, using Indianapolis as the test site.

Project Goals:

• Develop better technique/approach for measurement of area-wide greenhouse gas emission fluxes.
• Compare top-down emission estimates from aircraft and tower-based measurements with bottom-up emission estimates from Hestia for Indianapolis.
  
• Quantify uncertainties in the measurements.
• Utilize results to improve Hestia.
  

What is Being (or will be) Measured?
Penn State University:   Currently CO2 & H20 are measured continuously at two sites. These sites will be upgraded to measure continuous CO2, CO, CH4, and H20. Three additional sites will measure CO2, CO, and H20, and another three will measure CO2, CH4, and H20. Four sites will measure CO2 & H20. Wavelength-scanned cavity ringdown spectroscopy (Picarro, Inc.) is used. These data will be posted on this website.

NOAA:   Flasks, filled preferentially when the wind direction is such that Site 2 is downwind of Site 1, measure the following: CO2, CO, CH4, 14CO2, 13CO2, N2O, SF6, H2, and a suite of halocarbons and hydrocarbons.

Purdue University:   ALAR aircraft flights, beginning in Fall 2010, will measure CO2, CH4, and H20 continuously, as well as sampling flasks and measuring meteorological data. Two types of flights will be utilized: mass balance and source characterization.