Greenhouse Gas Measurements Program

The Greenhouse Gas Measurements Program develops advanced measurements and standards aimed toward improving the accuracy of measurements underpinning greenhouse gas emissions data and modelling. Quantitative measurements, resulting from observational networks, includes remote sensing capabilities, surface tower instrumentation, and airborne field campaigns. Numerical simulations and modelling further improve measurement technologies and uncertainty estimates, to develop an internationally recognized emissions inventory.

NIST has established testbed cities to develop and evaluate the performance of advanced measurement capabilities for emissions independent of their origin. These testbeds will serve as a means to independently diagnose the accuracy of emissions data obtained directly from emission or uptake sources. Cities such as Indianapolis, Indiana, Baltimore, Maryland and regions such as the Los Angeles basin of California, and the northeast corridor (from Washington D.C. to Boston, MA), are serving as urban testbeds for their varying geographic/terrain, population/transportation and social economic impacts on their urban emissions characteristics.