This image shows the complete Vulcan CO2 emissions (all sectors - those presented in the first three figures above plus residential, commercial, and cement) after it has been gridded to the common 10 km x 10 km Vulcan grid. The units are log base 10 of million metric tonnes of carbon/gridcell/year.Total US fossil fuel CO2 emissions for 2002 come to 1506 million metric tonnes of carbon/year. This is slightly lower than Energy Information Estimates (1580 MtC/year) due to the missing nonroad and aircraft emissions in the Vulcan inventory. The Vulcan Project 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 and time scales much finer than has been achieved in the past. The purpose is 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 the launch of the Orbital Carbon Observatory (OCO)scheduled for 2008/2009. The detail and scope of the Vulcan CO2 inventory has also made it a valuable tool for policymakers, demographers and social scientists.The Vulcan project has achieved the quantification of the United States fossil fuel CO2 emissions at the scale of individual factories, powerplants, roadways and neighborhoods. The entire inventory has been built on a common 10 km grid to facilitate atmospheric modeling. Vulcan is available at the hourly timescale for the year 2002. In addition to improvement in space and time resolution, Vulcan is quantified at the level of fuel type, economic sub-sector, and county/state identification.Work is underway to complete similar inventories for Canada and Mexico, to include CO and NOx emissions, and incorporate biotic-based fuels. Vulcan was led by a team of researchers at Purdue University. Key collaborators on the project included investigators at Colorado State University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
