Earth Networks and California will set up a network of stations that will measure and monitor greenhouse gas emissions throughout the state.
"More data is necessary to better understand the world around us and the changes taking place over time in the atmosphere," says Bob Marshall, chief executive of Earth Networks.
The new stations in California will add to a global network of 100 monitoring stations being deployed by the Washington-based company. Earth Networks, which currently operates the world's largest weather observation and lightning detection system, is setting up the largest greenhouse gas monitoring network to aid climate science.
The network is expected to quantify and map where greenhouse gasses are made, where it is stored and their changes in amount over time. Direct measurements will be taken, called a "top-down approach" rather than using bottom-up estimates based on statistics and patterns of human activities.
The network will integrate data from additional measurement sites operating under the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the California Air Resources Board. The weather data will also work with atmospheric scientists from the University of California at San Diego.
"California has long been a leader in deploying new technologies and initiatives that help conserve resources, while supporting research that provides a greater understanding of our world today. The new integrated network will benefit the state of California by providing atmospheric greenhouse gas measurements on a scale that has never been achieved before," Mr. Marshall said.
The instruments and sensors on board Earth Networks' stations are manufactured by Sunnyvale, California-based firm Picarro. They are designed to continuously check concentrations of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere in the state.
In 2006, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 32, or the Global Warming Solutions Act, which set the 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reduction goal into law. It requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
– Oliver M. Bayani
