T. J. Blasing

Responses of energy use to climate change: A climate modeling study

doubling. The low-DT scenario had acumulative (2003–2025) energy increase of 1.09quadrillion Btu (quads) for cooling/heating demand.Northeastern states had net energy reductions for cooling/heating over the entire period, but in most other regionsenergy increases for cooling outweighed energy decreasesfor heating. The high-DT scenario had significantlyincreased warming, especially in winter, so decreasedheating needs led to a cumulative (2003–2025) heating/cooling energy decrease of 0.82 quads. In both scenarios,CO

The annual cycle of fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions in the United States

Time-series of estimated monthly carbon dioxide emissions from consumption of coal, petroleum and natural gas in the United States from 1981 to 2002 have been derived from energy consumption data. The data series for coal and natural gas each reveal a consistent seasonal pattern, with a winter peak for gas and two peaks (summer and winter) for coal. The annual cycle of total emissions has an amplitude of about 20 Tg-C, and is dominated by CO2 released from consumption of natural gas. Summation of the monthly estimates to obtain annual values reveals good agreement with other estimates of CO2 emissions. The varying proportions of CO2 emitted from each fuel type over the course of a year lead to an annual cycle in the carbon isotope ratio (δ13C), with a range of about 2 ‰. These monthly carbon emissions estimates should be helpful in understanding the carbon cycle by providing (1) monthly/seasonal input for carbon cycle models, (2) estimates of the annual cycle of the 13C isotope ratio in fossil-fuel CO2 emissions and (3) data at fine enough time intervals to investigate effects of seasonal climate variations and changes in seasonally dependent use patterns of certain appliances (e.g. air conditioners) on fossil-fuel carbon emissions.

The temporal and spatial distribution of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel use in North America

Abstract Refinements in the spatial and temporal resolution of North American fossil-fuel carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions provide additional information about anthropogenic aspects of the carbon cycle. In North America, the seasonal and spatial patterns are a distinctive component to characterizing anthropogenic carbon emissions. The pattern of fossil-fuel-based CO2 emissions on a monthly scale has greater temporal and spatial variability than the flux aggregated to the national annual level. For some areas, monthly emissions can vary by as much as 85% for some fuels when compared with monthly estimates based on a uniform temporal and spatial distribution. The United States accounts for the majority of North American fossil carbon emissions, and the amplitude of the seasonal flux in emissions in the United States is greater than the total mean monthly emissions in both Canada and Mexico. Nevertheless, Canada and Mexico have distinctive seasonal patterns as well. For the continent, emissions were aggregated...