Atmospheric Emissions

The Harvard-China Project and its partners in China conduct both “bottom-up” and “top-down” studies of emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants.

Bottom-up emission studies combine activity levels (energy consumption or industrial production levels) and emission factors to develop emission inventories. These inventories are fundamental inputs to air quality modeling and the development of actionable emission control strategies. Top-down studies use an atmospheric chemical transport model and statistical methods to combine observed atmospheric concentrations (from satellites or surface observatories) and a “prior" bottom-up inventory to produce optimized “posterior” estimates of emissions. These refined estimates reduce uncertainties and improve understanding of real-world emissions for more accurate analyses and effective control strategies. 

The China Project's atmospheric research is committed to building observationally validated, fundamental research on the physical and chemical dimensions of China’s atmospheric environment, from urban to global scales. Complementing the emissions research described here, it includes atmostpheric observational research and modeling research.