A Community Earth-atmosphere Data System (CEDS) for Historical Surface Fluxes

Historical estimates for aerosol and precursor compounds are key data needed for Earth system, climate, atmospheric chemistry, and transport models, as well as for economic and energy models. Historical data are used both for general analysis and for model validation through comparisons with observations. The core CEDS project is funded by the US Department of Earth and Environmental System Modeling (EESM) Program. Sub-regional detail and use of satellite datasets was funded by NASA’s Atmospheric Composition Modeling and Analysis Program (ACMAP).

Project Goals

The CEDS project has built a data-driven, open-source framework that produces global estimates for research and analysis. The data system produces estimates by country, sector, and fuel with the following characteristics:

• Annual estimates of surface fluxes (not including open burning) from 1750 to the latest full calendar year, updated every year (from 1970 for CH4 and N2O)
• Species: aerosol (BC, OC) and aerosol precursor and reactive compounds (SO2, NOx, NH3, CH4, CO, NMVOC) CO2, and N2O
• Spatially gridded data (0.5° and 0.1° for recent decades)
• Seasonal cycle (monthly) and speciated NMVOCs by sector
• State/province spatial detail for large countries – in progress

Major Features

• Data for recent years calibrated to robust country-level inventories where available (with adjustments where supported by independent research)
• Incorporates OMI/TropOMI SO2 point source estimates to refine the magnitude and spatial location of this key species (and co-emitted species)
• Consistent driver data across all species
• Data provided in both aggregate (.csv) (by country, country/sector country/fuel, and country/sector/fuel) and gridded (.netCDF) formats.
• Gridded data released at 0.5° (all years) and 0.1° (from 1980 forward)