Nitrous Oxide

Total Emissions

By analyzing data from our tower sites and from street-level measurements taken during various drives over the years, we are attempting to identify and quantify sources of N₂O in New York City. The current focus of this project is on characterizing N₂O emissions from buses and then scaling up to understand city-level contributions of N₂O from all sources, including transportation and wastewater treatment. We are also working to characterize several N₂O analyzers for their suitability in tower network measurements.

In addition to buses and transportation, N₂O measurements have been gathered at the tower level during the FROG-NY (May 2023 to August 2023) and FROGSICLE  (January 2024 to February 2024) projects in Mineola, NY. Further measurements are ongoing at the City University of New York Advanced Science Research Center in Harlem.

Urban Sources 

Traffic 

As part of the Transport and Energy Emissions from Manhattan Streets (TEEMS) campaign, we measured N₂O at street level in Manhattan and, using N₂O:CO₂ ratios, estimated total N₂O emissions from buses in NYC.

Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP)

Preliminary measurements indicate that nitrous oxide emissions in the NYC region are underestimated, likely due to wastewater treatment. Driving campaigns identified large emissions from some NYC wastewater treatment plants but not others. We are attempting to quantify these emissions using our tower observations from Harlem combined with the mobile measurements.