Alex Guenther

Strengths and Weaknesses:

The group associated with this inventory has recently initiated several efforts designed to reduce the associated uncertainties.

This includes:

1. a community developed database (bvoc.acd.ucar.edu) containing emission measurements, emission factor recommendations and above canopy fluxes that can be used for model validation
2. community workshops designed to identify and reduce uncertainties
3. and improved inventory that is updated with recent measurements and the latest driving variables (including substantially improved landcover characterization data); complete chemical speciation (i.e., individual compounds rather than broad categories); and includes past present and future emission estimates.
4. A new MODEL and emissions inventory called "MEGAN" (Model of emissions of gases and aerosols from nature) is currently under development and will be available sometime later this year.

Alternative Emission Distributions:

Muller, J. F. (1992). "Geographical distribution and seasonal variation of surface emissions and deposition velocities of atmospheric trace gases." Journal of Geophysical Research 97: 3787-3804.

Emission Trends: Planned new natural VOC inventory will include past, present and future emission estimates.

Seasonality of the Emissions: The inventory includes monthly emission estimates.

For natural emissions, can they be related to factors such as for example soil temperature or soil moisture? This information would help modelers to simulate the emissions under a variety of climatic conditions.

Emissions are related to the environmental drivers and the necessary algorithms, and driving variables, are available to the modeling community.