May 10 2008

Tracking Carbon Emissions Posted by Angela Baker in Vulcan Project, carbon emissions

Throughout the United States, carbon emissions are being tracked via the innovative software developed by scientists from the Vulcan Project at Purdue University.  Sources that emit these carbon emissions, such as power plants, industrial sources, and mobile sources, are inventoried and combined with other inventories to create a complete map of fossile fuel CO2 emissions.

So, what isthe purpose of this?  According to Alternative Energy's website, the overall goal of the Vulcan Project is to "build a computer-based world in which all processes that emit fossil fuel carbon dioxide (CO2) at the planetary surface can be simulated, visualized, analyed, and used by multiple stakeholders as they engage the climate change problem."

Purdue University's  Vulcan Project  currently has available the 2002 inventory of the sources who contribute to the emissions of carbon dioxide.  This inventory is broken down into an hourly scale which allows the scientists to anaylze various aspects, such as what parts of the day the most carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere. 

This software is purposeful in that it assists in finding some valid information into why the planet Earth has continued to experience climate changes throughout the years.  This will be a helpful tool in possibly slowing down are stopping these climate changes.