Harrison O'Sullivan-Moffat

Contact

Email: harrison.osullivanmoffat@vuw.ac.nz
Office: Based at NIWA

Qualifications

BSc Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (2018)

MSc Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand (2022)

PhD thesis

Working Title

Methane Flux estimates from Ground and Airborne Observations

Supervisors

Project objectives and description

TMethane is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, and it makes up 44% of Aotearoa New Zealand’s net emissions due to the fact that it is produced by grazing livestock. Developing methods to validate and improve emission estimates is vital to improving inventory estimates, understanding the impact of mitigation strategies and providing a pathway for carbon accounting.

MethaneSAT is a novel methane observing satellite with unparalleled precision and high spatial resolution. The focus of my PhD project is to independently validate MethaneSAT in New Zealand with measurements from ground based remote sensing stations and aircraft during two month-long measurement campaigns, one in the Waikato and one in Canterbury. By quantifying methane emissions using three different methods (satellite, ground based remote sensing, and aircraft data), we will be able to benchmark the satellite-based estimates and characterise sources of uncertainty. The ultimate aim is to assess MethaneSAT’s capability in determining agricultural methane emissions, both with and without ground-based support, and to evaluate its ability to verify the emission inventory.

Publications

TBC