Description of Data Sets:

Slide 1: I will present a global animation of observed methane plumes illustrating the main regional sources and the complexity of source attribution. The animation is drawn from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (Global_methane_loop_comp_1080p30.mp4) and will be displayed across the entire Hyperwall (3x3 panels).

Slide 2: I will present a global 3D animation of the regional divergence in Global Carbon Project top-down and bottom-up ensemble emissions from wetlands (Saunois et al. 2020), overlaid with eddy covariance observations sites in FLUXNET-CH4 Community Product (Delwiche et al. 2021) which can validate existing model emissions estimates. My advisor, Gavin McNicol an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago has previously obtained permission to utilize these datasets as part of his global wetland methane upscaling project (UpCH4; McNicol et al. under review). The visualization will be displayed in the lower-right (2x2) panels (B2-B3 and C2-C3) while example high resolution images of FLUXNET-CH4 eddy covariance towers will be displayed around the top and left edges (A1-3, B1, C1).

Slide 3: I will present a global 3D animation of UpCH4 wetland methane emissions predictions constrained by state-of-the-art Wetland Area and Dynamics for Methane Modeling (WAD2M; Zhang et al. 2021) wetland extent. My advisor, Gavin McNicol an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago has previously obtained permission to utilize these datasets as part of his global wetland methane upscaling project (UpCH4; McNicol et al. under review).

Slide 4: I will present a global 3D animation of UpCH4 emissions segmented into Köppen-Geiger (KG) climate zones. Authors of the Köppen-Geiger dataset (Ciu et al. 2021) will be credited and cited on the Hyperwall as this data are already published in Earth System Science Data.

Scientific Potential of Presentation:

My presentation will visualize state-of-the-art NASA observations, and Global Carbon Project, FLUXNET-CH4 synthesis, and bioclimatic model predictions of the global methane cycle, wetland methane sources, and Köppen-Geiger climate regions, respectively.

In my first slide, with NASA’s visualization of real-time atmospheric methane plumes, I will explain the complexity of the global methane budget and the rapid rise in the global methane burden. I will also explain and distinguish the key constraints, such as the known annual rise in methane via atmospheric observations and change in isotope signature, and the key uncertainties, including regional and sectoral attribution of emissions. By pointing to the high tropical emission hotspots, I will highlight the large role of wetlands and their current uncertainties.

In the second slide, I will visualize the large regional discrepancies that exist between bottom-up and top-down model estimates of wetland methane emissions. This visualization helps identify the spatially and temporally heterogeneous distribution of methane emissions, even for a single source such as wetlands, and the fact that reconciling these differences must be done at regional scales. By overlaying the FLUXNET-CH4 site locations, where methane fluxes are measured using the eddy covariance method, I can explain why these data can be used to help validate global methane models and to generate upscaled data-driven model predictions. The upscaling approaches presented here use flux data collected across globally-distributed measurement networks in a machine learning framework to extrapolate fluxes in space and time. This map will also help explain, via visualization, the leave-one-site-out cross-validation procedure used in the methane upscaling (UpCH4) product development.

In my third slide, I will display and evaluate the first global methane upscaling model (UpCH4) predictions. The complexity of the resulting emissions pattern can be made more accessible with the 3D global animation, including hotspots and hot moments of emission such as high-latitude and tropical wetland complexes. This will help explain that the global wetland emissions estimation problem is as much about predicting the fluxes accurately, as knowing the distribution of wetlands globally. Global annual methane emissions estimates will be compared in side-panels to state-of-the-art model ensemble estimates from the Global Carbon Project (GCP) methane budget.

In my final slide, I will explore the question of representativeness with a visualization of the overlap between Koppen-Geiger climate regions, wetland area dynamics, and UpCH4 wetland methane emission. By using an intuitive color palette this visualization will bring to life the key climate regions that contain large wetland cover and contribute large methane emissions. It will also make it apparent how deficient our current site surface coverage is in the tropics.

By visualizing wetland hotspots for emissions and seasonal patterns at the global scale and by comparing our results to other global emissions products, we can reduce uncertainties and inform additional targeted observations of wetland methane emissions. Critically, a better-constrained global methane budget can aid in regional- and sector-specific actions to mitigate anthropogenic methane emissions.