November 13, 2025 @ 2:00 Central
In the last decade, we have driven down the labor and capital cost for sensing CO2, CO, NO2, NO and PM2.5 allowing affordable and comprehensive mapping of air cities. In this talk, Dr. Ron Cohen will describe the technology, the approach to ensuring data quality and describe results that inform our understanding of sectors and point sources driving urban emissions that affect climate and air quality. Examples will include trends in CO2 emissions over 7 years, CO2 emissions from heating buildings, characterization of the mass of emissions from urban fires and industrial point sources, and characterization of emission factors (g pollutant/gCO2) from building heating, transportation and maritime ships.
About the Speaker
Ron Cohen is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and of Earth and Planetary Science. In 2025, he was the Director of Greenhouse gas Measurements, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. He has published over 350 papers on topics related to the temperature dependence of poor air quality in US cities, the role of nitrogen oxides in urban ozone and aerosol chemistry, the role of the biosphere as a source and sink of nitrogen oxides in the continental background, the use of space-based remote sensing to understand NOx emissions and chemistry and the development of new approaches including densely spaced sensor networks to understanding urban emissions affecting air quality and climate. His project, the Berkeley Environment, Air Quality and CO2 Network (BEACO2N) was the first large scale urban mapping project for CO2 and it was one of three “Climate Data in Action” efforts recognized in the Obama administration’s Climate Data Initiative in 2014. In 2024, he served in the Biden Harris Administration as Director of the Greenhouse Gas Measurement, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification Office, in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
About BEACO2N
BEACO2N is a new approach to observing atmospheric gases over an urban area. Instead of using a small number of extremely sensitive instruments to measure a large area, we blanket interesting locations with a high density network of instruments, with each instrument representing a network “node”. Individually, measurements from these nodes are of moderate quality, but when taken together as a network produce an accurate, highly resolved picture of real-time pollutant concentrations. Each node measures CO2, a major anthropogenic (human-influenced) contributor to climate change, and reports back to this site where the collected data including temperature, pressure, and relative humidity is publicly available for viewing and download. The nodes also collect data on particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, ozone, and carbon monoxide which are indicators for the overall air quality of an area, and may be useful for tracing the origins of CO2 emissions. CO2, CO, and aerosol data are available for download via this site. Data for other species is not yet ready for public viewing, but will be added to the site soon.
BEACO2N is also a novel approach to scientific outreach. A science curriculum for K-12 teachers using the BEACO2N sensors has been developed by scientists and educators at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California. To the extent possible, nodes are being placed on the rooftops of local area schools, so that students may see for themselves the greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution in their area. We also have plans to place nodes on other local science museums, and will be working with staff to facilitate displays of the BEACO2N data.
