The Oak Ridge National Laboratory has developed a method that uses satellite remote sensing to calculate carbon emissions on agricultural land. The new methodology, published in the journal Ecological Applications, is effective for both national and project-level reporting, whereas previous methodologies addressed one or the other. The consistent framework and methodology could prove very useful if policy mandates the reduction of emissions across the economy in cap-and-trade scenarios.
The method uses land cover data from NASA satellites to refine geospatial cropland carbon fluxes nationwide. The Department of Agriculture’s cropland data layer enables field-scale delineation of specific crops and allows for refined estimates of carbon fluxes.
You can read more about the research and efforts via this feature on Environmental Protection.
