Posts by Collection

Methane Enhancement Ratios Over Toronto

Master’s Research Report - University of Toronto (Summer 2022)

Gravity-Driven Flow Over a Porous Inclined Surface

Master’s Research Report - University of Waterloo (Fall 2020)

Talagrands Convex Hull Concentration Inequality with Applications

Talk given as part of MAT477 - University of Toronto (Fall 2018)

Generalized IBL models for gravity-driven flow over inclined surfaces

Published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2021

In this investigation we propose several generalized first-order integral-boundary-layer (IBL) models to simulate the two-dimensional gravity-driven flow of a thin fluid layer down an incline. Various cases are considered and include: isothermal and non-isothermal flows, flat and wavy bottoms, porous and non-porous surfaces, constant and variable fluid properties, and Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. A numerical solution procedure is also proposed to solve the various model equations. Presented here are some results from our numerical experiments. To validate the generalized IBL models comparisons were made with existing results and the agreement was found to be reasonable.

Recommended citation: D’Alessio S, Mastrogiacomo J-P, & Pascal J-P (2021). J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2090 012114. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2090/1/012114

Advances in quantifying power plant CO2 emissions with OCO-2

Published in Remote Sensing of Environment, 2021

We present CO2 emission estimates for twenty power plants and related facilities in the United States, India, South Africa, Poland, Russia and South Korea, derived from space-based CO2 observations from NASAs Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) satellite. Improvements to OCO-2 data quality and to our methodology yield improved results relative to earlier work. These new results include emission quantification for both larger and smaller power plants, the first power plant emission estimate based on ocean glint data and emissions from a small city with multiple industrial facilities. CO2 emission estimates are compared against reported facility emissions where available, including high temporal resolution data for the eight US sites. The difference with respect to reported values for the US sites ranges from 1.4% to 26.7%, with a mean of 15.1%, although the estimated emission sum for all US sites is within 0.8% of the reported value, suggesting the errors are largely random. This finding reinforces the importance of revisit rate for future space-based emission monitoring systems and furthermore confirms that making multiple overpasses of a power plant can reduce errors to an accuracy useful to support climate policy.

Recommended citation: Nassar R, Mastrogiacomo J-P, Bateman-Hemphill W, McCracken C, MacDonald C, Hill T, O Dell C, Kiel M, & Crisp D (2021). Advances in quantifying power plant CO2 emissions with OCO-2. Remote Sensing of Environment, 264, 112579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2021.112579

Quantifying CO₂ Emissions from Smaller Point Sources by Using Multiple OCO-3 Images

Published: June 17, 2021

The ability to monitor anthropogenic CO2 emissions from space is crucial to support policy efforts to reduce emissions. NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3) has the new capability of collecting Snapshot Area Maps (SAMs), which enable effective CO2 emission estimation for large point sources. However, numerous other sources remain beyond the limit of a single SAM for effective emission quantification. In this work, we build on earlier theoretical research that explored combining XCO2 images, by overlaying multiple SAMs. The SAMs are rotated, interpolated onto a regular grid, and averaged. This process accentuates the plume and offers a higher effective spatial resolution than any individual overpass. It allows for top-down emissions estimates of smaller point sources (<7 MtCO2/yr) where they were otherwise not possible and demonstrates the advantage of the frequent revisit rate and wide-view imaging of the OCO-3 SAM mode.

Link to poster presentation
Link to conference

Mathematics Teaching Assistant

Undergraduate courses, University of Waterloo, Faculty of Mathematics, 2019

-Calculus 3 for Chemical Engineering (Fall 2020)
-Calculus 2 for Engineering (Winter 2020)
-Calculus 2 for the Sciences (Winter 2020)
-Calculus 1 for Engineering (Fall 2019)
-Calculus 1 for Sciences (Fall 2019)

Physics Teaching Assistant

Undergraduate courses, University of Toronto, Department of Physics, 2021

-Physics 131: Introduction to Physics I (Fall 2022)
-Physics 132: Introduction to Physics II (Winter 2022)
-Physics 180: Elements of Physics I (Fall 2021)