Ithaca College

Professor Eric Leibensperger (Department of Physics & Astronomy) has been awarded two grants from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to identify and quantify sources of methane, a greenhouse gas, in New York State. With NYSERDA’s support, Eric and students will conduct mobile (car rooftop) and stationary (Clinton Ford Observatory) observations of methane to improve source identification and quantification. 

 Methane, the principal component of natural gas, is a strong greenhouse gas that is facing regulation in New York following passage of last year’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA). Eric, IC student researchers, and colleagues from the University of Rochester, the University at Albany, and Columbia University are helping to improve New York’s inventory of greenhouse gas emissions. Such inventories are used to set emission reduction goals (e.g., CLCPA requires an 85% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050) and monitor source changes as regulations are enacted. Eric and students will use state-of-the-science analyzers to compile highly accurate measurements of methane on South Hill and around the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions. Observations will be coupled with numerical models to spatially pinpoint source regions within New York. 

These recent awards complement a third ongoing grant from NYSERDA that supports long-term observation of methane at the Whiteface Mountain Field Station in the Adirondacks, New York. For more information, please contact Eric Leibensperger at eleibensperger@ithaca.edu