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[1] We present an analysis of methane (CH 4 ; 68% confidence interval (CI), assuming uncorrelated errors between regions). Summing across all regions of California, optimized CH 4 emissions are only marginally consistent between CALGEM-and EDGAR42-based inversions (48.35 ± 6.47 versus 64.97 ± 11.85 Tg CO 2 eq), because emissions from coastal urban regions (where landfill and natural gas emissions are much higher in EDGAR than CALGEM) are not strongly constrained by the measurements. Combining our results with those from a recent study of the South Coast Air Basin narrows the range of estimates to 43-57 Tg CO 2 eq yr À1 (1.3-1.8 times higher than the current state inventory). These results suggest that the combination of rural and urban measurements will be necessary to verify future changes in California's total CH 4 emissions.

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[1] We estimate seasonal variations in methane (CH 4 ) emissions from central California from December 2007 through November 2008 by comparing CH 4 mixing ratios measured at a tall tower with transport model predictions based on a global 1 a priori CH 4 emissions map (EDGAR32) and a 10 km seasonally varying California-specific map, calibrated to statewide by CH 4 emission totals. Atmospheric particle trajectories and surface footprints are computed using the Weather Research and Forecasting and Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport models. Uncertainties due to wind velocity and boundary layer mixing depth are evaluated using measurements from radar wind profilers. CH 4 signals calculated using the EDGAR32 emission model are larger than those based on the California-specific model and in better agreement with measurements. However, Bayesian inverse analyses using the California-specific and EDGAR32 maps yield comparable annually averaged posterior CH 4 emissions totaling 1.55 AE 0.24 times and 1.84 AE 0.27 times larger than the California-specific prior emissions, respectively, for a region of central California within approximately 150 km of the tower. If these results are applicable across California, state total CH 4 emissions would account for approximately 9% of state total greenhouse gas emissions. Spatial resolution of emissions within the region near the tower reveal seasonality expected from several biogenic sources, but correlations in the posterior errors on emissions from both prior models indicate that the tower footprints do not resolve spatial structure of emissions. This suggests that including additional towers in a measurement network will improve the regional specificity of the posterior estimates.

[1] The real-time forecasts of ozone (O 3 ) from seven air quality forecast models (AQFMs) are statistically evaluated against observations collected during July and August of 2004 (53 days) through the Aerometric Information Retrieval Now (AIRNow) network at roughly 340 monitoring stations throughout the eastern United States and southern Canada. One of the first ever real-time ensemble O 3 forecasts, created by combining the seven separate forecasts with equal weighting, is also evaluated in terms of standard statistical measures, threshold statistics, and variance analysis. The ensemble based on the mean of the seven models and the ensemble based on the median are found to have significantly more temporal correlation to the observed daily maximum 1-hour average and maximum 8-hour average O 3 concentrations than any individual model. However, root-mean-square errors (RMSE) and skill scores show that the usefulness of the uncorrected ensembles is limited by positive O 3 biases in all of the AQFMs. The ensembles and AQFM statistical measures are reevaluated using two simple bias correction algorithms for forecasts at each monitor location: subtraction of the mean bias and a multiplicative ratio adjustment, where corrections are based on the full 53 days of available comparisons. The impact the two bias correction techniques have on RMSE, threshold statistics, and temporal variance is presented. For the threshold statistics a preferred bias correction technique is found to be model dependent and related to whether the model overpredicts or underpredicts observed temporal O 3 variance. All statistical measures of the ensemble mean forecast, and particularly the bias-corrected ensemble forecast, are found to be insensitive to the results of any particular model. The higher correlation coefficients, low RMSE, and better threshold statistics for the ensembles compared to any individual model point to their preference as a real-time O 3 forecast.