Zachary Barkley

About

Zachary Barkley is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science at Penn State. His research specialty is Atmospheric Chemistry and Pollution. Barkley's educational background includes a B.S. in Meteorology with honors and an M.S. in Meteorology from Penn State, obtained in 2014 and 2016 respectively. His academic journey began with a fascination for data, which he developed as a child by observing and performing mathematical operations on numbers displayed on household devices. This early interest led him to pursue meteorology, a field centered on data collection and interpretation. During his undergraduate studies, Barkley worked under Dr. Chris Forest, focusing on large database analysis related to the world's oceans. After earning his honors B.S., he immediately pursued a master's degree under the guidance of Ken Davis and Thomas Lauvaux, where he calculated methane emissions from natural gas infrastructure in northeastern Pennsylvania. This work addressed a practical problem with global implications, particularly related to climate change and local socioeconomic impacts. Currently, Barkley is engaged in NASA’s ACT America project, applying techniques he developed to estimate methane emissions in the Marcellus region and other parts of the U.S., contributing to understanding atmospheric pollution and climate-related issues.

Research topics

• Environmental science
• Geology
• Meteorology
• Atmospheric sciences
• Chemistry
• Geography
• Oceanography
• Climatology
• Environmental engineering

Selected publications

• Concurrent variation in oil and gas methane emissions and oil price during the COVID-19 pandemic

  Atmospheric chemistry and physics · 2021 · 127 citations

  Abstract. Methane emissions associated with the production, transport, and use of oil and natural gas increase the climatic impacts of energy use; however, little is known about how emissions vary temporally and with commodity prices. We present airborne and ground-based data, supported by satellite observations, to measure weekly to monthly changes in total methane emissions in the United States' Permian Basin during a period of volatile oil prices associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. As oil…

  DOI

• Seasonal Variability in Local Carbon Dioxide Biomass Burning Sources Over Central and Eastern US Using Airborne In Situ Enhancement Ratios

  Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres · 2021 · 58 citations

  Abstract We present observations of local enhancements in carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from local emissions sources over three eastern US regions during four deployments of the Atmospheric Carbon Transport‐America (ACT‐America) campaign between summer 2016 and spring 2018. Local CO 2 emissions were characterized by carbon monoxide (CO) to CO 2 enhancement ratios (i.e., ΔCO/ΔCO 2 ) in air mass mixing observed during aircraft transects within the planetary boundary layer. By analyzing regional‐scale var…

  DOI

• Continuous weekly monitoring of methane emissions from the Permian Basin by inversion of TROPOMI satellite observations

  Atmospheric chemistry and physics · 2023-07-11 · 57 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract. We quantify weekly methane emissions at 0.25∘ × 0.3125∘ (≈25 × 25 km2) resolution from the Permian Basin, the largest oil production basin in the US, by inverse analysis of satellite observations from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) from May 2018 to October 2020. The mean oil and gas emission from the region (± standard deviation of weekly estimates) was 3.7 ± 0.9 Tg a−1, higher than previous TROPOMI inversion estimates that may have used biased prior emissions or back…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Atmospheric Carbon and Transport (ACT)-America Mission

  Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society · 2021 · 44 citations

  Abstract The Atmospheric Carbon and Transport (ACT)-America NASA Earth Venture Suborbital Mission set out to improve regional atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) inversions by exploring the intersection of the strong GHG fluxes and vigorous atmospheric transport that occurs within the midlatitudes. Two research aircraft instrumented with remote and in situ sensors to measure GHG mole fractions, associated trace gases, and atmospheric state variables collected 1,140.7 flight hours of research data,…

  DOI

• Quantification of oil and gas methane emissions in the Delaware and Marcellus basins using a network of continuous tower-based measurements

  Atmospheric chemistry and physics · 2023-06-06 · 36 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), emissions from oil and gas infrastructure contribute 30 % of all anthropogenic methane (CH4) emissions in the US. Studies in the last decade have shown emissions from this sector to be substantially larger than bottom-up assessments, including the EPA inventory, highlighting both the increased importance of methane emissions from the oil and gas sector in terms of their overall climatological impact and the need f…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Thomas Lauvaux

  Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne

  73 shared

• K. J. Davis

  Pennsylvania State University

  67 shared

• Colm Sweeney

  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

  37 shared

• N. L. Miles

  Pennsylvania State University

  35 shared

• Sha Feng

  Pennsylvania State University

  32 shared

• Alan Fried

  Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research

  27 shared

• Bianca C. Baier

  25 shared

• Joshua P. DiGangi

  Langley Research Center

  23 shared

Similar researchers at Pennsylvania State University

• William H. Bruneh-99
• Jose D. Fuentesh-60
• Matthew R. Kumjianh-57