Natural Volatile Organic Compounds (NVOC) Emissions Inventory from the Global Emissions Inventory Activity (GEIA), IGBP/IGAC

The Global Emissions Inventory Activity (GEIA) is an activity of the
International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) Core Project of the
International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP). The focus of GEIA
is to make global emissions available on a one degree grid.

The Natural Volatile Organic Compounds (NVOC) emissions datasets
include isoprene (isop90mn1.1a), terpene (terp90mn1.1a), and other
natural volatile organic compounds, with a lifetime of less than one
day (nvoc90mn1.1a). All of the datasets are on a monthly basis for
the year 1990 on a one degree latitude by 1 degree longitude grid.

NVOC emissions include isoprene, monoterpenes, other reactive VOC
(ORVOC), and other VOC (OVOC). VOCs are emitted into the atmosphere
from natural sources in marine and terrestrial environments. Natural
sources of VOC emissions to the atmosphere include marine and fresh
water, soil and sediments, microbial decomposition of organic matter,
geological hydrocarbon reservoirs, plant foliage and woody material,
and enhanced emissions from vegetation during harvesting or burning.
NVOCs are important in tropospheric chemistry and in the global carbon
cycle. VOC emissions are critical in controlling the OH concentration
of the troposphere and so may play a major role in determining the
growth rates of atmospheric CH4 (methane) and CO (carbon monoxide)
concentrations. Several emissions inventories of VOCs have been
published and they indicate that annual natural emissions of isoprene
and monoterpenes exceed anthropogenic VOC emissions on a global scale.

Each line of data in the GEIA inventory consists of an integer grid
number and real specie values for the temporal resolution of the data
(one month). Each file contains at most 360 x 180 data lines.