ON USING INVERSE METHODS FOR RESOLVING EMISSIONS WITH LARGE SPATIAL INHOMOGENEITIES

We apply an inverse method to estimate the carbon monoxide emissions i n Atlanta, Georgia. The resultant carbon monoxide inventory is unreali stically characterized by temporal oscillations on the frequency of 1 hour. We suspect that the difficulty in deducing the emissions is due to inhomogeneities in the spatial distribution of the emissions. In se veral controlled experiments we reproduce the oscillations by introduc ing relatively small errors into the spatial distribution of the emiss ion inventory. In similar experiments with isoprene in which the emiss ions are more homogeneous, we do not find this problem. These results are discussed in the context of previous inverse studies of carbon mon oxide and isoprene.