Ken Davis

Ken Davis is a Professor of Meteorology at Penn State University's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and an associate at the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He leads the INFLUX (Indianapolis Flux Experiment), a multi-institutional project testing atmospheric measurement methods to quantify urban greenhouse gas emissions. The initiative uses tower-based sensors and aircraft readings to validate emission reductions and establish open data standards for independent verification.

• Research Focus: Atmospheric quantification of CO₂/methane emissions
• Methodology: Coupling tower sensor data with numerical models (Weather Research and Forecast, Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model, Bayesian inversion)
• Collaborators: Purdue University, Arizona State University, University of Colorado, NOAA, EarthNetworks Inc.
• Funding: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Davis emphasizes atmospheric measurements as an objective tool for emissions validation, complementing traditional 'inventory' methods. The project's leaky 'bag' analogy illustrates how continuous urban atmospheric monitoring can detect total emission fluxes despite dynamic airflows. Graduate students Laura McGowan, Daniel Sarmiento, and Kai Wu contribute to the research alongside Penn State associates Bernd Haupt, Thomas Lauvaux, Natasha Miles, and Scott Richardson.