Articles | Volume 14, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1111-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1111-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
MUCCnet: Munich Urban Carbon Column network
Environmental Sensing and Modeling, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany
Environmental Sensing and Modeling, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany
Benno Voggenreiter
Environmental Sensing and Modeling, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany
Patrick Aigner
Environmental Sensing and Modeling, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany
Nico Nachtigall
Environmental Sensing and Modeling, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany
Björn Reger
Environmental Sensing and Modeling, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Munich, Germany
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5679–5707, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5679-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5679-2024, 2024
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We used a Bruker EM27/SUN spectrometer within an automated weatherproof enclosure to measure greenhouse gas column concentrations over a 3-month period in Jinja, Uganda. The portability of the EM27/SUN allows us to evaluate satellite and model data in locations not covered by traditional validation networks. This is of particular value in tropical Africa, where extensive terrestrial ecosystems are a significant store of carbon and play a key role in the atmospheric budgets of CO2 and CH4.
Benedikt Herkommer, Carlos Alberti, Paolo Castracane, Jia Chen, Angelika Dehn, Florian Dietrich, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Matthias Max Frey, Jochen Groß, Lawson Gillespie, Frank Hase, Isamu Morino, Nasrin Mostafavi Pak, Brittany Walker, and Debra Wunch
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The Total Carbon Column Observing Network is a network of ground-based Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers used mainly for satellite validation. To ensure the highest-quality validation data, the network needs to be highly consistent. This is a major challenge, which so far is solved by site comparisons with airborne in situ measurements. In this work, we describe the use of a portable FTIR spectrometer as a travel standard for evaluating the consistency of TCCON sites.
Xinxu Zhao, Jia Chen, Julia Marshall, Michal Gałkowski, Stephan Hachinger, Florian Dietrich, Ankit Shekhar, Johannes Gensheimer, Adrian Wenzel, and Christoph Gerbig
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14325–14347, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14325-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14325-2023, 2023
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We develop a modeling framework using the Weather Research and Forecasting model at a high spatial resolution (up to 400 m) to simulate atmospheric transport of greenhouse gases and interpret column observations. Output is validated against weather stations and column measurements in August 2018. The differential column method is applied, aided by air-mass transport tracing with the Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport (STILT) model, also for an exploratory measurement interpretation.
Andreas Forstmaier, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Juan Bettinelli, Hossein Maazallahi, Carsten Schneider, Dominik Winkler, Xinxu Zhao, Taylor Jones, Carina van der Veen, Norman Wildmann, Moritz Makowski, Aydin Uzun, Friedrich Klappenbach, Hugo Denier van der Gon, Stefan Schwietzke, and Thomas Röckmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6897–6922, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6897-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6897-2023, 2023
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Large cities emit greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming. In this study, we measured the release of one important green house gas, methane, in Hamburg. Multiple sources that contribute to methane emissions were located and quantified. Methane sources were found to be mainly caused by human activity (e.g., by release from oil and gas refineries). Moreover, potential natural sources have been located, such as the Elbe River and lakes.
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6605–6623, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6605-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6605-2022, 2022
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The Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) measures atmospheric concentrations of the most potent greenhouse gas, CO2, globally. By comparing its measurements to a ground-based monitoring network in Munich (MUCCnet), we find that the satellite is able to reliably detect urban CO2 concentrations. Furthermore, spatial CO2 differences captured by OCO-2 and MUCCnet are strongly correlated, which indicates that OCO-2 could be helpful in determining urban CO2 emissions from space.
Benjamin Zanger, Jia Chen, Man Sun, and Florian Dietrich
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Gaussian priors (GPs) used in least squares inversion do not reflect the true distributions of greenhouse gas emissions well. A method that does not rely on GPs is sparse reconstruction (SR). We show that necessary conditions for SR are satisfied for cities and that the application of a wavelet transform can further enhance sparsity. We apply the theory of compressed sensing to SR. Our results show that SR needs fewer measurements and is superior for assessing unknown emitters compared to GPs.
Andreas Luther, Julian Kostinek, Ralph Kleinschek, Sara Defratyka, Mila Stanisavljević, Andreas Forstmaier, Alexandru Dandocsi, Leon Scheidweiler, Darko Dubravica, Norman Wildmann, Frank Hase, Matthias M. Frey, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Jarosław Nȩcki, Justyna Swolkień, Christoph Knote, Sanam N. Vardag, Anke Roiger, and André Butz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 5859–5876, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5859-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5859-2022, 2022
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Coal mining is an extensive source of anthropogenic methane emissions. In order to reduce and mitigate methane emissions, it is important to know how much and where the methane is emitted. We estimated coal mining methane emissions in Poland based on atmospheric methane measurements and particle dispersion modeling. In general, our emission estimates suggest higher emissions than expected by previous annual emission reports.
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is an air pollutant whose concentration often exceeds air quality guideline values, especially in urban areas. To map the spatial distribution of NO2 in Munich, we conducted the Munich NO2 Imaging Campaign (MuNIC), where NO2 was measured with stationary, mobile, and airborne in situ and remote sensing instruments. The campaign provides a unique dataset that has been used to compare the different instruments and to study the spatial variability of NO2 and its sources.
Taylor S. Jones, Jonathan E. Franklin, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Kristian D. Hajny, Johannes C. Paetzold, Adrian Wenzel, Conor Gately, Elaine Gottlieb, Harrison Parker, Manvendra Dubey, Frank Hase, Paul B. Shepson, Levi H. Mielke, and Steven C. Wofsy
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Methane emissions from leaks in natural gas pipes are often a large source in urban areas, but they are difficult to measure on a city-wide scale. Here we use an array of innovative methane sensors distributed around the city of Indianapolis and a new method of combining their data with an atmospheric model to accurately determine the magnitude of these emissions, which are about 70 % larger than predicted. This method can serve as a framework for cities trying to account for their emissions.
Ying Zhu, Jia Chen, Xiao Bi, Gerrit Kuhlmann, Ka Lok Chan, Florian Dietrich, Dominik Brunner, Sheng Ye, and Mark Wenig
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 13241–13251, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13241-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13241-2020, 2020
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Average NO2 concentration of on-street mobile measurements (MMs) near the monitoring stations (MSs) was found to be considerably higher than the MSs data. The common measurement height (H) and distance (D) of the MSs result in 27 % lower average concentrations in total than the concentration of our MMs. Another 21 % difference remained after correcting the influence of the measuring H and D. This result makes our city-wide measurements for capturing the full range of concentrations necessary.
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
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Dominik Brunner, Ivo Suter, Leonie Bernet, Lionel Constantin, Stuart K. Grange, Pascal Rubli, Junwei Li, Jia Chen, Alessandro Bigi, and Lukas Emmenegger
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In order to support the city of Zurich in tracking its path to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions planned to be reached by 2040, a CO2 emission monitoring system was established. The system combines a dense network of CO2 sensors with a high-resolution atmospheric transport model GRAMM/GRAL. This study presents the setup of the model together with its numerous inputs and evaluates its performance in comparison with the observations from the CO2 sensor network.
Neil Humpage, Hartmut Boesch, William Okello, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Mark F. Lunt, Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, and Frank Hase
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5679–5707, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5679-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5679-2024, 2024
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We used a Bruker EM27/SUN spectrometer within an automated weatherproof enclosure to measure greenhouse gas column concentrations over a 3-month period in Jinja, Uganda. The portability of the EM27/SUN allows us to evaluate satellite and model data in locations not covered by traditional validation networks. This is of particular value in tropical Africa, where extensive terrestrial ecosystems are a significant store of carbon and play a key role in the atmospheric budgets of CO2 and CH4.
Ayah Abu-Hani, Jia Chen, Vigneshkumar Balamurugan, Adrian Wenzel, and Alessandro Bigi
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This study examined the transferability of machine learning calibration models among low-cost sensor units targeting NO2 and NO. The global models were evaluated under similar and different emission conditions. To counter cross-sensitivity, the study proposed integrating O3 measurements from nearby reference stations, in Switzerland. The models show substantial improvement when O3 measurements are incorporated, which is more pronounced when in regions with elevated O3 concentrations.
Benedikt Herkommer, Carlos Alberti, Paolo Castracane, Jia Chen, Angelika Dehn, Florian Dietrich, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Matthias Max Frey, Jochen Groß, Lawson Gillespie, Frank Hase, Isamu Morino, Nasrin Mostafavi Pak, Brittany Walker, and Debra Wunch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3467–3494, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3467-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3467-2024, 2024
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The Total Carbon Column Observing Network is a network of ground-based Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers used mainly for satellite validation. To ensure the highest-quality validation data, the network needs to be highly consistent. This is a major challenge, which so far is solved by site comparisons with airborne in situ measurements. In this work, we describe the use of a portable FTIR spectrometer as a travel standard for evaluating the consistency of TCCON sites.
Xinxu Zhao, Jia Chen, Julia Marshall, Michal Gałkowski, Stephan Hachinger, Florian Dietrich, Ankit Shekhar, Johannes Gensheimer, Adrian Wenzel, and Christoph Gerbig
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14325–14347, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14325-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14325-2023, 2023
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We develop a modeling framework using the Weather Research and Forecasting model at a high spatial resolution (up to 400 m) to simulate atmospheric transport of greenhouse gases and interpret column observations. Output is validated against weather stations and column measurements in August 2018. The differential column method is applied, aided by air-mass transport tracing with the Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport (STILT) model, also for an exploratory measurement interpretation.
Vigneshkumar Balamurugan, Jia Chen, Adrian Wenzel, and Frank N. Keutsch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 10267–10285, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10267-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10267-2023, 2023
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In this study, machine learning models are employed to model NO2 and O3 concentrations. We employed a wide range of sources of data, including meteorological and column satellite measurements, to model NO2 and O3 concentrations. The spatial and temporal variability, and their drivers, were investigated. Notably, the machine learning model established the relationship between NOx and O3. Despite the fact that metropolitan regions are NO2 hotspots, rural areas have high O3 concentrations.
Andreas Forstmaier, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Juan Bettinelli, Hossein Maazallahi, Carsten Schneider, Dominik Winkler, Xinxu Zhao, Taylor Jones, Carina van der Veen, Norman Wildmann, Moritz Makowski, Aydin Uzun, Friedrich Klappenbach, Hugo Denier van der Gon, Stefan Schwietzke, and Thomas Röckmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6897–6922, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6897-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6897-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Large cities emit greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming. In this study, we measured the release of one important green house gas, methane, in Hamburg. Multiple sources that contribute to methane emissions were located and quantified. Methane sources were found to be mainly caused by human activity (e.g., by release from oil and gas refineries). Moreover, potential natural sources have been located, such as the Elbe River and lakes.
Maximilian Rißmann, Jia Chen, Gregory Osterman, Xinxu Zhao, Florian Dietrich, Moritz Makowski, Frank Hase, and Matthäus Kiel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6605–6623, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6605-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6605-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) measures atmospheric concentrations of the most potent greenhouse gas, CO2, globally. By comparing its measurements to a ground-based monitoring network in Munich (MUCCnet), we find that the satellite is able to reliably detect urban CO2 concentrations. Furthermore, spatial CO2 differences captured by OCO-2 and MUCCnet are strongly correlated, which indicates that OCO-2 could be helpful in determining urban CO2 emissions from space.
Benjamin Zanger, Jia Chen, Man Sun, and Florian Dietrich
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 7533–7556, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7533-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7533-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Gaussian priors (GPs) used in least squares inversion do not reflect the true distributions of greenhouse gas emissions well. A method that does not rely on GPs is sparse reconstruction (SR). We show that necessary conditions for SR are satisfied for cities and that the application of a wavelet transform can further enhance sparsity. We apply the theory of compressed sensing to SR. Our results show that SR needs fewer measurements and is superior for assessing unknown emitters compared to GPs.
Vigneshkumar Balamurugan, Jia Chen, Zhen Qu, Xiao Bi, and Frank N. Keutsch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7105–7129, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7105-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7105-2022, 2022
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In this study, we investigated the response of secondary pollutants to changes in precursor emissions, focusing on the formation of secondary PM, during the COVID-19 lockdown period. We show that, due to the decrease in primary NOx emissions, atmospheric oxidizing capacity is increased. The nighttime increase in ozone, caused by less NO titration, results in higher NO3 radicals, which contribute significantly to the formation of PM nitrates. O3 should be limited in order to control PM pollution.
Andreas Luther, Julian Kostinek, Ralph Kleinschek, Sara Defratyka, Mila Stanisavljević, Andreas Forstmaier, Alexandru Dandocsi, Leon Scheidweiler, Darko Dubravica, Norman Wildmann, Frank Hase, Matthias M. Frey, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Jarosław Nȩcki, Justyna Swolkień, Christoph Knote, Sanam N. Vardag, Anke Roiger, and André Butz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 5859–5876, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5859-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5859-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Coal mining is an extensive source of anthropogenic methane emissions. In order to reduce and mitigate methane emissions, it is important to know how much and where the methane is emitted. We estimated coal mining methane emissions in Poland based on atmospheric methane measurements and particle dispersion modeling. In general, our emission estimates suggest higher emissions than expected by previous annual emission reports.
Carlos Alberti, Frank Hase, Matthias Frey, Darko Dubravica, Thomas Blumenstock, Angelika Dehn, Paolo Castracane, Gregor Surawicz, Roland Harig, Bianca C. Baier, Caroline Bès, Jianrong Bi, Hartmut Boesch, André Butz, Zhaonan Cai, Jia Chen, Sean M. Crowell, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Dragos Ene, Jonathan E. Franklin, Omaira García, David Griffith, Bruno Grouiez, Michel Grutter, Abdelhamid Hamdouni, Sander Houweling, Neil Humpage, Nicole Jacobs, Sujong Jeong, Lilian Joly, Nicholas B. Jones, Denis Jouglet, Rigel Kivi, Ralph Kleinschek, Morgan Lopez, Diogo J. Medeiros, Isamu Morino, Nasrin Mostafavipak, Astrid Müller, Hirofumi Ohyama, Paul I. Palmer, Mahesh Pathakoti, David F. Pollard, Uwe Raffalski, Michel Ramonet, Robbie Ramsay, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, William Simpson, Wolfgang Stremme, Youwen Sun, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Yao Té, Gizaw Mengistu Tsidu, Voltaire A. Velazco, Felix Vogel, Masataka Watanabe, Chong Wei, Debra Wunch, Marcia Yamasoe, Lu Zhang, and Johannes Orphal
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2433–2463, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2433-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2433-2022, 2022
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Space-borne greenhouse gas missions require ground-based validation networks capable of providing fiducial reference measurements. Here, considerable refinements of the calibration procedures for the COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON) are presented. Laboratory and solar side-by-side procedures for the characterization of the spectrometers have been refined and extended. Revised calibration factors for XCO2, XCO and XCH4 are provided, incorporating 47 new spectrometers.
Johannes Gensheimer, Alexander J. Turner, Philipp Köhler, Christian Frankenberg, and Jia Chen
Biogeosciences, 19, 1777–1793, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-1777-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-1777-2022, 2022
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We develop a convolutional neural network, named SIFnet, that increases the spatial resolution of SIF from TROPOMI by a factor of 10 to a spatial resolution of 0.005°. SIFnet utilizes coarse SIF observations, together with a broad range of high-resolution auxiliary data. The insights gained from interpretable machine learning techniques allow us to make quantitative claims about the relationships between SIF and other common parameters related to photosynthesis.
Gerrit Kuhlmann, Ka Lok Chan, Sebastian Donner, Ying Zhu, Marc Schwaerzel, Steffen Dörner, Jia Chen, Andreas Hueni, Duc Hai Nguyen, Alexander Damm, Annette Schütt, Florian Dietrich, Dominik Brunner, Cheng Liu, Brigitte Buchmann, Thomas Wagner, and Mark Wenig
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1609–1629, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1609-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1609-2022, 2022
Short summary
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is an air pollutant whose concentration often exceeds air quality guideline values, especially in urban areas. To map the spatial distribution of NO2 in Munich, we conducted the Munich NO2 Imaging Campaign (MuNIC), where NO2 was measured with stationary, mobile, and airborne in situ and remote sensing instruments. The campaign provides a unique dataset that has been used to compare the different instruments and to study the spatial variability of NO2 and its sources.
Taylor S. Jones, Jonathan E. Franklin, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Kristian D. Hajny, Johannes C. Paetzold, Adrian Wenzel, Conor Gately, Elaine Gottlieb, Harrison Parker, Manvendra Dubey, Frank Hase, Paul B. Shepson, Levi H. Mielke, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13131–13147, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13131-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13131-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
Methane emissions from leaks in natural gas pipes are often a large source in urban areas, but they are difficult to measure on a city-wide scale. Here we use an array of innovative methane sensors distributed around the city of Indianapolis and a new method of combining their data with an atmospheric model to accurately determine the magnitude of these emissions, which are about 70 % larger than predicted. This method can serve as a framework for cities trying to account for their emissions.
Ying Zhu, Jia Chen, Xiao Bi, Gerrit Kuhlmann, Ka Lok Chan, Florian Dietrich, Dominik Brunner, Sheng Ye, and Mark Wenig
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 13241–13251, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13241-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13241-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Average NO2 concentration of on-street mobile measurements (MMs) near the monitoring stations (MSs) was found to be considerably higher than the MSs data. The common measurement height (H) and distance (D) of the MSs result in 27 % lower average concentrations in total than the concentration of our MMs. Another 21 % difference remained after correcting the influence of the measuring H and D. This result makes our city-wide measurements for capturing the full range of concentrations necessary.
Qiansi Tu, Frank Hase, Thomas Blumenstock, Rigel Kivi, Pauli Heikkinen, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Uwe Raffalski, Jochen Landgraf, Alba Lorente, Tobias Borsdorff, Huilin Chen, Florian Dietrich, and Jia Chen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 4751–4771, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4751-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4751-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Two COCCON instruments are used to observe multiyear greenhouse gases in boreal areas and are compared with the CAMS analysis and S5P satellite data. These three datasets predict greenhouse gas gradients with reasonable agreement. The results indicate that the COCCON instrument has the capability of measuring gradients on regional scales, and observations performed with the portable spectrometers can contribute to inferring sources and sinks and to validating spaceborne greenhouse gases.
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Short summary
Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time. However, most of the current emission estimates are based on calculations, not on actual measurements as it is difficult to quantify the emissions of large sources such as cities. This study shows how to use the relatively new approach of column measurements to quantify urban greenhouse gas emissions in an exact way using only a few compact measurement systems. The approach can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of mitigation policies.
Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time. However, most of the current emission...