Articles | Volume 18, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-7497-2025
© Author(s) 2025. 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-18-7497-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Development and validation of satellite-derived surface NO2 estimates using machine learning versus traditional approaches in North America
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Colin Hempel
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Department of Physics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Chris McLinden
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Shailesh Kumar Kharol
AtmoAnalytics Inc., Brampton, Canada
Colin Lee
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Andre Fogal
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
Christopher Sioris
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Mark Shephard
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Yuan You
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Vitali Fioletov, Junhua Zhang, Enrico Dammers, Cristen Adams, Mallory Loria, Nickolay Krotkov, and Lok N. Lamsal
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6093–6120, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6093-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6093-2025, 2025
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The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) was used to understand the evolution of NOx emissions from the Canadian oil sands. OMI NO2 combined with winds and reported stack emissions found emissions from the heavy-hauler mine fleet have remained flat since 2005, whereas the total oil sands mined have more than doubled. This difference is a result of emissions standards that limit NOx emissions becoming more stringent over this period, confirming the efficacy of the policy enacting these standards.
Ramina Alwarda, Kristof Bognar, Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Jonathan Davies, Sum Chi Lee, Debora Griffin, Alexandru Lupu, Udo Frieß, Alexander Cede, Yushan Su, and Kimberly Strong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 2397–2423, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2397-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2397-2025, 2025
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a pollutant with a short lifetime and large variability, but there are limited measurements of its distribution in the lower atmosphere. We present a new 3-year dataset of NO2 vertical profiles in Toronto, Canada, and evaluate it using NO2 from satellite and surface monitoring networks and simulations by an air quality forecast model. We quantify and explain the differences among the datasets to provide information that can be used to understand NO2 variability.
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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 575–596, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-575-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-575-2025, 2025
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Satellite data were used to estimate urban per capita emissions for 261 major cities worldwide. Three components in tropospheric NO2 data (background NO2, NO2 from urban sources, and NO2 from industrial point sources) were isolated, and then each of these components was analyzed separately. The largest per capita emissions were found in the Middle East and the smallest in India and southern Africa. Urban weekend emissions are 20 %–50 % less than workday emissions for all regions except China.
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6889–6912, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6889-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6889-2024, 2024
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This study explores differences between remote sensing and in situ instruments in terms of their vertical, horizontal, and temporal sampling differences. Understanding and resolving these differences are critical for future analyses linking satellite, ground-based remote sensing, and in situ observations in air quality monitoring. It shows that the meteorological conditions (wind directions, speed, and boundary layer conditions) will strongly affect the agreement between the two measurements.
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Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 7713–7749, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7713-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7713-2024, 2024
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Can Li, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Joanna Joiner, Vitali Fioletov, Chris McLinden, Debora Griffin, Peter J. T. Leonard, Simon Carn, Colin Seftor, and Alexander Vasilkov
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4291–4309, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4291-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4291-2024, 2024
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Sulfur dioxide (SO2), a poisonous gas from human activities and volcanoes, causes air pollution, acid rain, and changes to climate and the ozone layer. Satellites have been used to monitor SO2 globally, including remote areas. Here we describe a new satellite SO2 dataset from the OMPS instrument that flies on the N20 satellite. Results show that the new dataset agrees well with the existing ones from other satellites and can help to continue the global monitoring of SO2 from space.
Debora Griffin, Jack Chen, Kerry Anderson, Paul Makar, Chris A. McLinden, Enrico Dammers, and Andre Fogal
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10159–10186, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10159-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10159-2024, 2024
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Satellite-derived CO emissions provide new insights into the understanding of global CO emission rates from wildfires. We use TROPOMI satellite data to create a global inventory database of wildfire CO emissions. These satellite-derived wildfire emissions are used for the evaluation and improvement of existing fire emission inventories and to examine how the wildfire CO emissions have changed over the past 2 decades.
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Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 4983–5007, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4983-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4983-2024, 2024
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Nitrogen dioxide (NOx) is produced by sources such as industry and traffic and is directly linked to negative impacts on health and the environment. The current construction of emission inventories to keep track of NOx emissions is slow and time-consuming. Satellite measurements provide a way to quickly and independently estimate emissions. In this study, we apply a consistent methodology to derive NOx emissions over Germany and illustrate the value of having such a method for fast projections.
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Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 7491–7507, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7491-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7491-2023, 2023
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This work highlights upgrades to SASKTRAN, a model that simulates sunlight interacting with the atmosphere to help measure trace gases. The upgrades were verified by detailed comparisons between different numerical methods. A case study was performed using SASKTRAN’s multidimensional capabilities, which found that ignoring horizontal variation in the atmosphere (a common practice in the field) can introduce non-negligible errors where there is snow or high pollution.
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5575–5592, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5575-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5575-2023, 2023
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Snow-covered terrain, with its high reflectance in the UV, typically enhances satellite sensitivity to boundary layer pollution. However, a significant fraction of high-quality cloud-free measurements over snow is currently excluded from analyses. In this study, we investigated how satellite SO2 measurements over snow-covered surfaces can be used to improve estimations of annual SO2 emissions.
Vitali E. Fioletov, Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Ihab Abboud, Nickolay Krotkov, Peter J. T. Leonard, Can Li, Joanna Joiner, Nicolas Theys, and Simon Carn
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 75–93, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-75-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-75-2023, 2023
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Sulfur dioxide (SO2) measurements from three satellite instruments were used to update and extend the previously developed global catalogue of large SO2 emission sources. This version 2 of the global catalogue covers the period of 2005–2021 and includes a total of 759 continuously emitting point sources. The catalogue data show an approximate 50 % decline in global SO2 emissions between 2005 and 2021, although emissions were relatively stable during the last 3 years.
Katherine L. Hayden, Shao-Meng Li, John Liggio, Michael J. Wheeler, Jeremy J. B. Wentzell, Amy Leithead, Peter Brickell, Richard L. Mittermeier, Zachary Oldham, Cristian M. Mihele, Ralf M. Staebler, Samar G. Moussa, Andrea Darlington, Mengistu Wolde, Daniel Thompson, Jack Chen, Debora Griffin, Ellen Eckert, Jenna C. Ditto, Megan He, and Drew R. Gentner
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Nicolas Theys, Vitali Fioletov, Can Li, Isabelle De Smedt, Christophe Lerot, Chris McLinden, Nickolay Krotkov, Debora Griffin, Lieven Clarisse, Pascal Hedelt, Diego Loyola, Thomas Wagner, Vinod Kumar, Antje Innes, Roberto Ribas, François Hendrick, Jonas Vlietinck, Hugues Brenot, and Michel Van Roozendael
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We present a new algorithm to retrieve sulfur dioxide from space UV measurements. We apply the technique to high-resolution TROPOMI measurements and demonstrate the high sensitivity of the approach to weak SO2 emissions worldwide with an unprecedented limit of detection of 8 kt yr−1. This result has broad implications for atmospheric science studies dealing with improving emission inventories and identifying and quantifying missing sources, in the context of air quality and climate.
Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Michael Brohart, Volodya Savastiouk, Ihab Abboud, Akira Ogyu, Jonathan Davies, Reno Sit, Sum Chi Lee, Alexander Cede, Martin Tiefengraber, Moritz Müller, Debora Griffin, and Chris McLinden
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2261–2283, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2261-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2261-2021, 2021
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The Brewer spectrophotometer is one of the main instruments for measurements of atmospheric total column ozone. The global Brewer network largely relies on the world reference instruments (the Brewer triad) operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada since the early 1980s. This study provides an updated assessment (1999–2019) of the reference instrument performance, in terms of random uncertainties and long-term stability.
Fan Sun, Yu Cui, Jiayin Su, Mark W. Shephard, Shailesh K. Kharol, Yifan Zhang, Xuejing Shi, Junqing Zhang, Huili Liu, Qitao Xiao, Xiao Lu, Zhao-Cheng Zeng, Timothy J. Griffis, and Cheng Hu
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This study used satellite data and models to track ammonia concentration and dry deposition across China from 2013 to 2023. Ammonia levels rose sharply, especially in urban and farming regions, with the North China Plain showing the highest values. Human activity was the main driver of change. These findings highlight growing environmental risks and provide key insights for managing air quality and nitrogen pollution in one of the world's major emission hotspots.
Mengya Sheng, Runyi Zhou, Jiancong Hua, Shan Han, Lin Zhang, Wei Wang, Ruijun Dang, Hansen Cao, Zichong Chen, Yixuan Gu, Mingxu Liu, Lu Lee, Chengli Qi, Changpei Han, Mark W. Shephard, Nadir Guendouz, Camille Viatte, Lieven Clarisse, Martin Van Damme, Cathy Clerbaux, and Zhao-Cheng Zeng
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5699, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5699, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Geostationary observations of NH3 provide an unprecedented opportunity to monitor spatial and temporal variations in emissions and their evolution throughout the day. Using 3 years of observations from FY-4B/GIIRS over East Asia, we demonstrated the enhanced capability of geostationary observations to identify emission sources and capture daytime variations associated with agricultural activities. This shows the potential of future geostationary satellites for monitoring air quality globally.
Sujan Khanal, Matthew Toohey, Adam Bourassa, C. Thomas McElroy, Christopher Sioris, and Kaley A. Walker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 6835–6852, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6835-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6835-2025, 2025
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Measurements of stratospheric aerosol from the Measurement of Aerosol Extinction in the Stratosphere and Troposphere Retrieved by Occultation (MAESTRO) instrument are compared to other measurements to assess their scientific value. We find that medians of MAESTRO measurements binned by month and latitude show reasonable correlation with other data sets, with notable increases after volcanic eruptions, and that biases in the data can be alleviated through a simple correction technique. Used with care, MAESTRO aerosol measurements provide information that can complement other data sets.
Michael Sitwell, Mark W. Shephard, and Shailesh K. Kharol
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4034, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4034, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
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Bidirectional flux models give a unified model for emission and dry deposition, but few studies have been conducted in which satellite observations are used to refine the parameters in these models. A new bidirectional flux model for ammonia was developed that was designed specifically for use with satellite observations. Ammonia satellite observations were used to refine bidirectional flux model parameters, which improved the agreement of the model with ammonia surface observations.
Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Vitali Fioletov, Junhua Zhang, Enrico Dammers, Cristen Adams, Mallory Loria, Nickolay Krotkov, and Lok N. Lamsal
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6093–6120, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6093-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6093-2025, 2025
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The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) was used to understand the evolution of NOx emissions from the Canadian oil sands. OMI NO2 combined with winds and reported stack emissions found emissions from the heavy-hauler mine fleet have remained flat since 2005, whereas the total oil sands mined have more than doubled. This difference is a result of emissions standards that limit NOx emissions becoming more stringent over this period, confirming the efficacy of the policy enacting these standards.
Ramina Alwarda, Kristof Bognar, Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Jonathan Davies, Sum Chi Lee, Debora Griffin, Alexandru Lupu, Udo Frieß, Alexander Cede, Yushan Su, and Kimberly Strong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 2397–2423, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2397-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2397-2025, 2025
Short summary
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a pollutant with a short lifetime and large variability, but there are limited measurements of its distribution in the lower atmosphere. We present a new 3-year dataset of NO2 vertical profiles in Toronto, Canada, and evaluate it using NO2 from satellite and surface monitoring networks and simulations by an air quality forecast model. We quantify and explain the differences among the datasets to provide information that can be used to understand NO2 variability.
Paul A. Makar, Philip Cheung, Christian Hogrefe, Ayodeji Akingunola, Ummugulsum Alyuz, Jesse O. Bash, Michael D. Bell, Roberto Bellasio, Roberto Bianconi, Tim Butler, Hazel Cathcart, Olivia E. Clifton, Alma Hodzic, Ioannis Kioutsioukis, Richard Kranenburg, Aurelia Lupascu, Jason A. Lynch, Kester Momoh, Juan L. Perez-Camanyo, Jonathan Pleim, Young-Hee Ryu, Roberto San Jose, Donna Schwede, Thomas Scheuschner, Mark W. Shephard, Ranjeet S. Sokhi, and Stefano Galmarini
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3049–3107, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3049-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3049-2025, 2025
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The large range of sulfur and nitrogen deposition estimates from air quality models results in a large range of predicted impacts. We used models and deposition diagnostics to identify the processes controlling atmospheric sulfur and nitrogen deposition variability. Controlling factors included the uptake of gases and aerosols by hydrometeors, aerosol inorganic chemistry, particle dry deposition, ammonia bidirectional fluxes, gas deposition via plant cuticles and soil, and land use data.
Vitali Fioletov, Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Xiaoyi Zhao, and Henk Eskes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 575–596, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-575-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-575-2025, 2025
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Satellite data were used to estimate urban per capita emissions for 261 major cities worldwide. Three components in tropospheric NO2 data (background NO2, NO2 from urban sources, and NO2 from industrial point sources) were isolated, and then each of these components was analyzed separately. The largest per capita emissions were found in the Middle East and the smallest in India and southern Africa. Urban weekend emissions are 20 %–50 % less than workday emissions for all regions except China.
Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Debora Griffin, Chris McLinden, Ralf Staebler, Cristian Mihele, Kevin Strawbridge, Jonathan Davies, Ihab Abboud, Sum Chi Lee, Alexander Cede, Martin Tiefengraber, and Robert Swap
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6889–6912, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6889-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6889-2024, 2024
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This study explores differences between remote sensing and in situ instruments in terms of their vertical, horizontal, and temporal sampling differences. Understanding and resolving these differences are critical for future analyses linking satellite, ground-based remote sensing, and in situ observations in air quality monitoring. It shows that the meteorological conditions (wind directions, speed, and boundary layer conditions) will strongly affect the agreement between the two measurements.
Kerry Anderson, Jack Chen, Peter Englefield, Debora Griffin, Paul A. Makar, and Dan Thompson
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 7713–7749, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7713-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7713-2024, 2024
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The Global Forest Fire Emissions Prediction System (GFFEPS) is a model that predicts smoke and carbon emissions from wildland fires. The model calculates emissions from the ground up based on satellite-detected fires, modelled weather and fire characteristics. Unlike other global models, GFFEPS uses daily weather conditions to capture changing burning conditions on a day-to-day basis. GFFEPS produced lower carbon emissions due to the changing weather not captured by the other models.
Jieying Ding, Ronald van der A, Henk Eskes, Enrico Dammers, Mark Shephard, Roy Wichink Kruit, Marc Guevara, and Leonor Tarrason
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10583–10599, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10583-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10583-2024, 2024
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Here we applied the existing Daily Emissions Constrained by Satellite Observations (DECSO) inversion algorithm to NH3 observations from the CrIS satellite instrument to estimate NH3 emissions. As NH3 in the atmosphere is influenced by NOx, we implemented DECSO to estimate NOx and NH3 emissions simultaneously. The emissions are derived over Europe for 2020 at a spatial resolution of 0.2° using daily observations from CrIS and TROPOMI. Results are compared to bottom-up emission inventories.
Can Li, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Joanna Joiner, Vitali Fioletov, Chris McLinden, Debora Griffin, Peter J. T. Leonard, Simon Carn, Colin Seftor, and Alexander Vasilkov
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4291–4309, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4291-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4291-2024, 2024
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Sulfur dioxide (SO2), a poisonous gas from human activities and volcanoes, causes air pollution, acid rain, and changes to climate and the ozone layer. Satellites have been used to monitor SO2 globally, including remote areas. Here we describe a new satellite SO2 dataset from the OMPS instrument that flies on the N20 satellite. Results show that the new dataset agrees well with the existing ones from other satellites and can help to continue the global monitoring of SO2 from space.
Debora Griffin, Jack Chen, Kerry Anderson, Paul Makar, Chris A. McLinden, Enrico Dammers, and Andre Fogal
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10159–10186, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10159-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10159-2024, 2024
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Satellite-derived CO emissions provide new insights into the understanding of global CO emission rates from wildfires. We use TROPOMI satellite data to create a global inventory database of wildfire CO emissions. These satellite-derived wildfire emissions are used for the evaluation and improvement of existing fire emission inventories and to examine how the wildfire CO emissions have changed over the past 2 decades.
Enrico Dammers, Janot Tokaya, Christian Mielke, Kevin Hausmann, Debora Griffin, Chris McLinden, Henk Eskes, and Renske Timmermans
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 4983–5007, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4983-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4983-2024, 2024
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Nitrogen dioxide (NOx) is produced by sources such as industry and traffic and is directly linked to negative impacts on health and the environment. The current construction of emission inventories to keep track of NOx emissions is slow and time-consuming. Satellite measurements provide a way to quickly and independently estimate emissions. In this study, we apply a consistent methodology to derive NOx emissions over Germany and illustrate the value of having such a method for fast projections.
Stefan J. Miller, Paul A. Makar, and Colin J. Lee
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 2197–2219, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2197-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-2197-2024, 2024
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This work outlines a new solver written in Fortran to calculate the partitioning of metastable aerosols at thermodynamic equilibrium based on the forward algorithms of ISORROPIA II. The new code includes numerical improvements that decrease the computational speed (compared to ISORROPIA II) while improving the accuracy of the partitioning solution.
Roya Ghahreman, Wanmin Gong, Paul A. Makar, Alexandru Lupu, Amanda Cole, Kulbir Banwait, Colin Lee, and Ayodeji Akingunola
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 685–707, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-685-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-685-2024, 2024
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The article explores the impact of different representations of below-cloud scavenging on model biases. A new scavenging scheme and precipitation-phase partitioning improve the model's performance, with better SO42- scavenging and wet deposition of NO3- and NH4+.
Karen E. Cady-Pereira, Xuehui Guo, Rui Wang, April B. Leytem, Chase Calkins, Elizabeth Berry, Kang Sun, Markus Müller, Armin Wisthaler, Vivienne H. Payne, Mark W. Shephard, Mark A. Zondlo, and Valentin Kantchev
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 15–36, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-15-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-15-2024, 2024
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Ammonia is a significant precursor of PM2.5 particles and thus contributes to poor air quality in many regions. Furthermore, ammonia concentrations are rising due to the increase of large-scale, intensive agricultural activities. Here we evaluate satellite measurements of ammonia against aircraft and surface network data, and show that there are differences in magnitude, but the satellite data are spatially and temporally well correlated with the in situ data.
Lukas Fehr, Chris McLinden, Debora Griffin, Daniel Zawada, Doug Degenstein, and Adam Bourassa
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 7491–7507, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7491-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7491-2023, 2023
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This work highlights upgrades to SASKTRAN, a model that simulates sunlight interacting with the atmosphere to help measure trace gases. The upgrades were verified by detailed comparisons between different numerical methods. A case study was performed using SASKTRAN’s multidimensional capabilities, which found that ignoring horizontal variation in the atmosphere (a common practice in the field) can introduce non-negligible errors where there is snow or high pollution.
Vitali E. Fioletov, Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Can Li, Joanna Joiner, Nicolas Theys, and Simon Carn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5575–5592, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5575-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5575-2023, 2023
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Snow-covered terrain, with its high reflectance in the UV, typically enhances satellite sensitivity to boundary layer pollution. However, a significant fraction of high-quality cloud-free measurements over snow is currently excluded from analyses. In this study, we investigated how satellite SO2 measurements over snow-covered surfaces can be used to improve estimations of annual SO2 emissions.
Colin J. Lee, Paul A. Makar, and Joana Soares
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2023-185, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2023-185, 2023
Publication in GMD not foreseen
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Clustering is an analysis technique for finding similarities within datasets. We present a new implementation of the hierarchical clustering algorithm that is able to process much larger datasets than was previously possible, by spreading the program out over many connected computers in a high-performance computing system. We show airshed maps of a high-resolution regional model output domain, and find related air pollution profiles at monitoring stations separated by thousands of kilometers.
Zhipeng Qu, David P. Donovan, Howard W. Barker, Jason N. S. Cole, Mark W. Shephard, and Vincent Huijnen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4927–4946, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4927-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4927-2023, 2023
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The EarthCARE satellite mission Level 2 algorithm development requires realistic 3D cloud and aerosol scenes along the satellite orbits. One of the best ways to produce these scenes is to use a high-resolution numerical weather prediction model to simulate atmospheric conditions at 250 m horizontal resolution. This paper describes the production and validation of three EarthCARE test scenes.
Michael Kiefer, Dale F. Hurst, Gabriele P. Stiller, Stefan Lossow, Holger Vömel, John Anderson, Faiza Azam, Jean-Loup Bertaux, Laurent Blanot, Klaus Bramstedt, John P. Burrows, Robert Damadeo, Bianca Maria Dinelli, Patrick Eriksson, Maya García-Comas, John C. Gille, Mark Hervig, Yasuko Kasai, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Donal Murtagh, Gerald E. Nedoluha, Stefan Noël, Piera Raspollini, William G. Read, Karen H. Rosenlof, Alexei Rozanov, Christopher E. Sioris, Takafumi Sugita, Thomas von Clarmann, Kaley A. Walker, and Katja Weigel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4589–4642, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4589-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4589-2023, 2023
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We quantify biases and drifts (and their uncertainties) between the stratospheric water vapor measurement records of 15 satellite-based instruments (SATs, with 31 different retrievals) and balloon-borne frost point hygrometers (FPs) launched at 27 globally distributed stations. These comparisons of measurements during the period 2000–2016 are made using robust, consistent statistical methods. With some exceptions, the biases and drifts determined for most SAT–FP pairs are < 10 % and < 1 % yr−1.
Jason N. S. Cole, Howard W. Barker, Zhipeng Qu, Najda Villefranque, and Mark W. Shephard
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4271–4288, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4271-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4271-2023, 2023
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Measurements from the EarthCARE satellite mission will be used to retrieve profiles of cloud and aerosol properties. These retrievals are combined with auxiliary information about surface properties and atmospheric state, e.g., temperature and water vapor. This information allows computation of 1D and 3D solar and thermal radiative transfer for small domains, which are compared with coincident radiometer observations to continually assess EarthCARE retrievals.
Zhipeng Qu, Howard W. Barker, Jason N. S. Cole, and Mark W. Shephard
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2319–2331, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2319-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2319-2023, 2023
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This paper describes EarthCARE’s L2 product ACM-3D. It includes the scene construction algorithm (SCA) used to produce the indexes for reconstructing 3D atmospheric scene based on satellite nadir retrievals. It also provides the information about the buffer zone sizes of 3D assessment domains and the ranking scores for selecting the best 3D assessment domains. These output variables are needed to run 3D radiative transfer models for the radiative closure assessment of EarthCARE’s L2 retrievals.
Vitali E. Fioletov, Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Ihab Abboud, Nickolay Krotkov, Peter J. T. Leonard, Can Li, Joanna Joiner, Nicolas Theys, and Simon Carn
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 75–93, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-75-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-75-2023, 2023
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Sulfur dioxide (SO2) measurements from three satellite instruments were used to update and extend the previously developed global catalogue of large SO2 emission sources. This version 2 of the global catalogue covers the period of 2005–2021 and includes a total of 759 continuously emitting point sources. The catalogue data show an approximate 50 % decline in global SO2 emissions between 2005 and 2021, although emissions were relatively stable during the last 3 years.
Paul S. Jeffery, Kaley A. Walker, Chris E. Sioris, Chris D. Boone, Doug Degenstein, Gloria L. Manney, C. Thomas McElroy, Luis Millán, David A. Plummer, Niall J. Ryan, Patrick E. Sheese, and Jiansheng Zou
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14709–14734, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14709-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14709-2022, 2022
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The upper troposphere–lower stratosphere is one of the most variable regions in the atmosphere. To improve our understanding of water vapour and ozone concentrations in this region, climatologies have been developed from 14 years of measurements from three Canadian satellite instruments. Horizontal and vertical coordinates have been chosen to minimize the effects of variability. To aid in analysis, model simulations have been used to characterize differences between instrument climatologies.
Sarah A. Strode, Ghassan Taha, Luke D. Oman, Robert Damadeo, David Flittner, Mark Schoeberl, Christopher E. Sioris, and Ryan Stauffer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6145–6161, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6145-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6145-2022, 2022
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We use a global atmospheric chemistry model simulation to generate scaling factors that account for the daily cycle of NO2 and ozone. These factors facilitate comparisons between sunrise and sunset observations from SAGE III/ISS and observations from other instruments. We provide the scaling factors as monthly zonal means for different latitudes and altitudes. We find that applying these factors yields more consistent comparisons between observations from SAGE III/ISS and other instruments.
Can Li, Joanna Joiner, Fei Liu, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Vitali Fioletov, and Chris McLinden
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5497–5514, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5497-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5497-2022, 2022
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Satellite observations provide information on the sources of SO2, an important pollutant that affects both air quality and climate. However, these observations suffer from relatively poor data quality due to weak signals of SO2. Here, we use a machine learning technique to analyze satellite SO2 observations in order to reduce the noise and artifacts over relatively clean areas while keeping the signals near pollution sources. This leads to significant improvement in satellite SO2 data.
Katherine L. Hayden, Shao-Meng Li, John Liggio, Michael J. Wheeler, Jeremy J. B. Wentzell, Amy Leithead, Peter Brickell, Richard L. Mittermeier, Zachary Oldham, Cristian M. Mihele, Ralf M. Staebler, Samar G. Moussa, Andrea Darlington, Mengistu Wolde, Daniel Thompson, Jack Chen, Debora Griffin, Ellen Eckert, Jenna C. Ditto, Megan He, and Drew R. Gentner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12493–12523, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12493-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12493-2022, 2022
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In this study, airborne measurements provided the most detailed characterization, to date, of boreal forest wildfire emissions. Measurements showed a large diversity of air pollutants expanding the volatility range typically reported. A large portion of organic species was unidentified, likely comprised of complex organic compounds. Aircraft-derived emissions improve wildfire chemical speciation and can support reliable model predictions of pollution from boreal forest wildfires.
Kang Sun, Mahdi Yousefi, Christopher Chan Miller, Kelly Chance, Gonzalo González Abad, Iouli E. Gordon, Xiong Liu, Ewan O'Sullivan, Christopher E. Sioris, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3721–3745, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3721-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3721-2022, 2022
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This study of upper atmospheric airglow from oxygen is motivated by the need to measure oxygen simultaneously with methane and CO2 in satellite remote sensing. We provide an accurate understanding of the spatial, temporal, and spectral distribution of airglow emissions, which will help in the satellite remote sensing of greenhouse gases and constraining the chemical and physical processes in the upper atmosphere.
Michael Sitwell, Mark W. Shephard, Yves Rochon, Karen Cady-Pereira, and Enrico Dammers
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6595–6624, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6595-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6595-2022, 2022
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Observations of ammonia made using the satellite-borne CrIS instrument were used to improve the ammonia emissions used in the GEM-MACH model. These observations were used to refine estimates of the monthly mean ammonia emissions over North America for May to August 2016. The updated ammonia emissions reduced biases of GEM-MACH surface ammonia fields with surface observations and showed some improvements in the forecasting of species involved in inorganic particulate matter formation.
Vitali Fioletov, Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Nickolay Krotkov, Fei Liu, and Henk Eskes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4201–4236, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4201-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4201-2022, 2022
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The COVID-19 lockdown had a large impact on anthropogenic emissions and particularly on nitrogen dioxide (NO2). A new method of isolation of background, urban, and industrial components in NO2 is applied to estimate the lockdown impact on each of them. From 16 March to 15 June 2020, urban NO2 declined by −18 % to −28 % in most regions of the world, while background NO2 typically declined by less than −10 %.
Shelley van der Graaf, Enrico Dammers, Arjo Segers, Richard Kranenburg, Martijn Schaap, Mark W. Shephard, and Jan Willem Erisman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 951–972, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-951-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-951-2022, 2022
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CrIS NH3 satellite observations are assimilated into the LOTOS-EUROS model using two different methods. In the first method the data are used to fit spatially varying NH3 emission time factors. In the second method a local ensemble transform Kalman filter is used. Compared to in situ observations, combining both methods led to the most significant improvements in the modeled concentrations and deposition, illustrating the usefulness of CrIS NH3 to improve the spatiotemporal distribution of NH3.
Mahtab Majdzadeh, Craig A. Stroud, Christopher Sioris, Paul A. Makar, Ayodeji Akingunola, Chris McLinden, Xiaoyi Zhao, Michael D. Moran, Ihab Abboud, and Jack Chen
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 219–249, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-219-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-219-2022, 2022
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A new lookup table for aerosol optical properties based on a Mie scattering code was calculated and adopted within an improved version of the photolysis module in the GEM-MACH in-line chemical transport model. The modified version of the photolysis module makes use of online interactive aerosol feedback and applies core-shell parameterizations to the black carbon absorption efficiency based on Bond et al. (2006) to the size bins with black carbon mass fraction of less than 40 %.
Debora Griffin, Chris A. McLinden, Enrico Dammers, Cristen Adams, Chelsea E. Stockwell, Carsten Warneke, Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Kyle J. Zarzana, Jake P. Rowe, Rainer Volkamer, Christoph Knote, Natalie Kille, Theodore K. Koenig, Christopher F. Lee, Drew Rollins, Pamela S. Rickly, Jack Chen, Lukas Fehr, Adam Bourassa, Doug Degenstein, Katherine Hayden, Cristian Mihele, Sumi N. Wren, John Liggio, Ayodeji Akingunola, and Paul Makar
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7929–7957, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7929-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7929-2021, 2021
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Satellite-derived NOx emissions from biomass burning are estimated with TROPOMI observations. Two common emission estimation methods are applied, and sensitivity tests with model output were performed to determine the accuracy of these methods. The effect of smoke aerosols on TROPOMI NO2 columns is estimated and compared to aircraft observations from four different aircraft campaigns measuring biomass burning plumes in 2018 and 2019 in North America.
Nicolas Theys, Vitali Fioletov, Can Li, Isabelle De Smedt, Christophe Lerot, Chris McLinden, Nickolay Krotkov, Debora Griffin, Lieven Clarisse, Pascal Hedelt, Diego Loyola, Thomas Wagner, Vinod Kumar, Antje Innes, Roberto Ribas, François Hendrick, Jonas Vlietinck, Hugues Brenot, and Michel Van Roozendael
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16727–16744, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16727-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16727-2021, 2021
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We present a new algorithm to retrieve sulfur dioxide from space UV measurements. We apply the technique to high-resolution TROPOMI measurements and demonstrate the high sensitivity of the approach to weak SO2 emissions worldwide with an unprecedented limit of detection of 8 kt yr−1. This result has broad implications for atmospheric science studies dealing with improving emission inventories and identifying and quantifying missing sources, in the context of air quality and climate.
Michaela I. Hegglin, Susann Tegtmeier, John Anderson, Adam E. Bourassa, Samuel Brohede, Doug Degenstein, Lucien Froidevaux, Bernd Funke, John Gille, Yasuko Kasai, Erkki T. Kyrölä, Jerry Lumpe, Donal Murtagh, Jessica L. Neu, Kristell Pérot, Ellis E. Remsberg, Alexei Rozanov, Matthew Toohey, Joachim Urban, Thomas von Clarmann, Kaley A. Walker, Hsiang-Jui Wang, Carlo Arosio, Robert Damadeo, Ryan A. Fuller, Gretchen Lingenfelser, Christopher McLinden, Diane Pendlebury, Chris Roth, Niall J. Ryan, Christopher Sioris, Lesley Smith, and Katja Weigel
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 1855–1903, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1855-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1855-2021, 2021
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An overview of the SPARC Data Initiative is presented, to date the most comprehensive assessment of stratospheric composition measurements spanning 1979–2018. Measurements of 26 chemical constituents obtained from an international suite of space-based limb sounders were compiled into vertically resolved, zonal monthly mean time series. The quality and consistency of these gridded datasets are then evaluated using a climatological validation approach and a range of diagnostics.
Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Michael Brohart, Volodya Savastiouk, Ihab Abboud, Akira Ogyu, Jonathan Davies, Reno Sit, Sum Chi Lee, Alexander Cede, Martin Tiefengraber, Moritz Müller, Debora Griffin, and Chris McLinden
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2261–2283, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2261-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2261-2021, 2021
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The Brewer spectrophotometer is one of the main instruments for measurements of atmospheric total column ozone. The global Brewer network largely relies on the world reference instruments (the Brewer triad) operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada since the early 1980s. This study provides an updated assessment (1999–2019) of the reference instrument performance, in terms of random uncertainties and long-term stability.
Nikolaos Evangeliou, Yves Balkanski, Sabine Eckhardt, Anne Cozic, Martin Van Damme, Pierre-François Coheur, Lieven Clarisse, Mark W. Shephard, Karen E. Cady-Pereira, and Didier Hauglustaine
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 4431–4451, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4431-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4431-2021, 2021
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Ammonia, a substance that has played a key role in sustaining life, has been increasing in the atmosphere, affecting climate and humans. Understanding the reasons for this increase is important for the beneficial use of ammonia. The evolution of satellite products gives us the opportunity to calculate ammonia emissions easier. We calculated global ammonia emissions over the last 10 years, incorporated them into a chemistry model and recorded notable improvement in reproducing observations.
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Short summary
NO2 surface concentrations are obtained across North America using satellite data and machine learning, and compared to traditional approaches to determine surface NO2 from satellite observations.
NO2 surface concentrations are obtained across North America using satellite data and machine...