Articles | Volume 8, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-3831-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-3831-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
18 Sep 2015
Research article |
| 18 Sep 2015
OMI tropospheric NO2 air mass factors over South America: effects of biomass burning aerosols
P. Castellanos
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
now at: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
now at: GESTAR/Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD, USA
K. F. Boersma
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, the Netherlands
Meteorology and Air Quality Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands
O. Torres
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
J. F. de Haan
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, the Netherlands
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Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-616, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2024-616, 2025
Preprint under review for ESSD
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We developed a new global dataset of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels in the lower atmosphere, using data from TROPOMI for 2018–2021. This dataset offers improved accuracy and detail compared to earlier versions, meeting high international standards for climate data. By refining how measurement errors are calculated and reduced over time and space, we provide clearer insights into pollution patterns. This work supports better air quality monitoring and informs actions to address pollution globally.
Felipe Cifuentes, Henk Eskes, Enrico Dammers, Charlotte Bryan, and Folkert Boersma
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 621–649, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-621-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-621-2025, 2025
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We tested the capability of the flux divergence approach (FDA) to reproduce known NOx emissions using synthetic NO2 satellite column retrievals from high-resolution model simulations. The FDA accurately reproduced NOx emissions when column observations were limited to the boundary layer and when the variability of the NO2 lifetime, the NOx : NO2 ratio, and NO2 profile shapes were correctly modeled. This introduces strong model dependency, reducing the simplicity of the original FDA formulation.
Pieter Rijsdijk, Henk Eskes, Arlene Dingemans, K. Folkert Boersma, Takashi Sekiya, Kazuyuki Miyazaki, and Sander Houweling
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 483–509, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-483-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-483-2025, 2025
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Clustering high-resolution satellite observations into superobservations improves model validation and data assimilation applications. In our paper, we derive quantitative uncertainties for satellite NO2 column observations based on knowledge of the retrievals, including a detailed analysis of spatial error correlations and representativity errors. The superobservations and uncertainty estimates are tested in a global chemical data assimilation system and are found to improve the forecasts.
Alba Mols, Klaas Folkert Boersma, Hugo Denier van der Gon, and Maarten Krol
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-49, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-49, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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We created a new method to estimate city air pollution (NOx emissions) using satellite data. Testing showed our approach works well to track how pollution spreads in urban areas. By combining observations with prior knowledge, we improved the accuracy of emission estimates. Applying this method in Paris, we found emissions were 9 % lower than expected and dropped significantly during COVID-19 lockdowns. Our method offers a reliable way to monitor pollution and support environmental policies.
Xin Xi, Jun Wang, Zhendong Lu, Andrew Sayer, Jaehwa Lee, Robert Levy, Yujie Wang, Alexei Lyapustin, Hongqing Liu, Istvan Laszlo, Changwoo Ahn, Omar Torres, Sabur Abdullaev, and Ralph Kahn
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3416, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3416, 2024
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Currently there are a number of satellite aerosol products available for dust research. The consistency between them is generally poor understood. This paper reveals significant inconsistency between different satellite sensors and techniques in observing the wind-blown saline dust from the Aralkum Desert, and demonstrates the potential of a multisensor approach for robust characterization of airborne dust over desert areas.
Suvarna Fadnavis, Yasin Elshorbany, Jerald Ziemke, Brice Barret, Alexandru Rap, P. R. Satheesh Chandran, Richard Pope, Vijay Sagar, Domenico Taraborrelli, Eric Le Flochmoen, Juan Cuesta, Catherine Wespes, Folkert Boersma, Isolde Glissenaar, Isabelle De Smedt, Michel Van Roozendael, Hervé Petetin, and Isidora Anglou
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3050, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3050, 2024
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Satellites and model simulations show enhancement in tropospheric ozone, which is highly impacted by human-produced Nitrous oxides compared to volatile organic compounds. The increased amount of ozone enhances ozone radiative forcing. The ozone enhancement and associated radiative forcing are highest over South and East Asia. The emissions of Nitrous oxides show a higher influence in shifting ozone photochemical regimes than volatile organic compounds.
Juliëtte C. S. Anema, K. Folkert Boersma, Lieuwe G. Tilstra, Olaf N. E. Tuinder, and Willem W. Verstraeten
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2666, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2666, 2024
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Long-term records of plant fluorescence offer vital insights into changing vegetation activity. The GOME-2A sensor provides extensive global observations but suffers from calibration and instrument degradation that affect data consistency. This study presents the SIFTER v3 algorithm, which effectively resolves these issues and includes other improvements, resulting in robust, accurate, and consistent GOME-2A fluorescence measurements from 2007 to 2017.
Qianqian Zhang, K. Folkert Boersma, Chiel van der Laan, Alba Mols, Bin Zhao, Shengyue Li, and Yuepeng Pan
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2641, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2641, 2024
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Accurate NOx emission estimates are required to better understand air pollution. This study investigates and demonstrates the ability of the superposition column model in combination with TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 column data to estimate city-scale NOx emissions and lifetimes and their variabilities. The results of this work nevertheless confirm the strength of the superposition column model in estimating urban NOx emissions with reasonable accuracy.
Tong Sha, Siyu Yang, Qingcai Chen, Liangqing Li, Xiaoyan Ma, Yan-Lin Zhang, Zhaozhong Feng, K. Folkert Boersma, and Jun Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8441–8455, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8441-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8441-2024, 2024
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Using an updated soil reactive nitrogen emission scheme in the Unified Inputs for Weather Research and Forecasting coupled with Chemistry (UI-WRF-Chem) model, we investigate the role of soil NO and HONO (Nr) emissions in air quality and temperature in North China. Contributions of soil Nr emissions to O3 and secondary pollutants are revealed, exceeding effects of soil NOx or HONO emission. Soil Nr emissions play an important role in mitigating O3 pollution and addressing climate change.
Yeseul Cho, Jhoon Kim, Sujung Go, Mijin Kim, Seoyoung Lee, Minseok Kim, Heesung Chong, Won-Jin Lee, Dong-Won Lee, Omar Torres, and Sang Seo Park
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4369–4390, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4369-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4369-2024, 2024
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Aerosol optical properties have been provided by the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS), the world’s first geostationary-Earth-orbit (GEO) satellite instrument designed for atmospheric environmental monitoring. This study describes improvements made to the GEMS aerosol retrieval algorithm (AERAOD) and presents its validation results. These enhancements aim to provide more accurate and reliable aerosol-monitoring results for Asia.
Maarten Krol, Bart van Stratum, Isidora Anglou, and Klaas Folkert Boersma
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8243–8262, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8243-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8243-2024, 2024
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This paper presents detailed plume simulations of nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide that are emitted from four large industrial facilities world-wide. Results from the high-resolution simulations that include atmospheric chemistry are compared to nitrogen dioxide observations from satellites. We find good performance of the model and show that common assumptions that are used in simplified models need revision. This work is important for the monitoring of emissions using satellite data.
Arno Keppens, Serena Di Pede, Daan Hubert, Jean-Christopher Lambert, Pepijn Veefkind, Maarten Sneep, Johan De Haan, Mark ter Linden, Thierry Leblanc, Steven Compernolle, Tijl Verhoelst, José Granville, Oindrila Nath, Ann Mari Fjæraa, Ian Boyd, Sander Niemeijer, Roeland Van Malderen, Herman G. J. Smit, Valentin Duflot, Sophie Godin-Beekmann, Bryan J. Johnson, Wolfgang Steinbrecht, David W. Tarasick, Debra E. Kollonige, Ryan M. Stauffer, Anne M. Thompson, Angelika Dehn, and Claus Zehner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3969–3993, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3969-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3969-2024, 2024
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The Sentinel-5P satellite operated by the European Space Agency has carried the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) around the Earth since October 2017. This mission also produces atmospheric ozone profile data which are described in detail for May 2018 to April 2023. Independent validation using ground-based reference measurements demonstrates that the operational ozone profile product mostly fully and at least partially complies with all mission requirements.
Juliëtte C. S. Anema, Klaas Folkert Boersma, Piet Stammes, Gerbrand Koren, William Woodgate, Philipp Köhler, Christian Frankenberg, and Jacqui Stol
Biogeosciences, 21, 2297–2311, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2297-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-21-2297-2024, 2024
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To keep the Paris agreement goals within reach, negative emissions are necessary. They can be achieved with mitigation techniques, such as reforestation, which remove CO2 from the atmosphere. While governments have pinned their hopes on them, there is not yet a good set of tools to objectively determine whether negative emissions do what they promise. Here we show how satellite measurements of plant fluorescence are useful in detecting carbon uptake due to reforestation and vegetation regrowth.
Hiren T. Jethva, Omar Torres, Richard A. Ferrare, Sharon P. Burton, Anthony L. Cook, David B. Harper, Chris A. Hostetler, Jens Redemann, Vinay Kayetha, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Logan Mitchell, and Connor J. Flynn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2335–2366, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2335-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2335-2024, 2024
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We introduce a novel synergy algorithm applied to ORALCES airborne measurements of above-cloud aerosol optical depth and UV–Vis satellite observations from OMI and MODIS to retrieve spectral aerosol single-scattering albedo of lofted layers of carbonaceous smoke aerosols over clouds. The development of the proposed aerosol–cloud algorithm implies a possible synergy of CALIOP and OMI–MODIS passive sensors to deduce a global product of AOD and SSA of absorbing aerosols above clouds.
Tobias Christoph Valentin Werner Riess, Klaas Folkert Boersma, Ward Van Roy, Jos de Laat, Enrico Dammers, and Jasper van Vliet
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5287–5304, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5287-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5287-2023, 2023
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Satellite retrievals of trace gases require prior knowledge of the vertical distribution of the pollutant, which is usually obtained from models. Using aircraft-measured vertical NO2 profiles over the North Sea in summer 2021, we evaluate the Transport Model 5 profiles used in the TROPOMI NO2 retrieval. We conclude that driven by the low horizontal resolution and the overestimated vertical mixing, resulting NO2 columns are 20 % too low. This has important implications for emission estimates.
John Douros, Henk Eskes, Jos van Geffen, K. Folkert Boersma, Steven Compernolle, Gaia Pinardi, Anne-Marlene Blechschmidt, Vincent-Henri Peuch, Augustin Colette, and Pepijn Veefkind
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 509–534, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-509-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-509-2023, 2023
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We focus on the challenges associated with comparing atmospheric composition models with satellite products such as tropospheric NO2 columns. The aim is to highlight the methodological difficulties and propose sound ways of doing such comparisons. Building on the comparisons, a new satellite product is proposed and made available, which takes advantage of higher-resolution, regional atmospheric modelling to improve estimates of troposheric NO2 columns over Europe.
Viral Shah, Daniel J. Jacob, Ruijun Dang, Lok N. Lamsal, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, K. Folkert Boersma, Sebastian D. Eastham, Thibaud M. Fritz, Chelsea Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Ilann Bourgeois, Ilana B. Pollack, Benjamin A. Nault, Ronald C. Cohen, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jose L. Jimenez, Simone T. Andersen, Lucy J. Carpenter, Tomás Sherwen, and Mat J. Evans
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1227–1257, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1227-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1227-2023, 2023
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NOx in the free troposphere (above 2 km) affects global tropospheric chemistry and the retrieval and interpretation of satellite NO2 measurements. We evaluate free tropospheric NOx in global atmospheric chemistry models and find that recycling NOx from its reservoirs over the oceans is faster than that simulated in the models, resulting in increases in simulated tropospheric ozone and OH. Over the U.S., free tropospheric NO2 contributes the majority of the tropospheric NO2 column in summer.
Qianqian Zhang, K. Folkert Boersma, Bin Zhao, Henk Eskes, Cuihong Chen, Haotian Zheng, and Xingying Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 551–563, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-551-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-551-2023, 2023
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We developed an improved superposition column model and used the latest released (v2.3.1) TROPOMI satellite NO2 observations to estimate daily city-scale NOx and CO2 emissions. The results are verified against bottom-up emissions and OCO-2 XCO2 observations. We obtained the day-to-day variation of city NOx and CO2 emissions, allowing policymakers to gain real-time information on spatial–temporal emission patterns and the effectiveness of carbon and nitrogen regulation in urban environments.
Srijana Lama, Sander Houweling, K. Folkert Boersma, Ilse Aben, Hugo A. C. Denier van der Gon, and Maarten C. Krol
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 16053–16071, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-16053-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-16053-2022, 2022
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Hydroxyl radical (OH) is the important chemical species that determines the lifetime of some greenhouse gases and trace gases. OH plays a vital role in air pollution chemistry. OH has a short lifetime and is extremely difficult to measure directly. OH concentrations derived from the chemistry transport model (CTM) have uncertainties of >50 %. Therefore, in this study, OH is derived indirectly using satellite date in urban plumes.
Jos van Geffen, Henk Eskes, Steven Compernolle, Gaia Pinardi, Tijl Verhoelst, Jean-Christopher Lambert, Maarten Sneep, Mark ter Linden, Antje Ludewig, K. Folkert Boersma, and J. Pepijn Veefkind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2037–2060, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2037-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2037-2022, 2022
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of the main data products measured by the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) satellite. This study describes improvements in the TROPOMI NO2 retrieval leading to version v2.2, operational since 1 July 2021. It compares results with previous versions v1.2–v1.4 and with Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and ground-based measurements.
Tobias Christoph Valentin Werner Riess, Klaas Folkert Boersma, Jasper van Vliet, Wouter Peters, Maarten Sneep, Henk Eskes, and Jos van Geffen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1415–1438, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1415-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1415-2022, 2022
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This paper reports on improved monitoring of ship nitrogen oxide emissions by TROPOMI. With its fantastic resolution we can identify lanes of ship nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution not detected from space before. The quality of TROPOMI NO2 data over sea is improved further by recent upgrades in cloud retrievals and the use of sun glint scenes. Lastly, we study the impact of COVID-19 on ship NO2 in European seas and compare the found reductions to emission estimates gained from ship-specific data.
Vinay Kayetha, Omar Torres, and Hiren Jethva
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 845–877, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-845-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-845-2022, 2022
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Existing measurements of spectral aerosol absorption are limited, particularly in the UV region. We use the synergy of satellite and ground measurements to derive spectral single scattering albedo of aerosols from the UV–visible spectrum. The resulting spectral SSAs are used to investigate seasonality in absorption for carbonaceous, dust, and urban aerosols. Regional aerosol absorption models that could be used to make reliable assumptions in satellite remote sensing of aerosols are derived.
Auke J. Visser, Laurens N. Ganzeveld, Ignacio Goded, Maarten C. Krol, Ivan Mammarella, Giovanni Manca, and K. Folkert Boersma
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 18393–18411, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18393-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18393-2021, 2021
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Dry deposition is an important sink for tropospheric ozone that affects ecosystem carbon uptake, but process understanding remains incomplete. We apply a common deposition representation in atmospheric chemistry models and a multi-layer canopy model to multi-year ozone deposition observations. The multi-layer canopy model performs better on diurnal timescales compared to the common approach, leading to a substantially improved simulation of ozone deposition and vegetation ozone impact metrics.
Nick Gorkavyi, Nickolay Krotkov, Can Li, Leslie Lait, Peter Colarco, Simon Carn, Matthew DeLand, Paul Newman, Mark Schoeberl, Ghassan Taha, Omar Torres, Alexander Vasilkov, and Joanna Joiner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7545–7563, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7545-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7545-2021, 2021
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The 21 June 2019 eruption of the Raikoke volcano produced significant amounts of volcanic aerosols (sulfate and ash) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas that penetrated into the lower stratosphere. We showed that the amount of SO2 decreases with a characteristic period of 8–18 d and the peak of sulfate aerosol lags the initial peak of SO2 by 1.5 months. We also examined the dynamics of an unusual stratospheric coherent circular cloud of SO2 and aerosol observed from 18 July to 22 September 2019.
Isabelle De Smedt, Gaia Pinardi, Corinne Vigouroux, Steven Compernolle, Alkis Bais, Nuria Benavent, Folkert Boersma, Ka-Lok Chan, Sebastian Donner, Kai-Uwe Eichmann, Pascal Hedelt, François Hendrick, Hitoshi Irie, Vinod Kumar, Jean-Christopher Lambert, Bavo Langerock, Christophe Lerot, Cheng Liu, Diego Loyola, Ankie Piters, Andreas Richter, Claudia Rivera Cárdenas, Fabian Romahn, Robert George Ryan, Vinayak Sinha, Nicolas Theys, Jonas Vlietinck, Thomas Wagner, Ting Wang, Huan Yu, and Michel Van Roozendael
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12561–12593, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12561-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12561-2021, 2021
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This paper assess the performances of the TROPOMI formaldehyde observations compared to its predecessor OMI at different spatial and temporal scales. We also use a global network of MAX-DOAS instruments to validate both satellite datasets for a large range of HCHO columns. The precision obtained with daily TROPOMI observations is comparable to monthly OMI observations. We present clear detection of weak HCHO column enhancements related to shipping emissions in the Indian Ocean.
Sampa Das, Peter R. Colarco, Luke D. Oman, Ghassan Taha, and Omar Torres
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12069–12090, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12069-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12069-2021, 2021
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Interactions of extreme fires with weather systems can produce towering smoke plumes that inject aerosols at very high altitudes (> 10 km). Three such major injections, largest at the time in terms of emitted aerosol mass, took place over British Columbia, Canada, in August 2017. We model the transport and impacts of injected aerosols on the radiation balance of the atmosphere. Our model results match the satellite-observed plume transport and residence time at these high altitudes very closely.
Jianfeng Li, Yuhang Wang, Ruixiong Zhang, Charles Smeltzer, Andrew Weinheimer, Jay Herman, K. Folkert Boersma, Edward A. Celarier, Russell W. Long, James J. Szykman, Ruben Delgado, Anne M. Thompson, Travis N. Knepp, Lok N. Lamsal, Scott J. Janz, Matthew G. Kowalewski, Xiong Liu, and Caroline R. Nowlan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 11133–11160, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11133-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11133-2021, 2021
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Comprehensive evaluations of simulated diurnal cycles of NO2 and NOy concentrations, vertical profiles, and tropospheric vertical column densities at two different resolutions with various measurements during the DISCOVER-AQ 2011 campaign show potential distribution biases of NOx emissions in the National Emissions Inventory 2011 at both 36 and 4 km resolutions, providing another possible explanation for the overestimation of model results.
Anteneh Getachew Mengistu, Gizaw Mengistu Tsidu, Gerbrand Koren, Maurits L. Kooreman, K. Folkert Boersma, Torbern Tagesson, Jonas Ardö, Yann Nouvellon, and Wouter Peters
Biogeosciences, 18, 2843–2857, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-2843-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-2843-2021, 2021
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In this study, we assess the usefulness of Sun-Induced Fluorescence of Terrestrial Ecosystems Retrieval (SIFTER) data from the GOME-2A instrument and near-infrared reflectance of vegetation (NIRv) from MODIS to capture the seasonality and magnitudes of gross primary production (GPP) derived from six eddy-covariance flux towers in Africa in the overlap years between 2007–2014. We also test the robustness of sun-induced fluoresence and NIRv to compare the seasonality of GPP for the major biomes.
Nick Schutgens, Oleg Dubovik, Otto Hasekamp, Omar Torres, Hiren Jethva, Peter J. T. Leonard, Pavel Litvinov, Jens Redemann, Yohei Shinozuka, Gerrit de Leeuw, Stefan Kinne, Thomas Popp, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6895–6917, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6895-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6895-2021, 2021
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Absorptive aerosol has a potentially large impact on climate change. We evaluate and intercompare four global satellite datasets of absorptive aerosol optical depth (AAOD) and single-scattering albedo (SSA). We show that these datasets show reasonable correlations with the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) reference, although significant biases remain. In a follow-up paper we show that these observations nevertheless can be used for model evaluation.
Eloise A. Marais, John F. Roberts, Robert G. Ryan, Henk Eskes, K. Folkert Boersma, Sungyeon Choi, Joanna Joiner, Nader Abuhassan, Alberto Redondas, Michel Grutter, Alexander Cede, Laura Gomez, and Monica Navarro-Comas
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2389–2408, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2389-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2389-2021, 2021
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Nitrogen oxides in the upper troposphere have a profound influence on the global troposphere, but routine reliable observations there are exceedingly rare. We apply cloud-slicing to TROPOMI total columns of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at high spatial resolution to derive near-global observations of NO2 in the upper troposphere and show consistency with existing datasets. These data offer tremendous potential to address knowledge gaps in this oft underappreciated portion of the atmosphere.
Tijl Verhoelst, Steven Compernolle, Gaia Pinardi, Jean-Christopher Lambert, Henk J. Eskes, Kai-Uwe Eichmann, Ann Mari Fjæraa, José Granville, Sander Niemeijer, Alexander Cede, Martin Tiefengraber, François Hendrick, Andrea Pazmiño, Alkiviadis Bais, Ariane Bazureau, K. Folkert Boersma, Kristof Bognar, Angelika Dehn, Sebastian Donner, Aleksandr Elokhov, Manuel Gebetsberger, Florence Goutail, Michel Grutter de la Mora, Aleksandr Gruzdev, Myrto Gratsea, Georg H. Hansen, Hitoshi Irie, Nis Jepsen, Yugo Kanaya, Dimitris Karagkiozidis, Rigel Kivi, Karin Kreher, Pieternel F. Levelt, Cheng Liu, Moritz Müller, Monica Navarro Comas, Ankie J. M. Piters, Jean-Pierre Pommereau, Thierry Portafaix, Cristina Prados-Roman, Olga Puentedura, Richard Querel, Julia Remmers, Andreas Richter, John Rimmer, Claudia Rivera Cárdenas, Lidia Saavedra de Miguel, Valery P. Sinyakov, Wolfgang Stremme, Kimberly Strong, Michel Van Roozendael, J. Pepijn Veefkind, Thomas Wagner, Folkard Wittrock, Margarita Yela González, and Claus Zehner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 481–510, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-481-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-481-2021, 2021
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This paper reports on the ground-based validation of the NO2 data produced operationally by the TROPOMI instrument on board the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite. Tropospheric, stratospheric, and total NO2 columns are compared to measurements collected from MAX-DOAS, ZSL-DOAS, and PGN/Pandora instruments respectively. The products are found to satisfy mission requirements in general, though negative mean differences are found at sites with high pollution levels. Potential causes are discussed.
Omar Torres, Hiren Jethva, Changwoo Ahn, Glen Jaross, and Diego G. Loyola
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6789–6806, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6789-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6789-2020, 2020
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TROPOMI measures the quantity of small suspended particles (aerosols). We describe initial results of aerosol measurements using a NASA algorithm that retrieves the UV aerosol index, aerosol optical depth, and single-scattering albedo. An evaluation of derived products using sun-photometer observations shows close agreement. We also use these results to discuss important biomass burning and wildfire events around the world that got the attention of scientists and news media alike.
Gaia Pinardi, Michel Van Roozendael, François Hendrick, Nicolas Theys, Nader Abuhassan, Alkiviadis Bais, Folkert Boersma, Alexander Cede, Jihyo Chong, Sebastian Donner, Theano Drosoglou, Anatoly Dzhola, Henk Eskes, Udo Frieß, José Granville, Jay R. Herman, Robert Holla, Jari Hovila, Hitoshi Irie, Yugo Kanaya, Dimitris Karagkiozidis, Natalia Kouremeti, Jean-Christopher Lambert, Jianzhong Ma, Enno Peters, Ankie Piters, Oleg Postylyakov, Andreas Richter, Julia Remmers, Hisahiro Takashima, Martin Tiefengraber, Pieter Valks, Tim Vlemmix, Thomas Wagner, and Folkard Wittrock
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6141–6174, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6141-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6141-2020, 2020
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We validate several GOME-2 and OMI tropospheric NO2 products with 23 MAX-DOAS and 16 direct sun instruments distributed worldwide, highlighting large horizontal inhomogeneities at several sites affecting the validation results. We propose a method for quantification and correction. We show the application of such correction reduces the satellite underestimation in almost all heterogeneous cases, but a negative bias remains over the MAX-DOAS and direct sun network ensemble for both satellites.
Nick Schutgens, Andrew M. Sayer, Andreas Heckel, Christina Hsu, Hiren Jethva, Gerrit de Leeuw, Peter J. T. Leonard, Robert C. Levy, Antti Lipponen, Alexei Lyapustin, Peter North, Thomas Popp, Caroline Poulsen, Virginia Sawyer, Larisa Sogacheva, Gareth Thomas, Omar Torres, Yujie Wang, Stefan Kinne, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12431–12457, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12431-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12431-2020, 2020
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We intercompare 14 different datasets of satellite observations of aerosol. Such measurements are challenging but also provide the best opportunity to globally observe an atmospheric component strongly related to air pollution and climate change. Our study shows that most datasets perform similarly well on a global scale but that locally errors can be quite different. We develop a technique to estimate satellite errors everywhere, even in the absence of surface reference data.
Kazuyuki Miyazaki, Kevin Bowman, Takashi Sekiya, Henk Eskes, Folkert Boersma, Helen Worden, Nathaniel Livesey, Vivienne H. Payne, Kengo Sudo, Yugo Kanaya, Masayuki Takigawa, and Koji Ogochi
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2223–2259, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2223-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2223-2020, 2020
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This study presents the results from the Tropospheric Chemistry Reanalysis version 2 (TCR-2) for 2005–2018 obtained from the assimilation of multiple satellite measurements of ozone, CO, NO2, HNO3, and SO2 from the OMI, SCIAMACHY, GOME-2, TES, MLS, and MOPITT instruments. The evaluation results demonstrate the capability of the reanalysis products to improve understanding of the processes controlling variations in atmospheric composition, including long-term changes in air quality and emissions.
Srijana Lama, Sander Houweling, K. Folkert Boersma, Henk Eskes, Ilse Aben, Hugo A. C. Denier van der Gon, Maarten C. Krol, Han Dolman, Tobias Borsdorff, and Alba Lorente
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 10295–10310, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10295-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10295-2020, 2020
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Rapid urbanization has increased the consumption of fossil fuel, contributing the degradation of urban air quality. Burning efficiency is a major factor determining the impact of fuel burning on the environment. We quantify the burning efficiency of fossil fuel use over six megacities using satellite remote sensing data. City governance can use these results to understand air pollution scenarios and to formulate effective air pollution control strategies.
Erik van Schaik, Maurits L. Kooreman, Piet Stammes, L. Gijsbert Tilstra, Olaf N. E. Tuinder, Abram F. J. Sanders, Willem W. Verstraeten, Rüdiger Lang, Alessandra Cacciari, Joanna Joiner, Wouter Peters, and K. Folkert Boersma
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 4295–4315, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4295-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4295-2020, 2020
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With our improved algorithm we have generated a stable, long-term dataset of fluorescence measurements from the GOME-2A satellite instrument. In this study we determined a correction for the degradation of GOME-2A in orbit and applied this correction along with other improvements to our SIFTER v2 retrieval algorithm. The result is a coherent dataset of daily and monthly averaged fluorescence values for the period 2007–2018 to track worldwide changes in photosynthetic activity by vegetation.
Mengyao Liu, Jintai Lin, Hao Kong, K. Folkert Boersma, Henk Eskes, Yugo Kanaya, Qin He, Xin Tian, Kai Qin, Pinhua Xie, Robert Spurr, Ruijing Ni, Yingying Yan, Hongjian Weng, and Jingxu Wang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 4247–4259, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4247-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4247-2020, 2020
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Nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) are important air pollutants in the troposphere and play crucial roles in the formation of ozone and particulate matter. The recently launched TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) provides an opportunity to retrieve tropospheric concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at an unprecedented high horizontal resolution. This work presents a new NO2 retrieval product over East Asia and further quantifies key factors affecting the retrieval, including aerosol.
Jay Herman, Alexander Cede, Liang Huang, Jerald Ziemke, Omar Torres, Nickolay Krotkov, Matthew Kowalewski, and Karin Blank
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8351–8380, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8351-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8351-2020, 2020
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The amount of erythemal irradiance reaching the Earth's surface has been calculated from ozone, aerosol, and reflectivity data obtained from OMI and DSCOVR/EPIC satellite instruments showing areas with high levels of solar UV radiation. Changes in erythemal irradiance, cloud transmission, aerosol transmission, and ozone absorption have been estimated for 14 years 2005–2018 in units of percent per year for 191 locations, mostly large cities, and from EPIC for the entire illuminated Earth.
Steven Compernolle, Tijl Verhoelst, Gaia Pinardi, José Granville, Daan Hubert, Arno Keppens, Sander Niemeijer, Bruno Rino, Alkis Bais, Steffen Beirle, Folkert Boersma, John P. Burrows, Isabelle De Smedt, Henk Eskes, Florence Goutail, François Hendrick, Alba Lorente, Andrea Pazmino, Ankie Piters, Enno Peters, Jean-Pierre Pommereau, Julia Remmers, Andreas Richter, Jos van Geffen, Michel Van Roozendael, Thomas Wagner, and Jean-Christopher Lambert
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8017–8045, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8017-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8017-2020, 2020
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Tropospheric and stratospheric NO2 columns from the OMI QA4ECV NO2 satellite product are validated by comparison with ground-based measurements at 11 sites. The OMI stratospheric column has a small negative bias, and the OMI tropospheric column has a stronger negative bias relative to the ground-based data. Discrepancies are attributed to comparison errors (e.g. difference in horizontal smoothing) and measurement errors (e.g. clouds, aerosols, vertical smoothing and a priori profile assumptions).
Zhong Chen, Pawan K. Bhartia, Omar Torres, Glen Jaross, Robert Loughman, Matthew DeLand, Peter Colarco, Robert Damadeo, and Ghassan Taha
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3471–3485, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3471-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3471-2020, 2020
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The scope of the paper is the evaluation of stratospheric aerosols derived from the OMPS/LP instrument via comparison with independent datasets from the SAGE III/ISS instrument. Results show very good agreement for extinction profiles between an altitude of 19 and 27 km, to within ±25 %, and show systematic differences (LP-SAGE III/ISS) above 28 km and below 19 km (greater than ±25 %).
Xiaoyi Zhao, Debora Griffin, Vitali Fioletov, Chris McLinden, Alexander Cede, Martin Tiefengraber, Moritz Müller, Kristof Bognar, Kimberly Strong, Folkert Boersma, Henk Eskes, Jonathan Davies, Akira Ogyu, and Sum Chi Lee
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 2131–2159, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2131-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-2131-2020, 2020
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Pandora NO2 measurements made at three sites located in the Toronto area are used to evaluate the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) NO2 data products, including standard NO2 and research data developed using a high-resolution regional air quality forecast model. TROPOMI pixels located upwind and downwind from the Pandora sites were analyzed by a new wind-based validation method, which revealed the spatial patterns of local and transported emissions and regional air quality changes.
Jos van Geffen, K. Folkert Boersma, Henk Eskes, Maarten Sneep, Mark ter Linden, Marina Zara, and J. Pepijn Veefkind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 1315–1335, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1315-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1315-2020, 2020
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The Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) provides atmospheric trace gase and cloud and aerosol property measurements at unprecedented spatial resolution. This study focusses on the TROPOMI NO2 slant column density (SCD) retrieval: the retrieval method used, the stability of and uncertainties in the SCDs, and a comparison with Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) NO2 SCDs. TROPOMI shows a superior performance compared to OMI/QA4ECV and operates as anticipated from instrument specifications.
Larisa Sogacheva, Thomas Popp, Andrew M. Sayer, Oleg Dubovik, Michael J. Garay, Andreas Heckel, N. Christina Hsu, Hiren Jethva, Ralph A. Kahn, Pekka Kolmonen, Miriam Kosmale, Gerrit de Leeuw, Robert C. Levy, Pavel Litvinov, Alexei Lyapustin, Peter North, Omar Torres, and Antti Arola
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 2031–2056, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2031-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2031-2020, 2020
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The typical lifetime of a single satellite platform is on the order of 5–15 years; thus, for climate studies the usage of multiple satellite sensors should be considered.
Here we introduce and evaluate a monthly AOD merged product and AOD global and regional time series for the period 1995–2017 created from 12 individual satellite AOD products, which provide a long-term perspective on AOD changes over different regions of the globe.
Hiren Jethva and Omar Torres
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 6489–6503, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6489-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6489-2019, 2019
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The intercomparison of satellite- and ground-measured aerosol absorption properties, such as presented here using Aura-OMI and SKYNET sensors, constitutes an important exercise to evaluate relative performance, track algorithm changes, and to diagnose retrieval accuracy and issues. The two datasets are found to agree reasonably well under moderate to higher aerosol loading but show disagreement under lower aerosol amounts due to retrieval issues in both techniques.
Auke J. Visser, K. Folkert Boersma, Laurens N. Ganzeveld, and Maarten C. Krol
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 11821–11841, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11821-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11821-2019, 2019
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Health and ecosystem impacts of O3 generally occur when O3 concentrations are highest, but most air quality models underestimate peak O3. We derived European NOx emissions based on satellite NO2 column data and evaluated the impact on model-simulated NO2 and ozone. We show that a simulation with satellite-derived NOx emissions leads to better agreement with independent in situ observations of surface NO2 and O3, which helps to reduce the model underestimations of peak ozone concentrations.
Hiren Jethva, Omar Torres, and Yasuko Yoshida
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 4291–4307, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4291-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4291-2019, 2019
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Accuracy assessment of the satellite-retrieved aerosol properties is an important exercise to validate and track the changes in the retrieval algorithm. Here, for the first time, three standard aerosol products derived from MODIS Aqua are compared against the ground-based AERONET dataset over the North American region. The present validation analysis provides guidance in the development of inversion schemes to derive aerosol properties from existing and future MODIS-like sensors.
Xiaoguang Xu, Jun Wang, Yi Wang, Jing Zeng, Omar Torres, Jeffrey S. Reid, Steven D. Miller, J. Vanderlei Martins, and Lorraine A. Remer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 3269–3288, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3269-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3269-2019, 2019
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Detecting aerosol layer height from space is challenging. The traditional method relies on active sensors such as lidar that provide the detailed vertical structure of the aerosol profile but is costly with limited spatial coverage (more than 1 year is needed for global coverage). Here we developed a passive remote sensing technique that uses backscattered sunlight to retrieve smoke aerosol layer height over both water and vegetated surfaces from a sensor 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth.
Aristeidis K. Georgoulias, Ronald J. van der A, Piet Stammes, K. Folkert Boersma, and Henk J. Eskes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 6269–6294, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6269-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6269-2019, 2019
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In this paper, a ∼21-year self-consistent global dataset from four different satellite sensors is compiled for the first time to study the long-term tropospheric NO2 patterns and trends. A novel method capable of detecting the year when a reversal of trends happened shows that tropospheric NO2 concentrations switched from positive to negative trends and vice versa over several regions around the globe during the last 2 decades.
Marc Mallet, Pierre Nabat, Paquita Zuidema, Jens Redemann, Andrew Mark Sayer, Martin Stengel, Sebastian Schmidt, Sabrina Cochrane, Sharon Burton, Richard Ferrare, Kerry Meyer, Pablo Saide, Hiren Jethva, Omar Torres, Robert Wood, David Saint Martin, Romain Roehrig, Christina Hsu, and Paola Formenti
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4963–4990, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4963-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4963-2019, 2019
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The model is able to represent LWP but not the LCF. AOD is consistent over the continent but also over ocean (ACAOD). Differences are observed in SSA due to the absence of internal mixing in ALADIN-Climate. A significant regional gradient of the forcing at TOA is observed. An intense positive forcing is simulated over Gabon. Results highlight the significant effect of enhanced moisture on BBA extinction. The surface dimming modifies the energy budget.
Mengyao Liu, Jintai Lin, K. Folkert Boersma, Gaia Pinardi, Yang Wang, Julien Chimot, Thomas Wagner, Pinhua Xie, Henk Eskes, Michel Van Roozendael, François Hendrick, Pucai Wang, Ting Wang, Yingying Yan, Lulu Chen, and Ruijing Ni
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1–21, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1-2019, 2019
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China has become the world’s largest emitter of NOx, which mainly comes from vehicle exhaust, power plants, etc. However, there are no official ground-based measurements before 2013, so satellites have been widely used to monitor and analyze NOx pollution here. Aerosol is the key factor influencing the accuracy of the satellite NOx product. Our study provides a more accurate way to account for aerosol's influence compared to current widely used products.
K. Folkert Boersma, Henk J. Eskes, Andreas Richter, Isabelle De Smedt, Alba Lorente, Steffen Beirle, Jos H. G. M. van Geffen, Marina Zara, Enno Peters, Michel Van Roozendael, Thomas Wagner, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Ronald J. van der A, Joanne Nightingale, Anne De Rudder, Hitoshi Irie, Gaia Pinardi, Jean-Christopher Lambert, and Steven C. Compernolle
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 6651–6678, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6651-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6651-2018, 2018
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This paper describes a new, improved data record of 22+ years of coherent nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution measurements from different satellite instruments. Our work helps to ensure that climate data are of sufficient quality to draw reliable conclusions and shape decisions. It shows how dedicated intercomparisons of retrieval sub-steps have led to improved NO2 measurements from the GOME, SCIAMACHY, GOME-2(A), and OMI sensors, and how quality assurance of the new data product is achieved.
Hiren Jethva, Omar Torres, and Changwoo Ahn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5837–5864, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5837-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5837-2018, 2018
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We introduce a new global satellite product of aerosol amounts lofted above the clouds from near-UV observations of Aura/OMI. The global decadal record derived from the product has revealed unprecedented quantitative information of light-absorbing aerosols above the cloud over several oceanic and continental regions of the world. The new dataset characterizing the optical properties of aerosol-cloud overlap will help quantify their radiative effects and representation in climate models.
Alba Lorente, K. Folkert Boersma, Piet Stammes, L. Gijsbert Tilstra, Andreas Richter, Huan Yu, Said Kharbouche, and Jan-Peter Muller
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4509–4529, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4509-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4509-2018, 2018
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Light reflected by Earth’s surface is different in each direction: it appears brighter or darker in certain viewing directions. Currently this effect is not accounted for in satellite retrievals; thus surface reflectance climatologies and cloud fractions show an east-west bias across orbits (GOME2,OMI). The effect for NO2 measurements in partly cloudy scenes is substantial. We recommend that this effect in UV/Vis sensors coherently accounted for, and will be especially beneficial for TROPOMI.
Marina Zara, K. Folkert Boersma, Isabelle De Smedt, Andreas Richter, Enno Peters, Jos H. G. M. van Geffen, Steffen Beirle, Thomas Wagner, Michel Van Roozendael, Sergey Marchenko, Lok N. Lamsal, and Henk J. Eskes
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4033–4058, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4033-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4033-2018, 2018
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Nitrogen dioxide and formaldehyde satellite data are used for air quality and climate studies. We quantify and characterise slant column uncertainties from different research groups. Our evaluation is motivated by recently improved techniques and by a desire to provide fully traceable uncertainty budget for climate records generated within the QA4ECV project. The improved slant columns are in agreement but with substantial differences in the reported uncertainties between groups and instruments.
Ruixiong Zhang, Yuhang Wang, Charles Smeltzer, Hang Qu, William Koshak, and K. Folkert Boersma
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3955–3967, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3955-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3955-2018, 2018
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This study focuses on how to improve OMI NO2 retrievals for trend analysis. We retrieve OMI tropospheric NO2 vertical column densities (VCDs) and obtain the NO2 seasonal trends over the United States, which are compared with coincident in situ surface NO2 measurements from the Air Quality System network. We find that three procedures are essential in comparing both datasets, including the ocean trend removal, the albedo update, and the lightning filter.
Melanie S. Hammer, Randall V. Martin, Chi Li, Omar Torres, Max Manning, and Brian L. Boys
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 8097–8112, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8097-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8097-2018, 2018
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We apply a simulation of the Ultraviolet Aerosol Index (UVAI), a method of detecting aerosol absorption from satellite observations, to interpret UVAI values observed by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) from 2005 to 2015 to understand global trends in aerosol composition. We find that global trends in the UVAI are largely explained by trends in absorption by mineral dust, absorption by brown carbon, and scattering by secondary inorganic aerosol.
Omar Torres, Pawan K. Bhartia, Hiren Jethva, and Changwoo Ahn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 2701–2715, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2701-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2701-2018, 2018
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Since about three years after the launch the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on the EOS-Aura satellite, the sensor’s viewing capability has been affected by what is believed to be an internal obstruction that has reduced OMI’s spatial coverage. It currently affects about half of the instrument’s 60 viewing positions. In this work we carry out an analysis to assess the effect of the reduced spatial coverage on the monthly average values of retrieved parameters.
Isabelle De Smedt, Nicolas Theys, Huan Yu, Thomas Danckaert, Christophe Lerot, Steven Compernolle, Michel Van Roozendael, Andreas Richter, Andreas Hilboll, Enno Peters, Mattia Pedergnana, Diego Loyola, Steffen Beirle, Thomas Wagner, Henk Eskes, Jos van Geffen, Klaas Folkert Boersma, and Pepijn Veefkind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 2395–2426, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2395-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2395-2018, 2018
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This paper introduces the formaldehyde (HCHO) tropospheric vertical column retrieval algorithm implemented in the TROPOMI/Sentinel-5 Precursor operational processor, and comprehensively describes its various retrieval steps. Furthermore, algorithmic improvements developed in the framework of the EU FP7-project QA4ECV are described for future updates of the processor. Detailed error estimates are discussed in the light of Copernicus user requirements and needs for validation are highlighted.
Pieternel F. Levelt, Joanna Joiner, Johanna Tamminen, J. Pepijn Veefkind, Pawan K. Bhartia, Deborah C. Stein Zweers, Bryan N. Duncan, David G. Streets, Henk Eskes, Ronald van der A, Chris McLinden, Vitali Fioletov, Simon Carn, Jos de Laat, Matthew DeLand, Sergey Marchenko, Richard McPeters, Jerald Ziemke, Dejian Fu, Xiong Liu, Kenneth Pickering, Arnoud Apituley, Gonzalo González Abad, Antti Arola, Folkert Boersma, Christopher Chan Miller, Kelly Chance, Martin de Graaf, Janne Hakkarainen, Seppo Hassinen, Iolanda Ialongo, Quintus Kleipool, Nickolay Krotkov, Can Li, Lok Lamsal, Paul Newman, Caroline Nowlan, Raid Suleiman, Lieuwe Gijsbert Tilstra, Omar Torres, Huiqun Wang, and Krzysztof Wargan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5699–5745, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5699-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5699-2018, 2018
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The aim of this paper is to highlight the many successes of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) spanning more than 13 years. Data from OMI have been used in a wide range of applications. Due to its unprecedented spatial resolution, in combination with daily global coverage, OMI plays a unique role in measuring trace gases important for the ozone layer, air quality, and climate change. OMI data continue to be used for new research and applications.
Jungbin Mok, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Omar Torres, Hiren Jethva, Zhanqing Li, Jhoon Kim, Ja-Ho Koo, Sujung Go, Hitoshi Irie, Gordon Labow, Thomas F. Eck, Brent N. Holben, Jay Herman, Robert P. Loughman, Elena Spinei, Seoung Soo Lee, Pradeep Khatri, and Monica Campanelli
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 2295–2311, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2295-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2295-2018, 2018
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Measuring aerosol absorption from the shortest ultraviolet (UV) to the near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths is important for studies of climate, tropospheric photochemistry, human health, and agricultural productivity. We estimate the accuracy and demonstrate consistency of aerosol absorption retrievals from different instruments, after accounting for spectrally varying surface albedo and gaseous absorption.
Swadhin Nanda, Martin de Graaf, Maarten Sneep, Johan F. de Haan, Piet Stammes, Abram F. J. Sanders, Olaf Tuinder, J. Pepijn Veefkind, and Pieternel F. Levelt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 161–175, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-161-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-161-2018, 2018
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Estimating aerosol layer height in the atmosphere from satellite data in the oxygen A band (758–770 nm) over land is challenging over land, since the surface is generally very bright in this wavelength region. This paper discusses an interplay between the surface and the atmosphere in their contributions to the top-of-atmosphere reflectance spectrum and the consequent biases obtained while estimating aerosol layer height, using synthetic data and real data from the GOME-2 satellite instrument.
Peter R. Colarco, Santiago Gassó, Changwoo Ahn, Virginie Buchard, Arlindo M. da Silva, and Omar Torres
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 4121–4134, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4121-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4121-2017, 2017
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We need satellite observations to characterize the properties of atmospheric aerosols. Those observations have uncertainties associated with them because of assumptions made in their algorithms. We test the assumptions on a part of the aerosol algorithms used with the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) flying on the NASA Aura spacecraft. We simulate the OMI observations using a global aerosol model, and then compare what OMI tells us about the simulated aerosols with the model results directly.
Zhe Jiang, Helen Worden, John R. Worden, Daven K. Henze, Dylan B. A. Jones, Avelino F. Arellano, Emily V. Fischer, Liye Zhu, Kazuyuki Miyazaki, K. Folkert Boersma, and Vivienne H. Payne
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2017-382, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2017-382, 2017
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We investigated the variation of US tropospheric NO2 in the past decade. We demonstrated significant divergence between the time variation in tropospheric NO2 columns from OMI retrievals and surface measurements. Our analysis suggests limited contributions from local effects such as fossil fuel emissions, lightning, or instrument artifacts, and indicates possible important contributions from long-range transport of Asian emissions that are modulated by ENSO.
Julien Chimot, J. Pepijn Veefkind, Tim Vlemmix, Johan F. de Haan, Vassilis Amiridis, Emmanouil Proestakis, Eleni Marinou, and Pieternel F. Levelt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 783–809, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-783-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-783-2017, 2017
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We have developed artificial neural network algorithms to retrieve aerosol layer height from satellite OMI observations of the 477 nm O2–O2 spectral band. Based on 3-year (2005–2007) cloud-free scenes over north-east Asia, the results show uncertainties of 260–800 m when aerosol optical thickness is larger than 1. These algorithms also enable aerosol optical thickness retrievals by exploring the OMI continuum reflectance. These results may be used for future trace gas retrievals from TROPOMI.
Alba Lorente, K. Folkert Boersma, Huan Yu, Steffen Dörner, Andreas Hilboll, Andreas Richter, Mengyao Liu, Lok N. Lamsal, Michael Barkley, Isabelle De Smedt, Michel Van Roozendael, Yang Wang, Thomas Wagner, Steffen Beirle, Jin-Tai Lin, Nickolay Krotkov, Piet Stammes, Ping Wang, Henk J. Eskes, and Maarten Krol
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 759–782, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-759-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-759-2017, 2017
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Choices and assumptions made to represent the state of the atmosphere introduce an uncertainty of 42 % in the air mass factor calculation in trace gas satellite retrievals in polluted regions. The AMF strongly depends on the choice of a priori trace gas profile, surface albedo data set and the correction method to account for clouds and aerosols. We call for well-designed validation exercises focusing on situations when AMF structural uncertainty has the highest impact on satellite retrievals.
Jason E. Williams, K. Folkert Boersma, Phillipe Le Sager, and Willem W. Verstraeten
Geosci. Model Dev., 10, 721–750, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-721-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-721-2017, 2017
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The launch of Earth-orbiting satellites with small footprints necessitates the development of global chemistry transport models which are able to differentiate between high- and low-emission regimes and provide dedicated a priori tropospheric columns of trace gas species for the purpose of deriving accurate retrievals of integrated columns. We focus on the effects introduced with respect to global trace gas distributions in TM5-MP when increasing horizontal resolution from 3 × 2 to 1 × 1 degrees.
Rachid Abida, Jean-Luc Attié, Laaziz El Amraoui, Philippe Ricaud, William Lahoz, Henk Eskes, Arjo Segers, Lyana Curier, Johan de Haan, Jukka Kujanpää, Albert Oude Nijhuis, Johanna Tamminen, Renske Timmermans, and Pepijn Veefkind
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 1081–1103, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-1081-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-1081-2017, 2017
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A detailed Observing System Simulation Experiment is performed to quantify the impact of future satellite instrument S-5P carbon monoxide (CO) on tropospheric analyses and forecasts. We focus on Europe for the period of northern summer 2003, when there was a severe heat wave episode. S-5P is able to capture the CO from forest fires that occurred in Portugal. Furthermore, our results provide evidence of S-5P CO benefits for monitoring processes contributing to atmospheric pollution.
J. Pepijn Veefkind, Johan F. de Haan, Maarten Sneep, and Pieternel F. Levelt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 6035–6049, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-6035-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-6035-2016, 2016
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The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on board the NASA EOS Aura satellite monitors the concentrations of trace gases. The accuracy of such observations relies partly on information on clouds. The OMI OMCLDO2 product derives the cloud fraction and pressure from the observed radiance in the visible. This paper reports on an improved version of this product. Compared to the previous version, the changes in cloud fraction are very small, but the changes in the cloud pressure can be significant.
Iolanda Ialongo, Jay Herman, Nick Krotkov, Lok Lamsal, K. Folkert Boersma, Jari Hovila, and Johanna Tamminen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 5203–5212, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5203-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5203-2016, 2016
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We present the comparison between satellite- and ground-based atmospheric NO2 observations in Helsinki (Finland). The results show that, despite some limitations due to cloud contamination and low solar angles, satellite data are able to describe urban air quality features such as the weekly and seasonal cycles. The results support air quality satellite data exploitation at high latitudes and prepare for similar applications for future missions.
Hiren Jethva, Omar Torres, Lorraine Remer, Jens Redemann, John Livingston, Stephen Dunagan, Yohei Shinozuka, Meloe Kacenelenbogen, Michal Segal Rosenheimer, and Rob Spurr
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 5053–5062, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5053-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5053-2016, 2016
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Validation of the above-cloud aerosol optical depth retrieved using the "color ratio" method applied to MODIS cloudy-sky
measurements against airborne direct measurements made by NASA’s AATS and 4STAR sun photometers during SAFARI-2000,
ACE-ASIA 2001, and SEAC4RS 2013 reveals a good level of agreement (difference < 0.1), in which most matchups are found
be constrained within the estimated uncertainties associated with the MODIS retrievals (-10 % to +50 %).
Santiago Gassó and Omar Torres
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 3031–3052, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3031-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3031-2016, 2016
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Aerosol optical depths derived by the OMI near-UV algorithm are evaluated against independent observations over the ocean. The comparison resulted in differences within the expected levels of uncertainty. In addition, in clear sky conditions, the retrieved AODs compare well with independent measurements but they are biased high in partially cloud-contaminated pixels. Additional sources of discrepancies are documented and will be corrected in future versions of the algorithm.
K. F. Boersma, G. C. M. Vinken, and H. J. Eskes
Geosci. Model Dev., 9, 875–898, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-875-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-875-2016, 2016
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Satellite measurements of pollutants and greenhouse gases are useful to test and improve atmospheric models. But this requires that modellers account for the spatial and temporal representativeness and the vertical sensitivity of the satellite measurements. This paper provides guidelines on how to carry out a faithful model-satellite comparison for species such as nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and formaldehyde that play a key role in air pollution studies.
Melanie S. Hammer, Randall V. Martin, Aaron van Donkelaar, Virginie Buchard, Omar Torres, David A. Ridley, and Robert J. D. Spurr
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 2507–2523, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2507-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2507-2016, 2016
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We interpret satellite observations to infer the global absorption properties of brown carbon (BrC) aerosols. We incorporate these BrC absorption properties into a chemical transport model to estimate global direct radiative effects and changes in hydroxyl radical (OH) concentrations. To our knowledge, this is the first time the effect of BrC absorption on atmospheric photochemistry has been considered in a global chemical transport model.
Sang Seo Park, Jhoon Kim, Hanlim Lee, Omar Torres, Kwang-Mog Lee, and Sang Deok Lee
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 1987–2006, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-1987-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-1987-2016, 2016
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The sensitivities of oxygen-dimer (O4) slant column densities (SCDs) to changes in aerosol layer height are investigated using simulated radiances by a linearized pseudo-spherical vector discrete ordinate radiative transfer (VLIDORT) model, and the differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) technique. A new algorithm is developed and tested to derive the aerosol effective height for cases over East Asia using radiance data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI).
J. Chimot, T. Vlemmix, J. P. Veefkind, J. F. de Haan, and P. F. Levelt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 359–382, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-359-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-359-2016, 2016
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The interplay between aerosols and the OMI O2–O2 cloud retrieval algorithm is analysed in detail to evaluate the impacts on the accuracy of the tropospheric NO2 retrievals over cloud-free scenes. Collocated OMI NO2 and MODIS Aqua aerosol products are compared over E China, in industrialized areas; the OMI O2–O2 cloud retrieval algorithm is implemented on synthetic study cases dominated by aerosol particles. The resulting biases highlight the need for an improved aerosol correction.
U. Jeong, J. Kim, C. Ahn, O. Torres, X. Liu, P. K. Bhartia, R. J. D. Spurr, D. Haffner, K. Chance, and B. N. Holben
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 177–193, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-177-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-177-2016, 2016
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An aerosol retrieval and error analysis algorithm using OMI measurements based on an optimal-estimation method was developed in this study. The aerosol retrievals were validated using the DRAGON campaign products. The estimated errors of the retrievals represented the actual biases between retrieval and AERONET measurements well. The retrievals, with their estimated uncertainties, are expected to be valuable for relevant studies, such as trace gas retrieval and data assimilation.
A. F. J. Sanders, J. F. de Haan, M. Sneep, A. Apituley, P. Stammes, M. O. Vieitez, L. G. Tilstra, O. N. E. Tuinder, C. E. Koning, and J. P. Veefkind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 4947–4977, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4947-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4947-2015, 2015
L. Zhang, D. K. Henze, G. A. Grell, G. R. Carmichael, N. Bousserez, Q. Zhang, O. Torres, C. Ahn, Z. Lu, J. Cao, and Y. Mao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 10281–10308, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10281-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10281-2015, 2015
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We attempt to reduce uncertainties in BC emissions and improve BC model simulations by developing top-down, spatially resolved, estimates of BC emissions through assimilation of OMI observations of aerosol absorption optical depth (AAOD) with the GEOS-Chem model and its adjoint for April and October of 2006. Despite the limitations and uncertainties, using OMI AAOD to constrain BC sources we are able to improve model representation of BC distributions, particularly over China.
V. Buchard, A. M. da Silva, P. R. Colarco, A. Darmenov, C. A. Randles, R. Govindaraju, O. Torres, J. Campbell, and R. Spurr
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 5743–5760, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-5743-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-5743-2015, 2015
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MERRAero is an aerosol reanalysis based on the GEOS-5 earth system model that incorporates an online aerosol module and assimilation of AOD from MODIS sensors. This study assesses the quality of MERRAero absorption using independent OMI observations. In addition to comparisons to OMI absorption AOD, we have developed a radiative transfer interface to simulate the UV aerosol index from assimilated aerosol fields at OMI footprint. Also, we fully diagnose the model using MISR, AERONET and CALIPSO.
J. H. G. M. van Geffen, K. F. Boersma, M. Van Roozendael, F. Hendrick, E. Mahieu, I. De Smedt, M. Sneep, and J. P. Veefkind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 1685–1699, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1685-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1685-2015, 2015
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The paper describes improvements to the algorithm for the retrieval of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentration from measurements of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), launched on board NASA's EOS-Aura satellite in 2004. With these improvements - updates of the wavelength calibration and the reference spectra - the OMI results are consistent with independent NO2 measurements and the overall quality of the spectral fit is improved considerably.
T. Mielonen, J. F. de Haan, J. C. A. van Peet, M. Eremenko, and J. P. Veefkind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 671–687, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-671-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-671-2015, 2015
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In this paper, we have assessed the sensitivity of the operational Ozone Monitoring Instrument ozone profile retrieval algorithm to a number of a priori and radiative transfer assumptions. We then modified the algorithm to improve the retrieval of tropospheric ozone. We found that the modified retrieval unmasks systematic problems in the radiative transfer/instrument model and is more sensitive to tropospheric ozone variation: it is able to capture the tropospheric ozone morphology better.
S. DeSouza-Machado, L. Strow, E. Maddy, O. Torres, G. Thomas, D. Grainger, and A. Robinson
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amtd-8-443-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amtd-8-443-2015, 2015
Revised manuscript not accepted
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The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) are instruments on the 1.30 pm polar
orbiting Aqua spacecraft. We describe a daytime estimation of dust and
volcanic ash layer heights, using a retrieval algorithm that uses the
information in the AIRS L1B thermal infrared data, constrained by the
MODIS L2 aerosol optical depths. CALIOP aerosol centroid heights are
used for dust height comparisons, as are AATSR volcanic plume heights.
G. C. M. Vinken, K. F. Boersma, J. D. Maasakkers, M. Adon, and R. V. Martin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 10363–10381, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10363-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10363-2014, 2014
M. Belmonte Rivas, P. Veefkind, F. Boersma, P. Levelt, H. Eskes, and J. Gille
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 2203–2225, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2203-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2203-2014, 2014
P. Castellanos, K. F. Boersma, and G. R. van der Werf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 3929–3943, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3929-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3929-2014, 2014
M. Chin, T. Diehl, Q. Tan, J. M. Prospero, R. A. Kahn, L. A. Remer, H. Yu, A. M. Sayer, H. Bian, I. V. Geogdzhayev, B. N. Holben, S. G. Howell, B. J. Huebert, N. C. Hsu, D. Kim, T. L. Kucsera, R. C. Levy, M. I. Mishchenko, X. Pan, P. K. Quinn, G. L. Schuster, D. G. Streets, S. A. Strode, O. Torres, and X.-P. Zhao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 3657–3690, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3657-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3657-2014, 2014
G. C. M. Vinken, K. F. Boersma, A. van Donkelaar, and L. Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 1353–1369, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-1353-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-1353-2014, 2014
A. Gkikas, N. Hatzianastassiou, N. Mihalopoulos, V. Katsoulis, S. Kazadzis, J. Pey, X. Querol, and O. Torres
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 12135–12154, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-12135-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-12135-2013, 2013
O. Torres, C. Ahn, and Z. Chen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 3257–3270, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-3257-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-3257-2013, 2013
A. F. J. Sanders and J. F. de Haan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 2725–2740, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-2725-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-2725-2013, 2013
T. Stavrakou, J.-F. Müller, K. F. Boersma, R. J. van der A, J. Kurokawa, T. Ohara, and Q. Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 9057–9082, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-9057-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-9057-2013, 2013
W. W. Verstraeten, K. F. Boersma, J. Zörner, M. A. F. Allaart, K. W. Bowman, and J. R. Worden
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 1413–1423, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-1413-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-1413-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Gases | Technique: Remote Sensing | Topic: Data Processing and Information Retrieval
Retrievals of water vapour and temperature exploiting the far-infrared: application to aircraft observations in preparation for the FORUM mission
Global decadal measurements of methanol, ethene, ethyne, and HCN from the Cross-track Infrared Sounder
Forward model emulator for atmospheric radiative transfer using Gaussian processes and cross validation
Developments on a 22 GHz microwave radiometer and reprocessing of 13-year time series for water vapour studies
Optimal selection of satellite XCO2 images for urban CO2 emission monitoring
Separating and quantifying facility-level methane emissions with overlapping plumes for spaceborne methane monitoring
Retrieving the atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane from the European Copernicus CO2M satellite mission using artificial neural networks
The differences between remote sensing and in situ air pollutant measurements over the Canadian oil sands
NitroNet – a machine learning model for the prediction of tropospheric NO2 profiles from TROPOMI observations
Improved convective cloud differential (CCD) tropospheric ozone from S5P-TROPOMI satellite data using local cloud fields
Global retrieval of TROPOMI tropospheric HCHO and NO2 columns with improved consistency based on updated Peking University OMI NO2 algorithm
Atmospheric propane (C3H8) column retrievals from ground-based FTIR observations in Xianghe, China
Can the remote sensing of combustion phase improve estimates of landscape fire smoke emission rate and composition?
Tropospheric NO2 retrieval algorithm for geostationary satellite instruments: applications to GEMS
Troposphere–stratosphere-integrated bromine monoxide (BrO) profile retrieval over the central Pacific Ocean
Local and regional enhancements of CH4, CO, and CO2 inferred from TCCON column measurements
Implementation and application of an improved phase spectrum determination scheme for Fourier Transform Spectrometry
Predictions of satellite retrieval failures of air quality using machine learning
Merging TEMPEST microwave and GOES-16 geostationary IR soundings for improved water vapor profiles
Methane retrieval from MethaneAIR using the CO2 proxy approach: a demonstration for the upcoming MethaneSAT mission
Mapping the CO2 total column retrieval performance from shortwave infrared measurements: synthetic impacts of the spectral resolution, signal-to-noise ratio, and spectral band selection
Assessment of the contribution of the Meteosat Third Generation Infrared Sounder (MTG-IRS) for the characterisation of ozone over Europe
Assessing the potential of free-tropospheric water vapour isotopologue satellite observations for improving the analyses of convective events
Current potential of CH4 emission estimates using TROPOMI in the Middle East
A bias-corrected GEMS geostationary satellite product for nitrogen dioxide using machine learning to enforce consistency with the TROPOMI satellite instrument
Deep Transfer Learning Method for Seasonal TROPOMI XCH4 Albedo Correction
Quantitative estimate of sources of uncertainty in drone-based methane emission measurements
Estimation of biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions in forest ecosystems using drone-based lidar, photogrammetry, and image recognition technologies
Fast retrieval of XCO2 over east Asia based on Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) spectral measurements
A new method for estimating megacity NOx emissions and lifetimes from satellite observations
Accounting for the effect of aerosols in GHGSat methane retrieval
A survey of methane point source emissions from coal mines in Shanxi province of China using AHSI on board Gaofen-5B
Global retrieval of stratospheric and tropospheric BrO columns from the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite Nadir Mapper (OMPS-NM) on board the Suomi-NPP satellite
IMK–IAA MIPAS retrieval version 8: CH4 and N2O
Report on Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2B observations of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline methane leak
U-Plume: automated algorithm for plume detection and source quantification by satellite point-source imagers
CH4Net: a deep learning model for monitoring methane super-emitters with Sentinel-2 imagery
Greenhouse gas retrievals for the CO2M mission using the FOCAL method: first performance estimates
Quantitative imaging of carbon dioxide plumes using a ground-based shortwave infrared spectral camera
The transition to new ozone absorption cross sections for Dobson and Brewer total ozone measurements
In-Flight Estimation of Instrument Spectral Response Functions Using Sparse Representations
Remote sensing of lower-middle thermosphere temperatures using the N2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (LBH) bands
Advantages of assimilating multispectral satellite retrievals of atmospheric composition: a demonstration using MOPITT carbon monoxide products
An improved OMI ozone profile research product version 2.0 with collection 4 L1b data and algorithm updates
Tropospheric ozone column dataset from OMPS-LP/OMPS-NM limb–nadir matching
Version 8 IMK/IAA MIPAS measurements of CFC-11, CFC-12, and HCFC-22
The importance of digital elevation model accuracy in XCO2 retrievals: improving the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 Atmospheric Carbon Observations from Space version 11 retrieval product
Level0 to Level1B processor for MethaneAIR
Exploiting the entire near-infrared spectral range to improve the detection of methane plumes with high-resolution imaging spectrometers
A method for estimating localized CO2 emissions from co-located satellite XCO2 and NO2 images
Sanjeevani Panditharatne, Helen Brindley, Caroline Cox, Richard Siddans, Jonathan Murray, Laura Warwick, and Stuart Fox
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 717–735, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-717-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-717-2025, 2025
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Observations from the upcoming European Space Agency’s Far-Infrared Outgoing Radiation Understanding and Monitoring (FORUM) satellite are theorised to be highly sensitive to distributions of water vapour within Earth’s atmosphere. We exploit this sensitivity and extend the Infrared Microwave Sounding retrieval scheme for use on observations from FORUM. This scheme is evaluated on both simulated and observed measurements and shows good agreement with references of the atmospheric state.
Kelley C. Wells, Dylan B. Millet, Jared F. Brewer, Vivienne H. Payne, Karen E. Cady-Pereira, Rick Pernak, Susan Kulawik, Corinne Vigouroux, Nicholas Jones, Emmanuel Mahieu, Maria Makarova, Tomoo Nagahama, Ivan Ortega, Mathias Palm, Kimberly Strong, Matthias Schneider, Dan Smale, Ralf Sussmann, and Minqiang Zhou
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 695–716, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-695-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-695-2025, 2025
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Atmospheric volatile organic compounds (VOCs) affect both air quality and climate. Satellite measurements can help us to assess and predict their global impacts. We present new decadal (2012–2023) measurements of four key VOCs – methanol, ethene, ethyne, and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) – from the Cross-track Infrared Sounder. The measurements reflect emissions from major forests, wildfires, and industry and provide new information to advance understanding of these sources and their changes over time.
Otto Lamminpää, Jouni Susiluoto, Jonathan Hobbs, James McDuffie, Amy Braverman, and Houman Owhadi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 673–694, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-673-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-673-2025, 2025
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We develop and demonstrate a fast forward function emulator for remote sensing of greenhouse gases. These forward functions are computationally expensive to evaluate, and as such the key challenge for many satellite missions in their data processing is the time used in these evaluations. Our method is fast and accurate enough, less than 1 % relative error, so that it could be safely used in operational processing.
Alistair Bell, Eric Sauvageat, Gunter Stober, Klemens Hocke, and Axel Murk
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 555–567, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-555-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-555-2025, 2025
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Hardware and software developments have been made on a 22 GHz microwave radiometer for the measurement of middle-atmospheric water vapour near Bern, Switzerland. Previous measurements dating back to 2010 have been re-calibrated and an improved optimal estimation retrieval performed on these measurements, giving a 13-year dataset. Measurements made with new and improved instrumental hardware are used to correct previous measurements, which show better agreement than the non-corrected dataset.
Alexandre Danjou, Grégoire Broquet, Andrew Schuh, François-Marie Bréon, and Thomas Lauvaux
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 533–554, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-533-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-533-2025, 2025
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We study the capacity of XCO2 spaceborne imagery to estimate urban CO2 emissions with synthetic data. We define automatic and standard methods and objective criteria for image selection. The wind variability and urban emission budget guide the emission estimation error. Images with low wind variability and high urban emissions account for 47 % of images and give a bias in the emission estimation of −7 % and a spread of 56 %. Other images give a bias of −31 % and a spread of 99 %.
Yiguo Pang, Longfei Tian, Denghui Hu, Shuang Gao, and Guohua Liu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 455–470, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-455-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-455-2025, 2025
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The spatial adjacency of methane point sources can result in plume overlapping, presenting challenges for quantification from space. A separation and quantification method combining the Gaussian plume model and the integrated mass enhancement method is proposed. A modern parameter estimation technique is introduced to separate the overlapping plumes from satellite observations. The proposed method is evaluated with synthesized observations and real satellite observations.
Maximilian Reuter, Michael Hilker, Stefan Noël, Antonio Di Noia, Michael Weimer, Oliver Schneising, Michael Buchwitz, Heinrich Bovensmann, John P. Burrows, Hartmut Bösch, and Ruediger Lang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 241–264, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-241-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-241-2025, 2025
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Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are the main anthropogenic greenhouse gases. The European Copernicus CO2 monitoring satellite mission CO2M will provide measurements of their atmospheric concentrations, but the accuracy requirements are demanding and conventional retrieval methods computationally expensive. We present a new retrieval algorithm based on artificial neural networks that has the potential to meet the stringent requirements of the CO2M mission with minimal computational effort.
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.
Leon Kuhn, Steffen Beirle, Sergey Osipov, Andrea Pozzer, and Thomas Wagner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6485–6516, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6485-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6485-2024, 2024
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This paper presents a new machine learning model that allows us to compute NO2 concentration profiles from satellite observations. A neural network was trained on synthetic data from the regional chemistry and transport model WRF-Chem. This is the first model of its kind. We present a thorough model validation study, covering various seasons and regions of the world.
Swathi Maratt Satheesan, Kai-Uwe Eichmann, John P. Burrows, Mark Weber, Ryan Stauffer, Anne M. Thompson, and Debra Kollonige
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6459–6484, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6459-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6459-2024, 2024
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CHORA, an advanced cloud convective differential technique, enhances the accuracy of tropospheric-ozone retrievals. Unlike the traditional Pacific cloud reference sector scheme, CHORA introduces a local-cloud reference sector and an alternative approach (CLCT) for precision. Analysing monthly averaged TROPOMI data from 2018 to 2022 and validating with SHADOZ ozonesonde data, CLCT outperforms other methods and so is the preferred choice, especially in future geostationary satellite missions.
Yuhang Zhang, Huan Yu, Isabelle De Smedt, Jintai Lin, Nicolas Theys, Michel Van Roozendael, Gaia Pinardi, Steven Compernolle, Ruijing Ni, Fangxuan Ren, Sijie Wang, Lulu Chen, Jos Van Geffen, Mengyao Liu, Alexander Cede, Alexis Merlaud, Martina Friedrich, Andreas Richter, Ankie Piters, Vinod Kumar, Vinayak Sinha, Thomas Wagner, Yongjoo Choi, Hisahiro Takashima, Yugo Kanaya, Hitoshi Irie, Robert Spurr, Wenfu Sun, and Lorenzo Fabris
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-182, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-182, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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We developed an advanced POMINO algorithm for global retrieval of TROPOMI HCHO and NO2 VCDs with much improved consistency. Sensitivity tests demonstrate the complexity and non-linear interactions of auxiliary parameters in the AMF calculation. An improved agreement is found with measurements from a global ground-based instrument network. The POMINO retrieval provides a useful source of information for studies combining HCHO and NO2.
Minqiang Zhou, Pucai Wang, Bart Dils, Bavo Langerock, Geoff Toon, Christian Hermans, Weidong Nan, Qun Cheng, and Martine De Mazière
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6385–6396, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6385-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6385-2024, 2024
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Solar absorption spectra near 2967 cm−1 recorded by a ground-based FTIR with a high spectral resolution of 0.0035 cm-1 are applied to retrieve C3H8 columns for the first time in Xianghe, China, within the NDACC-IRWG. The mean and standard deviation of the C3H8 columns are 1.80 ± 0.81 (1σ) × 1015 molec. cm-2. Good correlations are found between C3H8 and other non-methane hydrocarbons, such as C2H6 (R = 0.84) and C2H2 (R = 0.79), as well as between C3H8 and CO (R = 0.72).
Farrer Owsley-Brown, Martin J. Wooster, Mark J. Grosvenor, and Yanan Liu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6247–6264, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6247-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6247-2024, 2024
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Landscape fires produce vast amounts of smoke, affecting the atmosphere locally and globally. Whether a fire is flaming or smouldering strongly impacts the rate at which smoke is produced as well as its composition. This study tested two methods to determine these combustion phases in laboratory fires and compared them to the smoke emitted. One of these methods improved estimates of smoke emission significantly. This suggests potential for improvement in global emission estimates.
Sora Seo, Pieter Valks, Ronny Lutz, Klaus-Peter Heue, Pascal Hedelt, Víctor Molina García, Diego Loyola, Hanlim Lee, and Jhoon Kim
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6163–6191, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6163-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6163-2024, 2024
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In this study, we developed an advanced retrieval algorithm for tropospheric NO2 columns from geostationary satellite spectrometers and applied it to GEMS measurements. The DLR GEMS NO2 retrieval algorithm follows the heritage from previous and existing algorithms, but improved approaches are applied to reflect the specific features of geostationary satellites. The DLR GEMS NO2 retrievals demonstrate a good capability for monitoring diurnal variability with a high spatial resolution.
Theodore K. Koenig, François Hendrick, Douglas Kinnison, Christopher F. Lee, Michel Van Roozendael, and Rainer Volkamer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5911–5934, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5911-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5911-2024, 2024
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Atmospheric bromine destroys ozone, impacts oxidation capacity, and oxidizes mercury into its toxic form. We constrain bromine by remote sensing of BrO from a mountaintop. Previous measurements retrieved two to three pieces of information vertically; we apply new methods to get five and a half vertically and two more in time. We compare with aircraft measurements to validate the methods and look at variations in BrO over the Pacific.
Kavitha Mottungan, Chayan Roychoudhury, Vanessa Brocchi, Benjamin Gaubert, Wenfu Tang, Mohammad Amin Mirrezaei, John McKinnon, Yafang Guo, David W. T. Griffith, Dietrich G. Feist, Isamu Morino, Mahesh K. Sha, Manvendra K. Dubey, Martine De Mazière, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Paul O. Wennberg, Ralf Sussmann, Rigel Kivi, Tae-Young Goo, Voltaire A. Velazco, Wei Wang, and Avelino F. Arellano Jr.
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5861–5885, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5861-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5861-2024, 2024
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A combination of data analysis techniques is introduced to separate local and regional influences on observed levels of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane from an established ground-based remote sensing network. We take advantage of the covariations in these trace gases to identify the dominant type of sources driving these levels. Applying these methods in conjunction with existing approaches to other datasets can better address uncertainties in identifying sources and sinks.
Frank Hase, Paolo Castracane, Angelika Dehn, Omaira Elena García, David W. T. Griffith, Lukas Heizmann, Nicholas B. Jones, Tomi Karppinen, Rigel Kivi, Martine de Mazière, Justus Notholt, and Mahesh Kumar Sha
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-140, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-140, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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The primary measurement result delivered by a Fourier Transform spectrometer is an interferogram, and the spectrum required for further analysis needs to be calculated from the interferogram by a Fourier analysis. The paper deals with technical aspects of this process and shows how the reconstruction of the spectrum can be optimized.
Edward Malina, Jure Brence, Jennifer Adams, Jovan Tanevski, Sašo Džeroski, Valentin Kantchev, and Kevin W. Bowman
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2392, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2392, 2024
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The large fleet of Earth Observation satellites in orbit currently generate huge volumes of data, requiring significant computational resources to process in a timely manner. We present a method for predicting poor quality measurements using machine learning. We find that machine learning methods can accurately predict poor quality measurements, and remove them from the processing change, saving time and computational resources.
Chia-Pang Kuo and Christian Kummerow
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5637–5653, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5637-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5637-2024, 2024
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A small satellite about the size of a shoe box, named TEMPEST, carries only a microwave sensor and is designed to measure the water cycle of the Earth from space in an economical way compared with traditional satellites, which have additional infrared sensors. To overcome the limitation, extra infrared signals from GOES-R ABI are combined with TEMPEST microwave measurements. Compared with ground observations, improved humidity information is extracted from the merged TEMPEST and ABI signals.
Christopher Chan Miller, Sébastien Roche, Jonas S. Wilzewski, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Amir H. Souri, Eamon Conway, Bingkun Luo, Jenna Samra, Jacob Hawthorne, Kang Sun, Carly Staebell, Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Joshua S. Benmergui, Jonathan E. Franklin, Bruce C. Daube, Yang Li, Joshua L. Laughner, Bianca C. Baier, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5429–5454, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5429-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5429-2024, 2024
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MethaneSAT is an upcoming satellite mission designed to monitor methane emissions from the oil and gas (O&G) industry globally. Here, we present observations from the first flight campaign of MethaneAIR, a MethaneSAT-like instrument mounted on an aircraft. MethaneAIR can map methane with high precision and accuracy over a typically sized oil and gas basin (~200 km2) in a single flight. This paper demonstrates the capability of the upcoming satellite to routinely track global O&G emissions.
Matthieu Dogniaux and Cyril Crevoisier
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5373–5396, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5373-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5373-2024, 2024
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Many CO2-observing satellite concepts, with very different design choices and trade-offs, are expected to be put into orbit during the upcoming decade. This work uses numerical simulations to explore the impact of critical design parameters on the performance of upcoming CO2-observing satellite concepts.
Francesca Vittorioso, Vincent Guidard, and Nadia Fourrié
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5279–5299, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5279-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5279-2024, 2024
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The future Meteosat Third Generation Infrared Sounder (MTG-IRS) will represent a major innovation for the monitoring of the chemical state of the atmosphere. MTG-IRS will have the advantage of being based on a geostationary platform and acquiring data with a high temporal frequency. This work aims to evaluate its potential impact over Europe within a chemical transport model (MOCAGE). The results indicate that the assimilation of these data always has a positive impact on ozone analysis.
Matthias Schneider, Kinya Toride, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Frank Hase, Benjamin Ertl, Christopher J. Diekmann, and Kei Yoshimura
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5243–5259, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5243-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5243-2024, 2024
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Despite its importance for extreme weather and climate feedbacks, atmospheric convection is not well constrained. This study assesses the potential of novel tropospheric water vapour isotopologue satellite observations for improving the analyses of convective events. We find that the impact of the isotopologues is small for stable atmospheric conditions but significant for unstable conditions, which have the strongest societal impacts (e.g. storms and flooding).
Mengyao Liu, Ronald van der A, Michiel van Weele, Lotte Bryan, Henk Eskes, Pepijn Veefkind, Yongxue Liu, Xiaojuan Lin, Jos de Laat, and Jieying Ding
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5261–5277, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5261-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5261-2024, 2024
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A new divergence method was developed and applied to estimate methane emissions from TROPOMI observations over the Middle East, where it is typically challenging for a satellite to measure methane due to its complicated orography and surface albedo. Our results show the potential of TROPOMI to quantify methane emissions from various sources rather than big emitters from space after objectively excluding the artifacts in the retrieval.
Yujin J. Oak, Daniel J. Jacob, Nicholas Balasus, Laura H. Yang, Heesung Chong, Junsung Park, Hanlim Lee, Gitaek T. Lee, Eunjo S. Ha, Rokjin J. Park, Hyeong-Ahn Kwon, and Jhoon Kim
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5147–5159, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5147-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5147-2024, 2024
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We present an improved NO2 product from GEMS by calibrating it to TROPOMI using machine learning and by reprocessing both satellite products to adopt common NO2 profiles. Our corrected GEMS product combines the high data density of GEMS with the accuracy of TROPOMI, supporting the combined use for analyses of East Asia air quality including emissions and chemistry. This method can be extended to other species and geostationary satellites including TEMPO and Sentinel-4.
Alexander C. Bradley, Barbara Dix, Fergus Mackenzie, J. Pepijn Veefkind, and Joost A. de Gouw
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2352, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2352, 2024
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Currently measurement of methane from the TROPOMI satellite is biased with respect to surface reflectance. This study demonstrates a new method of correcting for this bias on a seasonal timescale to allow for differences in surface reflectance in areas of intense agriculture where growing seasons may introduce a reflectance bias. We have successfully implemented this technique in the Denver-Julesburg basin where agriculture and methane extraction infrastructure is often co-located.
Tannaz H. Mohammadloo, Matthew Jones, Bas van de Kerkhof, Kyle Dawson, Brendan James Smith, Stephen Conley, Abigail Corbett, and Rutger IJzermans
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1175, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1175, 2024
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Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. Trustable detection and quantification of methane emissions at facility level is critical to identify the largest sources, and to prioritize them for repair. We provide a systematic analysis of the uncertainty in drone-based methane emission surveys, based on theoretical considerations and historical data sets. We provide guidelines to industry on how to avoid or minimize potential errors in drone-based measurements for methane emission quantification.
Xianzhong Duan, Ming Chang, Guotong Wu, Suping Situ, Shengjie Zhu, Qi Zhang, Yibo Huangfu, Weiwen Wang, Weihua Chen, Bin Yuan, and Xuemei Wang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4065–4079, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4065-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4065-2024, 2024
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Accurately estimating biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions in forest ecosystems has been challenging. This research presents a framework that utilizes drone-based lidar, photogrammetry, and image recognition technologies to identify plant species and estimate BVOC emissions. The largest cumulative isoprene emissions were found in the Myrtaceae family, while those of monoterpenes were from the Rubiaceae family.
Fengxin Xie, Tao Ren, Changying Zhao, Yuan Wen, Yilei Gu, Minqiang Zhou, Pucai Wang, Kei Shiomi, and Isamu Morino
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3949–3967, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3949-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3949-2024, 2024
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This study demonstrates a new machine learning approach to efficiently and accurately estimate atmospheric carbon dioxide levels from satellite data. Rather than using traditional complex physics-based retrieval methods, neural network models are trained on simulated data to rapidly predict CO2 concentrations directly from satellite spectral measurements.
Steffen Beirle and Thomas Wagner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3439–3453, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3439-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3439-2024, 2024
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We present a new method for estimating emissions and lifetimes for nitrogen oxides emitted from large cities by using satellite NO2 observations combined with wind fields. The estimate is based on the simultaneous evaluation of the downwind plumes for opposing wind directions. This allows us to derive seasonal mean emissions and lifetimes for 100 cities around the globe.
Qiurun Yu, Dylan Jervis, and Yi Huang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3347–3366, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3347-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3347-2024, 2024
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This study estimated the effects of aerosols on GHGSat satellite methane retrieval and investigated the performance of simultaneously retrieving aerosol and methane information using a multi-angle viewing method. Results suggested that the performance of GHGSat methane retrieval improved when aerosols were considered, and the multi-angle viewing method is insensitive to the satellite angle setting. This performance assessment is useful for improving future GHGSat-like instruments.
Zhonghua He, Ling Gao, Miao Liang, and Zhao-Cheng Zeng
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2937–2956, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2937-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2937-2024, 2024
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Using Gaofen-5B satellite data, this study detected 93 methane plume events from 32 coal mines in Shanxi, China, with emission rates spanning from 761.78 ± 185.00 to 12729.12 ± 4658.13 kg h-1, showing significant variability among sources. This study highlights Gaofen-5B’s capacity for monitoring large methane point sources, offering valuable support in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Heesung Chong, Gonzalo González Abad, Caroline R. Nowlan, Christopher Chan Miller, Alfonso Saiz-Lopez, Rafael P. Fernandez, Hyeong-Ahn Kwon, Zolal Ayazpour, Huiqun Wang, Amir H. Souri, Xiong Liu, Kelly Chance, Ewan O'Sullivan, Jhoon Kim, Ja-Ho Koo, William R. Simpson, François Hendrick, Richard Querel, Glen Jaross, Colin Seftor, and Raid M. Suleiman
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2873–2916, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2873-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2873-2024, 2024
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We present a new bromine monoxide (BrO) product derived using radiances measured from OMPS-NM on board the Suomi-NPP satellite. This product provides nearly a decade of global stratospheric and tropospheric column retrievals, a feature that is currently rare in publicly accessible datasets. Both stratospheric and tropospheric columns from OMPS-NM demonstrate robust performance, exhibiting good agreement with ground-based observations collected at three stations (Lauder, Utqiagvik, and Harestua).
Norbert Glatthor, Thomas von Clarmann, Bernd Funke, Maya García-Comas, Udo Grabowski, Michael Höpfner, Sylvia Kellmann, Michael Kiefer, Alexandra Laeng, Andrea Linden, Manuel López-Puertas, and Gabriele P. Stiller
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2849–2871, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2849-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2849-2024, 2024
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We present global atmospheric methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) distributions retrieved from measurements of the MIPAS instrument on board the Environmental Satellite (Envisat) during 2002 to 2012. Monitoring of these gases is of scientific interest because both of them are strong greenhouse gases. We analyze the latest, improved version of calibrated MIPAS measurements. Further, we apply a new retrieval scheme leading to an improved CH4 and N2O data product .
Matthieu Dogniaux, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Daniel J. Varon, and Ilse Aben
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2777–2787, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2777-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2777-2024, 2024
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We analyze Landsat 8 (L8) and Sentinel-2B (S-2B) observations of the 2022 Nord Stream 2 methane leak and show how challenging this case is for usual data analysis methods. We provide customized calibrations for this Nord Stream 2 case and assess that no firm conclusion can be drawn from L8 or S-2B single overpasses. However, if we opportunistically assume that L8 and S-2B results are independent, we find an averaged L8 and S-2B combined methane leak rate of 502 ± 464 t h−1.
Jack H. Bruno, Dylan Jervis, Daniel J. Varon, and Daniel J. Jacob
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2625–2636, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2625-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2625-2024, 2024
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Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and a current high-priority target for short- to mid-term climate change mitigation. Detection of individual methane emitters from space has become possible in recent years, and the volume of data for this task has been rapidly growing, outpacing processing capabilities. We introduce an automated approach, U-Plume, which can detect and quantify emissions from individual methane sources in high-spatial-resolution satellite data.
Anna Vaughan, Gonzalo Mateo-García, Luis Gómez-Chova, Vít Růžička, Luis Guanter, and Itziar Irakulis-Loitxate
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2583–2593, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2583-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2583-2024, 2024
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Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that has been responsible for around 25 % of global warming since the industrial revolution. Consequently identifying and mitigating methane emissions comprise an important step in combating the climate crisis. We develop a new deep learning model to automatically detect methane plumes from satellite images and demonstrate that this can be applied to monitor large methane emissions resulting from the oil and gas industry.
Stefan Noël, Michael Buchwitz, Michael Hilker, Maximilian Reuter, Michael Weimer, Heinrich Bovensmann, John P. Burrows, Hartmut Bösch, and Ruediger Lang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2317–2334, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2317-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2317-2024, 2024
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FOCAL-CO2M is one of the three operational retrieval algorithms which will be used to derive XCO2 and XCH4 from measurements of the forthcoming European CO2M mission. We present results of applications of FOCAL-CO2M to simulated spectra, from which confidence is gained that the algorithm is able to fulfil the challenging requirements on systematic errors for the CO2M mission (spatio-temporal bias ≤ 0.5 ppm for XCO2 and ≤ 5 ppb for XCH4).
Marvin Knapp, Ralph Kleinschek, Sanam N. Vardag, Felix Külheim, Helge Haveresch, Moritz Sindram, Tim Siegel, Bruno Burger, and André Butz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2257–2275, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2257-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2257-2024, 2024
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Imaging carbon dioxide (CO2) plumes of anthropogenic sources from planes and satellites has proven valuable for detecting emitters and monitoring climate mitigation efforts. We present the first images of CO2 plumes taken with a ground-based spectral camera, observing a coal-fired power plant as a validation target. We develop a technique to find the source emission strength with an hourly resolution, which reasonably agrees with the expected emissions under favorable conditions.
Karl Voglmeier, Voltaire A. Velazco, Luca Egli, Julian Gröbner, Alberto Redondas, and Wolfgang Steinbrecht
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2277–2294, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2277-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2277-2024, 2024
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Comparison between total ozone column (TOC) measurements from ground-based Dobson and Brewer spectrophotometers generally reveals seasonally varying differences of a few percent. This study recommends a new TOC retrieval approach, which effectively eliminates these seasonally varying differences by applying new ozone absorption cross sections, appropriate slit functions for the Dobson instrument, and climatological values for the effective ozone temperature.
Jihanne El Haouari, Jean-Michel Gaucel, Christelle Pittet, Jean-Yves Tourneret, and Herwig Wendt
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2404.05298, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2404.05298, 2024
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This paper explores new techniques based on sparse representations for estimating the spectral response functions of high-resolution spectrometers. The method is highly competitive with commonly used parametric models yielding more accurate estimates while accounting for wavelength dependence. The resulting normalized estimation errors of the spectrometer spectral responses are less than 1 %, which will allow better quantification of trace gas concentrations at the Earth surface.
Richard Eastes, J. Scott Evans, Quan Gan, Bill McClintock, and Jerry Lumpe
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-52, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-52, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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The temperature is essential to understanding the thermosphere. Most temperature measurements have indirect or had large uncertainties, especially in the lower-middle thermosphere where data are rarely available. Since October 2018 NASA’s GOLD mission has produced disk images of neutral temperatures near 160 km at locations over the Americas and Atlantic Ocean. This paper discusses both temperature retrieval techniques and issues in interpreting GOLD’s images of temperatures.
Wenfu Tang, Benjamin Gaubert, Louisa Emmons, Daniel Ziskin, Debbie Mao, David Edwards, Avelino Arellano, Kevin Raeder, Jeffrey Anderson, and Helen Worden
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1941–1963, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1941-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1941-2024, 2024
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We assimilate different MOPITT CO products to understand the impact of (1) assimilating multispectral and joint retrievals versus single spectral products, (2) assimilating satellite profile products versus column products, and (3) assimilating multispectral and joint retrievals versus assimilating individual products separately.
Juseon Bak, Xiong Liu, Kai Yang, Gonzalo Gonzalez Abad, Ewan O'Sullivan, Kelly Chance, and Cheol-Hee Kim
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1891–1911, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1891-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1891-2024, 2024
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The new version (V2) of the OMI ozone profile product is introduced to improve retrieval quality and long-term consistency of tropospheric ozone by incorporating the recent collection 4 OMI L1b spectral products and refining radiometric correction, forward model calculation, and a priori ozone data.
Andrea Orfanoz-Cheuquelaf, Carlo Arosio, Alexei Rozanov, Mark Weber, Annette Ladstätter-Weißenmayer, John P. Burrows, Anne M. Thompson, Ryan M. Stauffer, and Debra E. Kollonige
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1791–1809, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1791-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1791-2024, 2024
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Valuable information on the tropospheric ozone column (TrOC) can be obtained globally by combining space-borne limb and nadir measurements (limb–nadir matching, LNM). This study describes the retrieval of TrOC from the OMPS instrument (since 2012) using the LNM technique. The OMPS-LNM TrOC was compared with ozonesondes and other satellite measurements, showing a good agreement with a negative bias within 1 to 4 DU. This new dataset is suitable for pollution studies.
Gabriele P. Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, Norbert Glatthor, Udo Grabowski, Sylvia Kellmann, Michael Kiefer, Alexandra Laeng, Andrea Linden, Bernd Funke, Maya García-Comas, and Manuel López-Puertas
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1759–1789, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1759-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1759-2024, 2024
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CFC-11, CFC-12, and HCFC-22 contribute to the depletion of ozone and are potent greenhouse gases. They have been banned by the Montreal protocol. With MIPAS on Envisat the atmospheric composition could be observed between 2002 and 2012. We present here the retrieval of their atmospheric distributions for the final data version 8. We characterise the derived data by their error budget and their spatial resolution. An additional representation for direct comparison to models is also provided.
Nicole Jacobs, Christopher W. O'Dell, Thomas E. Taylor, Thomas L. Logan, Brendan Byrne, Matthäus Kiel, Rigel Kivi, Pauli Heikkinen, Aronne Merrelli, Vivienne H. Payne, and Abhishek Chatterjee
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1375–1401, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1375-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1375-2024, 2024
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The accuracy of trace gas retrievals from spaceborne observations, like those from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2), are sensitive to the referenced digital elevation model (DEM). Therefore, we evaluate several global DEMs, used in versions 10 and 11 of the OCO-2 retrieval along with the Copernicus DEM. We explore the impacts of changing the DEM on biases in OCO-2-retrieved XCO2 and inferred CO2 fluxes. Our findings led to an update to OCO-2 v11.1 using the Copernicus DEM globally.
Eamon K. Conway, Amir H. Souri, Joshua Benmergui, Kang Sun, Xiong Liu, Carly Staebell, Christopher Chan Miller, Jonathan Franklin, Jenna Samra, Jonas Wilzewski, Sebastien Roche, Bingkun Luo, Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Jacob Hohl, Bruce Daube, Iouli Gordon, Kelly Chance, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1347–1362, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1347-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1347-2024, 2024
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The work presented here describes the processes required to convert raw sensor data for the MethaneAIR instrument to geometrically calibrated data. Each algorithm is described in detail. MethaneAIR is the airborne simulator for MethaneSAT, a new satellite under development by MethaneSAT LLC, a subsidiary of the EDF. MethaneSAT's goals are to precisely map over 80 % of the production sources of methane emissions from oil and gas fields across the globe to a high degree of accuracy.
Javier Roger, Luis Guanter, Javier Gorroño, and Itziar Irakulis-Loitxate
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1333–1346, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1333-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1333-2024, 2024
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Methane emissions can be identified using remote sensing, but surface-related structures disturb detection. In this work, a variation of the matched filter method that exploits a large fraction of the near-infrared range (1000–2500 nm) is applied. In comparison to the raw matched filter, it reduces background noise and strongly attenuates the surface-related artifacts, which leads to a greater detection capability. We propose this variation as a standard methodology for methane detection.
Blanca Fuentes Andrade, Michael Buchwitz, Maximilian Reuter, Heinrich Bovensmann, Andreas Richter, Hartmut Boesch, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1145–1173, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1145-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1145-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We developed a method to estimate CO2 emissions from localized sources, such as power plants, using satellite data and applied it to estimate CO2 emissions from the Bełchatów Power Station (Poland). As the detection of CO2 emission plumes from satellite data is difficult, we used observations of co-emitted NO2 to constrain the emission plume region. Our results agree with CO2 emission estimations based on the power-plant-generated power and emission factors.
Cited articles
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Short summary
Inaccuracies in the retrieval of NO2 tropospheric columns due to the radiative effects of light-absorbing aerosols are not well understood. Here we explicitly account for the effects of aerosols in the Dutch OMI NO2 (DOMINO) tropospheric AMF calculation by including aerosol observations collocated with OMI pixels. The AMF calculations that included aerosol absorption and scattering were on average 10% higher than traditional AMFs. Errors can reach a factor of 2 for individual pixels.
Inaccuracies in the retrieval of NO2 tropospheric columns due to the radiative effects of...
