An increase in methane emissions from tropical Africa between 2010 and 2016 inferred from satellite data

Lunt, Mark F.; Palmer, Paul I.; Feng, Liang; Taylor, Christopher M.; Boesch, Hartmut; Parker, Robert J.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-14721-2019

Articles | Volume 19, issue 23

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-14721-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-14721-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 23

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

11 Dec 2019

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 11 Dec 2019

An increase in methane emissions from tropical Africa between 2010 and 2016 inferred from satellite data

Mark F. Lunt, Paul I. Palmer, Liang Feng, Christopher M. Taylor, Hartmut Boesch, and Robert J. Parker

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Final revised paper (published on 11 Dec 2019)
Preprint (discussion started on 26 Jun 2019)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'RC on "An increase in methane emissions from tropical Africa between 2010 and 2016 inferred from satellite data" by Lunt et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 09 Jul 2019
RC2: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #1, 24 Jul 2019
AC1: 'Response to reviewers', Mark Lunt, 01 Oct 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Mark Lunt on behalf of the Authors (01 Oct 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (17 Oct 2019) by Alex B. Guenther

AR by Mark Lunt on behalf of the Authors (22 Oct 2019)

Short summary

Using data from the GOSAT satellite between 2010 and 2016 and a Bayesian inversion approach, we estimate monthly emissions of methane from tropical Africa. We find an increase in methane emissions during this period, driven in part by rising emissions from South Sudan. Using ancillary data we attribute this short-term emissions rise to an increase in the extent of the Sudd wetlands driven by increased outflow from the East African lakes.