A top-down assessment using OMI NO2 suggests an underestimate in the NOx emissions inventory in Seoul, South Korea, during KORUS-AQ

Goldberg, Daniel L.; Saide, Pablo E.; Lamsal, Lok N.; de Foy, Benjamin; Lu, Zifeng; Woo, Jung-Hun; Kim, Younha; Kim, Jinseok; Gao, Meng; Carmichael, Gregory; Streets, David G.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-1801-2019

Articles | Volume 19, issue 3

Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 1801–1818, 2019

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-1801-2019

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

Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 1801–1818, 2019

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-1801-2019

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

Articles | Volume 19, issue 3

Research article

08 Feb 2019

Research article | 08 Feb 2019

A top-down assessment using OMI NO₂ suggests an underestimate in the NO_x emissions inventory in Seoul, South Korea, during KORUS-AQ

Daniel L. Goldberg et al.

Data sets

OMI/Aura Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) Total and Tropospheric Column 1-orbit L2 Swath 13x24 km V003 N. A. Krotkov, L. N. Lamsal, S. V. Marchenko, E. A. Celarier, E. J. Bucsela, W. H. Swartz, and P. Veefkind https://doi.org/10.5067/Aura/OMI/DATA2017

Korea-United States Air Quality Field Study KORUS-AQ https://doi.org/10.5067/Suborbital/KORUSAQ/DATA01

Short summary

Using satellite data, we are able to estimate the emissions of NO_x (NO_x=NO+NO₂), a toxic group of air pollutants, in the Seoul metropolitan area. We first develop an enhanced satellite product that better observes NO₂ in urban regions. Using this new product, we derive NO_x emissions to be twice as large as the emissions reported by the South Korean government. The implication is that the measures taken to reduce NO_x emissions in South Korea have not been as effective as regulators have thought.