A methodology to constrain carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants using satellite observations of co-emitted nitrogen dioxide

Liu, Fei; Duncan, Bryan N.; Krotkov, Nickolay A.; Lamsal, Lok N.; Beirle, Steffen; Griffin, Debora; McLinden, Chris A.; Goldberg, Daniel L.; Lu, Zifeng

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-99-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-99-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-99-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 1

Research article

|

03 Jan 2020

Research article |

| 03 Jan 2020

A methodology to constrain carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants using satellite observations of co-emitted nitrogen dioxide

Fei Liu, Bryan N. Duncan, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Lok N. Lamsal, Steffen Beirle, Debora Griffin, Chris A. McLinden, Daniel L. Goldberg, and Zifeng Lu

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-99-2020-supplement

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 J. Joiner https://doi.org/10.5067/Aura/OMI/DATA2017

GEOS-5 FP-IT Assimilation Geo-colocated to OMI/Aura VIS 1-Orbit L2 Support Swath 13x24km V3 J. Joiner https://doi.org/10.5067/Aura/OMI/DATA2033

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Short summary

We present a novel method to infer CO₂ emissions from individual power plants, based on satellite observations of co-emitted NO₂. We find that the CO₂ emissions estimated by our satellite-based method during 2005–2017 are in reasonable agreement with the CEMS measurements for US power plants. The broader implication of our methodology is that it has the potential to provide an additional constraint on CO₂ emissions from power plants in regions of the world without reliable emissions accounting.