Articles | Volume 23, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4863-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4863-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| Highlight paper
| 
25 Apr 2023
Research article | Highlight paper |
| 25 Apr 2023
| 25 Apr 2023
Methane emissions are predominantly responsible for record-breaking atmospheric methane growth rates in 2020 and 2021
Liang Feng
National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh,
UK
National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh,
UK
School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Robert J. Parker
National Centre for Earth Observation, Space Park Leicester, University of
Leicester, Leicester, UK
Earth Observation Science, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of
Leicester, Leicester, UK
Mark F. Lunt
School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Hartmut Bösch
National Centre for Earth Observation, Space Park Leicester, University of
Leicester, Leicester, UK
Earth Observation Science, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of
Leicester, Leicester, UK
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Chlöe N. Schooling, Liang Feng, Ingrid Super, and Paul I. Palmer
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Short summary
Short summary
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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We assess the added value of GEMS geostationary satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 to constrain NOx emission estimates and subsequent air quality modelling over a full annual cycle across Asia. We observe a clear seasonal divide, with significant benefits outside summer while limited or even detrimental impacts during summer. Our findings clarify when and how high frequency geostationary data can be most effectively used to improve our understanding of atmospheric composition.
Gerrit Kuhlmann, Erik Franciscus Maria Koene, Chloe Natasha Schooling, Paul Ian Palmer, Òscar Collado López, and Marc Guevara
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We used satellite measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) to estimate top-down nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from power plants in Europe and the United States. Our study shows that these observations can track seasonal and short-term changes in emissions and agree well with bottom-up estimates. This approach offers a promising way to monitor NOx and indirectly carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, supporting anthropogenic emissions monitoring systems.
Lakshmi N. Bharathan, Robert J. Parker, Michael Cartwright, Dan Orr, Antonio Di Noia, Peter Somkuti, Alex Webb, and Hartmut Bösch
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
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Stephen J. Harris, Sven Krautwurst, Jorg Hacker, Mark Lunt, Borchardt Jakob, Mei Bai, Hartmut Boesch, Tarra Brain, John Philip Burrows, Shakti Chakravarty, Robert A. Field, Rebecca E. Fisher, James L. France, Konstantin Gerilowski, Oke Huhs, Wolfgang Junkermann, Bryce F. J. Kelly, Martin Kumm, Mathias Lanoisellé, Wolfgang Lieff, Andrew McGrath, Adrian Murphy, Thomas Röckmann, Zoe Salmon, Josua Schindewolf, Jakob Thoböll, Carina van der Veen, and Heinrich Bovensmann
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
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Srijana Lama, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Xin Zhang, Marianne Girard, Swarna Dutt, Suyash Nandgaonkar, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Lucas A. Estrada, Nicholas Balasus, Robert J. Parker, Yukio Terao, and Ilse Aben
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6528, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6528, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Methane is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas in terms of radiative forcing, with a global warming potential 27–30 times that of CO2 over a 100-year timescale. Effective mitigation requires a detailed understanding of the spatial distribution and magnitude of emissions. Here, we quantify India’s 2021 methane emissions at a resolution of up to 0.25° × 0.3125° using TROPOMI observations within the Bayesian Integrated Methane Inversion framework.
Sarah E. Hancock, Daniel J. Jacob, Rodrigo Jimenez, Andrés Ardila, Luis Morales-Rincon, Néstor Rojas, Lucas A. Estrada, Nicholas Balasus, James D. East, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Xiaolin Wang, James L. France, Lauren Potyk, Elise Penn, Zichong Chen, Daniel J. Varon, Christian Frankenberg, Marci Baranski, Andreea Calcan, and Robert J. Parker
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5478, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5478, 2026
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We combined satellite observations with detailed national data to improve estimates of Colombia’s methane emissions. Our results show that total methane emissions are higher than reported, with the biggest differences from fossil fuels. This approach demonstrates how satellite data can make national greenhouse gas reporting more accurate and transparent under the Paris Agreement.
Petri Clusius, Metin Baykara, Carlton Xavier, Putian Zhou, Juniper Tyree, Benjamin Foreback, Mikko Äijälä, Frans Graeffe, Tuukka Petäjä, Markku Kulmala, Pauli Paasonen, Paul I. Palmer, and Michael Boy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 1967–1992, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1967-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1967-2026, 2026
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Cloud condensation nuclei are necessary to form clouds, and their size distribution affects cloud properties and therefore Earth’s energy budget. This study modelled the origins of cloud condensation nuclei at SMEAR II, Hyytiälä, Finland, and found that primary emissions and new particle formation separately contribute to more than half of the condensation nuclei, but they suppress each other, leading to current concentrations. Largest condensation nuclei originated mostly from emissions.
Alexander Mchedlishvili, Marco Vountas, and Hartmut Bösch
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6424, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6424, 2026
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Air circulation over Greenland affects ice melt by changing temperature, moisture, and wind. We study how much sunlight the ice reflects and how this relates to extreme melting. Focusing on the summers of 2012, 2019, and 2023, we explore the weather patterns that caused unusually warm conditions and how the Greenland ice sheet responded.
Douglas P. Finch and Paul I. Palmer
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5900, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5900, 2026
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We have developed a machine learning tool to find emission plumes of sulphur dioxide (SO2) observed in satellite data. SO2 is an atmospheric pollutant from fuel combustion, metal smelting, and volcanic degassing, impacting health, acid deposition, and climate forcing. Over 6 years we find over 50,000 plumes, most of which are clustered around known sources (e.g. volcanoes or industrial hotspots). We show how this tool can be used to give near real-time estimates of emissions across the globe.
Simon Laffoy, Marco Vountas, Linlu Mei, and Hartmut Bösch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 19, 293–306, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-293-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-293-2026, 2026
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Aerosol are particles in the atmosphere such as dust, salt, soot and sulfates. They may be measured by applying algorithms to satellite images of the Earth. We attempt to apply data from the new Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) satellite to the existing XBAER algorithm, which was previously applied to data from the Ocean Land and Colour Instrument (OLCI) satellite. This paper compares the satellite inputs and aerosol outputs of the XBAER algorithm and finds good results.
Alexander Kurganskiy, Liang Feng, Neil Humpage, Paul I. Palmer, A. Jerome P. Woodwark, Stamatia Doniki, and Damien Weidmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 7525–7563, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-7525-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-7525-2025, 2025
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This study introduces GEMINI-UK (Greenhouse gas Emissions Monitoring network to Inform Net-zero Initiatives for the UK), the first UK-wide network using ground-based instruments to monitor net fluxes of CO2 and methane. By simulating its performance, we show that GEMINI-UK will significantly reduce uncertainties in these flux estimates, complementing data from existing tall towers and future satellite missions. The network will strengthen the UK's ability to track greenhouse gases, evaluate climate policies, and meet net-zero goals.
Taku Umezawa, Yukio Terao, Masahito Ueyama, Satoshi Kameyama, Mark Lunt, and James Lawrence France
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 18015–18029, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-18015-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-18015-2025, 2025
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Effective mitigation actions require accurate understanding of methane emission characteristics in cities. We conducted atmospheric methane and ethane measurements using a vehicle in the world’s largest megacity, Tokyo, to identify locations and types of emissions and to examine preliminary estimates of their magnitudes. Waste sectors and fugitive natural gas emissions were found to be the major urban sources, and our data suggested need of improved accounting of natural gas related emissions.
Haolin Wang, William Maslanka, Paul I. Palmer, Martin J. Wooster, Haofan Wang, Fei Yao, Liang Feng, Kai Wu, Xiao Lu, and Shaojia Fan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 17501–17526, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17501-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17501-2025, 2025
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We examine the impact of diurnally varying African biomass burning (BB) emissions on tropospheric ozone using GEOS-Chem simulations with a high-resolution satellite-derived emission inventory. Compared to coarser temporal resolutions, incorporating diurnal variations leads to significant changes in surface ozone and atmospheric oxidation capacity. Our findings highlight the importance of accurately representing BB emission timing in chemical transport models to improve ozone predictions.
Samantha Petch, Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, Robert P. King, Tristan Quaife, and Keith Haines
Biogeosciences, 22, 7031–7051, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-7031-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-7031-2025, 2025
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The growth rate of atmospheric CO2 varies year to year, mainly due to land ecosystems. Understanding factors controlling the land carbon uptake is crucial. Our study examines the link between terrestrial water storage and the CO2 growth rate from 2002–2023, revealing a strong negative correlation. We highlight the key role of tropical forests, especially in tropical America, and assess how regional contributions shift over time.
Shihan Sun, Paul I. Palmer, Richard Siddans, Brian J. Kerridge, Lucy Ventress, Achim Edtbauer, Akima Ringsdorf, Eva Y. Pfannerstill, and Jonathan Williams
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 15801–15818, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-15801-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-15801-2025, 2025
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Isoprene released by plants can impact atmospheric chemistry and climate. The Amazon rainforest is a major source of isoprene. We derived isoprene emissions using satellite retrievals of isoprene columns and a chemical transport model. We evaluated our isoprene emission estimates using ground-based isoprene observations and satellite retrievals of formaldehyde. We found that using satellite retrievals of isoprene can help us better understand isoprene emissions over the Amazon.
Chlöe N. Schooling, Paul I. Palmer, Auke Visser, and Nicolas Bousserez
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 15631–15652, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-15631-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-15631-2025, 2025
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This study presents a new method to estimate fossil fuel CO2 (ffCO2) emissions by modelling NOx chemistry. Our regression models predict NOx chemical rates and NO2 : NO ratios with R² values above 0.95 using meteorological inputs. Incorporating these regressions reduces computational time compared to traditional methods and enables integration into model inversion frameworks. This scalable approach supports global emissions monitoring and climate change mitigation efforts.
Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O'Sullivan, Matthew W. Jones, Robbie M. Andrew, Dorothee C. E. Bakker, Judith Hauck, Peter Landschützer, Corinne Le Quéré, Hongmei Li, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Clemens Schwingshackl, Stephen Sitch, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Kjetil Aas, Simone R. Alin, Peter Anthoni, Leticia Barbero, Nicholas R. Bates, Nicolas Bellouin, Alice Benoit-Cattin, Carla F. Berghoff, Raffaele Bernardello, Laurent Bopp, Ida B. M. Brasika, Matthew A. Chamberlain, Naveen Chandra, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise P. Chini, Nathan O. Collier, Thomas H. Colligan, Margot Cronin, Laique Djeutchouang, Xinyu Dou, Matt P. Enright, Kazutaka Enyo, Michael Erb, Wiley Evans, Richard A. Feely, Liang Feng, Daniel J. Ford, Adrianna Foster, Filippa Fransner, Thomas Gasser, Marion Gehlen, Thanos Gkritzalis, Jefferson Goncalves De Souza, Giacomo Grassi, Luke Gregor, Nicolas Gruber, Bertrand Guenet, Özgür Gürses, Kirsty Harrington, Ian Harris, Jens Heinke, George C. Hurtt, Yosuke Iida, Tatiana Ilyina, Akihiko Ito, Andrew R. Jacobson, Atul K. Jain, Tereza Jarníková, Annika Jersild, Fei Jiang, Steve D. Jones, Etsushi Kato, Ralph F. Keeling, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Jürgen Knauer, Yawen Kong, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Charles Koven, Taro Kunimitsu, Xin Lan, Junjie Liu, Zhiqiang Liu, Zhu Liu, Claire Lo Monaco, Lei Ma, Gregg Marland, Patrick C. McGuire, Galen A. McKinley, Joe Melton, Natalie Monacci, Erwan Monier, Eric J. Morgan, David R. Munro, Jens D. Müller, Shin-Ichiro Nakaoka, Lorna R. Nayagam, Yosuke Niwa, Tobias Nutzel, Are Olsen, Abdirahman M. Omar, Naiqing Pan, Sudhanshu Pandey, Denis Pierrot, Zhangcai Qin, Pierre A. G. Regnier, Gregor Rehder, Laure Resplandy, Alizée Roobaert, Thais M. Rosan, Christian Rödenbeck, Jörg Schwinger, Ingunn Skjelvan, T. Luke Smallman, Victoria Spada, Mohanan G. Sreeush, Qing Sun, Adrienne J. Sutton, Colm Sweeney, Didier Swingedouw, Roland Séférian, Shintaro Takao, Hiroaki Tatebe, Hanqin Tian, Xiangjun Tian, Bronte Tilbrook, Hiroyuki Tsujino, Francesco Tubiello, Erik van Ooijen, Guido van der Werf, Sebastiaan J. van de Velde, Anthony Walker, Rik Wanninkhof, Xiaojuan Yang, Wenping Yuan, Xu Yue, and Jiye Zeng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-659, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-659, 2025
Revised manuscript under review for ESSD
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The Global Carbon Budget 2025 describes the methodology, main results, and datasets used to quantify the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and their partitioning among the atmosphere, land ecosystems, and the ocean over the historical period (1750–2025). These living datasets are updated every year to provide the highest transparency and traceability in the reporting of CO2, the key driver of climate change.
Sven Krautwurst, Christian Fruck, Sebastian Wolff, Jakob Borchardt, Oke Huhs, Konstantin Gerilowski, Michał Gałkowski, Christoph Kiemle, Mathieu Quatrevalet, Martin Wirth, Christian Mallaun, John P. Burrows, Christoph Gerbig, Andreas Fix, Hartmut Bösch, and Heinrich Bovensmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 14669–14702, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14669-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14669-2025, 2025
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Anomalously high CH4 emissions from landfills in Madrid, Spain, have been observed by satellite measurements in recent years. Our investigations of these waste facilities, using passive and active airborne remote sensing measurements, confirm these high emission rates with values of up to 13 th−1 during the overflight and show excellent agreement between the two techniques. A large fraction of the emissions is attributed to active landfill sites.
Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, Luke Smallman, Jingfeng Xiao, Paolo Cristofanelli, Ove Hermansen, John Lee, Casper Labuschagne, Simonetta Montaguti, Steffen M. Noe, Stephen M. Platt, Xinrong Ren, Martin Steinbacher, and Irène Xueref-Remy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 13053–13076, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-13053-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-13053-2025, 2025
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The year 2023 saw unexpectedly large global atmospheric CO2 growth. Satellite data reveal a role for increased tropical emissions. Larger emissions over eastern Brazil can be explained by warmer temperatures, which has led to exceptional drought, while hydrological changes play more of a role in emission increases elsewhere in the tropics. Broadly, we find that this situation continues into 2024.
Masahito Ueyama, Taku Umezawa, Yukio Terao, Mark Lunt, and James Lawrence France
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 12513–12534, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-12513-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-12513-2025, 2025
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Methane (CH4) emissions were measured in the megacity of Osaka, Japan, using mobile and eddy covariance methods. The CH4 emissions were much higher than those reported in local inventories, with natural gas contributing up to 74 % of the emissions. Several CH4 sources not accounted for in current inventories were identified. These results emphasize the need for more comprehensive emissions tracking in urban areas to enhance climate change mitigation efforts.
Peter Somkuti, Gregory McGarragh, Christopher O'Dell, Antonio Di Noia, Leif Vogel, Sean Crowell, Lesley E. Ott, and Hartmut Bösch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 4647–4663, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4647-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4647-2025, 2025
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In space-based estimates of atmospheric methane concentrations, one can often observe biases that look like imprints of surface features. We performed realistic simulation experiments and find the root cause to be unaccounted aerosols. Since good knowledge of aerosols is difficult to achieve for operational science data processing, we conclude that a comprehensive surface bias correction scheme is highly important for missions utilizing the 2.3 µm spectral band for methane retrievals.
Mark F. Lunt, Stephen J. Harris, Jorg Hacker, Ian Joynes, Tim Robertson, Simon Thompson, and James L. France
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 4413–4431, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4413-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4413-2025, 2025
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To ensure robust use of measurement-based approaches to estimate methane emissions from individual sites, it is important to validate the accuracy of the methods used in the field. By using co-emitted carbon dioxide, we evaluate the performance of one such quantification method at liquefied natural gas terminals. We further demonstrate the potential for a more efficient quantification approach via tracer correlation by considering the ratio of methane to carbon dioxide concentrations.
Sihong Zhu, Mengchu Tao, Zhaonan Cai, Yi Liu, Liang Feng, Pubu Sangmu, Zhongshui Yu, and Junji Cao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 9843–9857, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9843-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-9843-2025, 2025
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Methane (CH4) emissions can be transported into the upper troposphere (UT) via the Asian monsoon anticyclone (AMA), driving CH4 enhancements. Whether emissions or upward transport is the dominant factor remains debated. We analyzed UT CH4 variability with AMA dynamics, finding strong ties between CH4 distribution and the AMA's east–west oscillation. When centered near 80° E, vertical transport largely enhances CH4 anomalies, with circulation effects 1–2 times greater than those of emissions.
Marielle Saunois, Adrien Martinez, Benjamin Poulter, Zhen Zhang, Peter A. Raymond, Pierre Regnier, Josep G. Canadell, Robert B. Jackson, Prabir K. Patra, Philippe Bousquet, Philippe Ciais, Edward J. Dlugokencky, Xin Lan, George H. Allen, David Bastviken, David J. Beerling, Dmitry A. Belikov, Donald R. Blake, Simona Castaldi, Monica Crippa, Bridget R. Deemer, Fraser Dennison, Giuseppe Etiope, Nicola Gedney, Lena Höglund-Isaksson, Meredith A. Holgerson, Peter O. Hopcroft, Gustaf Hugelius, Akihiko Ito, Atul K. Jain, Rajesh Janardanan, Matthew S. Johnson, Thomas Kleinen, Paul B. Krummel, Ronny Lauerwald, Tingting Li, Xiangyu Liu, Kyle C. McDonald, Joe R. Melton, Jens Mühle, Jurek Müller, Fabiola Murguia-Flores, Yosuke Niwa, Sergio Noce, Shufen Pan, Robert J. Parker, Changhui Peng, Michel Ramonet, William J. Riley, Gerard Rocher-Ros, Judith A. Rosentreter, Motoki Sasakawa, Arjo Segers, Steven J. Smith, Emily H. Stanley, Joël Thanwerdas, Hanqin Tian, Aki Tsuruta, Francesco N. Tubiello, Thomas S. Weber, Guido R. van der Werf, Douglas E. J. Worthy, Yi Xi, Yukio Yoshida, Wenxin Zhang, Bo Zheng, Qing Zhu, Qiuan Zhu, and Qianlai Zhuang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1873–1958, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1873-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1873-2025, 2025
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Methane (CH4) is the second most important human-influenced greenhouse gas in terms of climate forcing after carbon dioxide (CO2). A consortium of multi-disciplinary scientists synthesise and update the budget of the sources and sinks of CH4. This edition benefits from important progress in estimating emissions from lakes and ponds, reservoirs, and streams and rivers. For the 2010s decade, global CH4 emissions are estimated at 575 Tg CH4 yr-1, including ~65 % from anthropogenic sources.
Ulrike Stöffelmair, Thomas Popp, Marco Vountas, and Hartmut Bösch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 2005–2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2005-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2005-2025, 2025
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Aerosol composition has a large influence on the climate system. This study uses realistic simulated scenarios to look at the information content of a combination of three satellite-based instruments (SLSTR, IASI and GOME-2). It shows that it is possible to retrieve 6 to 15 different aerosol components in addition to the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and different surface parameters. The results are used for the development of a synergistic multi-sensor retrieval algorithm.
Zhu Deng, Philippe Ciais, Liting Hu, Adrien Martinez, Marielle Saunois, Rona L. Thompson, Kushal Tibrewal, Wouter Peters, Brendan Byrne, Giacomo Grassi, Paul I. Palmer, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Zhu Liu, Junjie Liu, Xuekun Fang, Tengjiao Wang, Hanqin Tian, Katsumasa Tanaka, Ana Bastos, Stephen Sitch, Benjamin Poulter, Clément Albergel, Aki Tsuruta, Shamil Maksyutov, Rajesh Janardanan, Yosuke Niwa, Bo Zheng, Joël Thanwerdas, Dmitry Belikov, Arjo Segers, and Frédéric Chevallier
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1121–1152, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1121-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1121-2025, 2025
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This study reconciles national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories with updated atmospheric inversion results to evaluate discrepancies for three principal GHG fluxes at the national level. Compared to our previous study, new satellite-based CO2 inversions were included and an updated mask of managed lands was used, improving agreement for Brazil and Canada. The proposed methodology can be regularly applied as a check to assess the gap between top-down inversions and bottom-up inventories.
Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O'Sullivan, Matthew W. Jones, Robbie M. Andrew, Judith Hauck, Peter Landschützer, Corinne Le Quéré, Hongmei Li, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Are Olsen, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Clemens Schwingshackl, Stephen Sitch, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Robert B. Jackson, Simone R. Alin, Almut Arneth, Vivek Arora, Nicholas R. Bates, Meike Becker, Nicolas Bellouin, Carla F. Berghoff, Henry C. Bittig, Laurent Bopp, Patricia Cadule, Katie Campbell, Matthew A. Chamberlain, Naveen Chandra, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise P. Chini, Thomas Colligan, Jeanne Decayeux, Laique M. Djeutchouang, Xinyu Dou, Carolina Duran Rojas, Kazutaka Enyo, Wiley Evans, Amanda R. Fay, Richard A. Feely, Daniel J. Ford, Adrianna Foster, Thomas Gasser, Marion Gehlen, Thanos Gkritzalis, Giacomo Grassi, Luke Gregor, Nicolas Gruber, Özgür Gürses, Ian Harris, Matthew Hefner, Jens Heinke, George C. Hurtt, Yosuke Iida, Tatiana Ilyina, Andrew R. Jacobson, Atul K. Jain, Tereza Jarníková, Annika Jersild, Fei Jiang, Zhe Jin, Etsushi Kato, Ralph F. Keeling, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Jürgen Knauer, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Xin Lan, Siv K. Lauvset, Nathalie Lefèvre, Zhu Liu, Junjie Liu, Lei Ma, Shamil Maksyutov, Gregg Marland, Nicolas Mayot, Patrick C. McGuire, Nicolas Metzl, Natalie M. Monacci, Eric J. Morgan, Shin-Ichiro Nakaoka, Craig Neill, Yosuke Niwa, Tobias Nützel, Lea Olivier, Tsuneo Ono, Paul I. Palmer, Denis Pierrot, Zhangcai Qin, Laure Resplandy, Alizée Roobaert, Thais M. Rosan, Christian Rödenbeck, Jörg Schwinger, T. Luke Smallman, Stephen M. Smith, Reinel Sospedra-Alfonso, Tobias Steinhoff, Qing Sun, Adrienne J. Sutton, Roland Séférian, Shintaro Takao, Hiroaki Tatebe, Hanqin Tian, Bronte Tilbrook, Olivier Torres, Etienne Tourigny, Hiroyuki Tsujino, Francesco Tubiello, Guido van der Werf, Rik Wanninkhof, Xuhui Wang, Dongxu Yang, Xiaojuan Yang, Zhen Yu, Wenping Yuan, Xu Yue, Sönke Zaehle, Ning Zeng, and Jiye Zeng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 965–1039, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-965-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-965-2025, 2025
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The Global Carbon Budget 2024 describes the methodology, main results, and datasets used to quantify the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and their partitioning among the atmosphere, land ecosystems, and the ocean over the historical period (1750–2024). These living datasets are updated every year to provide the highest transparency and traceability in the reporting of CO2, the key driver of climate change.
Sarah E. Hancock, Daniel J. Jacob, Zichong Chen, Hannah Nesser, Aaron Davitt, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Nicholas Balasus, Lucas A. Estrada, María Cazorla, Laura Dawidowski, Sebastián Diez, James D. East, Elise Penn, Cynthia A. Randles, John Worden, Ilse Aben, Robert J. Parker, and Joannes D. Maasakkers
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 797–817, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-797-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-797-2025, 2025
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We quantify 2021 methane emissions in South America at up to 25 km × 25 km resolution using satellite methane observations. We find a 55 % upward adjustment to anthropogenic emission inventories, including those reported to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change under the Paris Agreement. Our estimates match inventories for Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay but are much higher for other countries. Livestock emissions (65 % of anthropogenic emissions) show the largest discrepancies.
Ingrid Super, Tia Scarpelli, Arjan Droste, and Paul I. Palmer
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 7263–7284, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7263-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7263-2024, 2024
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Monitoring greenhouse gas emission reductions requires a combination of models and observations, as well as an initial emission estimate. Each component provides information with a certain level of certainty and is weighted to yield the most reliable estimate of actual emissions. We describe efforts for estimating the uncertainty in the initial emission estimate, which significantly impacts the outcome. Hence, a good uncertainty estimate is key for obtaining reliable information on emissions.
Neil Humpage, Hartmut Boesch, William Okello, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Mark F. Lunt, Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, and Frank Hase
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5679–5707, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5679-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5679-2024, 2024
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We used a Bruker EM27/SUN spectrometer within an automated weatherproof enclosure to measure greenhouse gas column concentrations over a 3-month period in Jinja, Uganda. The portability of the EM27/SUN allows us to evaluate satellite and model data in locations not covered by traditional validation networks. This is of particular value in tropical Africa, where extensive terrestrial ecosystems are a significant store of carbon and play a key role in the atmospheric budgets of CO2 and CH4.
Tia R. Scarpelli, Paul I. Palmer, Mark Lunt, Ingrid Super, and Arjan Droste
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10773–10791, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10773-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10773-2024, 2024
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Under the Paris Agreement, countries must track their anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This study describes a method to determine self-consistent estimates for combustion emissions and natural fluxes of CO2 from atmospheric data. We report consistent estimates inferred using this approach from satellite data and ground-based data over Europe, suggesting that satellite data can be used to determine national anthropogenic CO2 emissions for countries where ground-based CO2 data are absent.
Oliver Schneising, Michael Buchwitz, Maximilian Reuter, Michael Weimer, Heinrich Bovensmann, John P. Burrows, and Hartmut Bösch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7609–7621, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7609-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7609-2024, 2024
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Large quantities of CO and CO2 are emitted during conventional steel production. As satellite-based estimates of CO2 emissions at the facility level are challenging, co-emitted CO can indicate the carbon footprint of steel plants. We estimate CO emissions for German steelworks and use CO2 emissions from emissions trading data to derive a sector-specific CO/CO2 emission ratio for the steel industry; it is a prerequisite to use CO as a proxy for CO2 emissions from similar steel production sites.
Brian Nathan, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Stijn Naus, Ritesh Gautam, Mark Omara, Daniel J. Varon, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Lucas A. Estrada, Alba Lorente, Tobias Borsdorff, Robert J. Parker, and Ilse Aben
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6845–6863, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6845-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6845-2024, 2024
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Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo region is notoriously hard to observe from space and features intensive oil exploitation, although production has strongly decreased in recent years. We estimate methane emissions using 2018–2020 TROPOMI satellite observations with national and regional transport models. Despite the production decrease, we find relatively constant emissions from Lake Maracaibo between 2018 and 2020, indicating that there could be large emissions from abandoned infrastructure.
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).
Margaret R. Marvin, Paul I. Palmer, Fei Yao, Mohd Talib Latif, and Md Firoz Khan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3699–3715, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3699-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3699-2024, 2024
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We use an atmospheric chemistry model to investigate aerosols emitted from fire activity across Southeast Asia. We find that the limited nature of measurements in this region leads to large uncertainties that significantly hinder the model representation of these aerosols and their impacts on air quality. As a result, the number of monthly attributable deaths is underestimated by as many as 4500, particularly in March at the peak of the mainland burning season.
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
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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.
Lee de Mora, Ranjini Swaminathan, Richard P. Allan, Jerry C. Blackford, Douglas I. Kelley, Phil Harris, Chris D. Jones, Colin G. Jones, Spencer Liddicoat, Robert J. Parker, Tristan Quaife, Jeremy Walton, and Andrew Yool
Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 1295–1315, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-1295-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-1295-2023, 2023
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We investigate the flux of carbon from the atmosphere into the land surface and ocean for multiple models and over a range of future scenarios. We did this by comparing simulations after the same change in the global-mean near-surface temperature. Using this method, we show that the choice of scenario can impact the carbon allocation to the land, ocean, and atmosphere. Scenarios with higher emissions reach the same warming levels sooner, but also with relatively more carbon in the atmosphere.
Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O'Sullivan, Matthew W. Jones, Robbie M. Andrew, Dorothee C. E. Bakker, Judith Hauck, Peter Landschützer, Corinne Le Quéré, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Clemens Schwingshackl, Stephen Sitch, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Robert B. Jackson, Simone R. Alin, Peter Anthoni, Leticia Barbero, Nicholas R. Bates, Meike Becker, Nicolas Bellouin, Bertrand Decharme, Laurent Bopp, Ida Bagus Mandhara Brasika, Patricia Cadule, Matthew A. Chamberlain, Naveen Chandra, Thi-Tuyet-Trang Chau, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise P. Chini, Margot Cronin, Xinyu Dou, Kazutaka Enyo, Wiley Evans, Stefanie Falk, Richard A. Feely, Liang Feng, Daniel J. Ford, Thomas Gasser, Josefine Ghattas, Thanos Gkritzalis, Giacomo Grassi, Luke Gregor, Nicolas Gruber, Özgür Gürses, Ian Harris, Matthew Hefner, Jens Heinke, Richard A. Houghton, George C. Hurtt, Yosuke Iida, Tatiana Ilyina, Andrew R. Jacobson, Atul Jain, Tereza Jarníková, Annika Jersild, Fei Jiang, Zhe Jin, Fortunat Joos, Etsushi Kato, Ralph F. Keeling, Daniel Kennedy, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Jürgen Knauer, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Arne Körtzinger, Xin Lan, Nathalie Lefèvre, Hongmei Li, Junjie Liu, Zhiqiang Liu, Lei Ma, Greg Marland, Nicolas Mayot, Patrick C. McGuire, Galen A. McKinley, Gesa Meyer, Eric J. Morgan, David R. Munro, Shin-Ichiro Nakaoka, Yosuke Niwa, Kevin M. O'Brien, Are Olsen, Abdirahman M. Omar, Tsuneo Ono, Melf Paulsen, Denis Pierrot, Katie Pocock, Benjamin Poulter, Carter M. Powis, Gregor Rehder, Laure Resplandy, Eddy Robertson, Christian Rödenbeck, Thais M. Rosan, Jörg Schwinger, Roland Séférian, T. Luke Smallman, Stephen M. Smith, Reinel Sospedra-Alfonso, Qing Sun, Adrienne J. Sutton, Colm Sweeney, Shintaro Takao, Pieter P. Tans, Hanqin Tian, Bronte Tilbrook, Hiroyuki Tsujino, Francesco Tubiello, Guido R. van der Werf, Erik van Ooijen, Rik Wanninkhof, Michio Watanabe, Cathy Wimart-Rousseau, Dongxu Yang, Xiaojuan Yang, Wenping Yuan, Xu Yue, Sönke Zaehle, Jiye Zeng, and Bo Zheng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 5301–5369, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5301-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-5301-2023, 2023
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The Global Carbon Budget 2023 describes the methodology, main results, and data sets used to quantify the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and their partitioning among the atmosphere, land ecosystems, and the ocean over the historical period (1750–2023). These living datasets are updated every year to provide the highest transparency and traceability in the reporting of CO2, the key driver of climate change.
Dien Wu, Joshua L. Laughner, Junjie Liu, Paul I. Palmer, John C. Lin, and Paul O. Wennberg
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 6161–6185, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-6161-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-6161-2023, 2023
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To balance computational expenses and chemical complexity in extracting emission signals from tropospheric NO2 columns, we propose a simplified non-linear Lagrangian chemistry transport model and assess its performance against TROPOMI v2 over power plants and cities. Using this model, we then discuss how NOx chemistry affects the relationship between NOx and CO2 emissions and how studying NO2 columns helps quantify modeled biases in wind directions and prior emissions.
Matthew J. McGrath, Ana Maria Roxana Petrescu, Philippe Peylin, Robbie M. Andrew, Bradley Matthews, Frank Dentener, Juraj Balkovič, Vladislav Bastrikov, Meike Becker, Gregoire Broquet, Philippe Ciais, Audrey Fortems-Cheiney, Raphael Ganzenmüller, Giacomo Grassi, Ian Harris, Matthew Jones, Jürgen Knauer, Matthias Kuhnert, Guillaume Monteil, Saqr Munassar, Paul I. Palmer, Glen P. Peters, Chunjing Qiu, Mart-Jan Schelhaas, Oksana Tarasova, Matteo Vizzarri, Karina Winkler, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Antoine Berchet, Peter Briggs, Patrick Brockmann, Frédéric Chevallier, Giulia Conchedda, Monica Crippa, Stijn N. C. Dellaert, Hugo A. C. Denier van der Gon, Sara Filipek, Pierre Friedlingstein, Richard Fuchs, Michael Gauss, Christoph Gerbig, Diego Guizzardi, Dirk Günther, Richard A. Houghton, Greet Janssens-Maenhout, Ronny Lauerwald, Bas Lerink, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Géraud Moulas, Marilena Muntean, Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Aurélie Paquirissamy, Lucia Perugini, Wouter Peters, Roberto Pilli, Julia Pongratz, Pierre Regnier, Marko Scholze, Yusuf Serengil, Pete Smith, Efisio Solazzo, Rona L. Thompson, Francesco N. Tubiello, Timo Vesala, and Sophia Walther
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 4295–4370, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4295-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4295-2023, 2023
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Accurate estimation of fluxes of carbon dioxide from the land surface is essential for understanding future impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the climate system. A wide variety of methods currently exist to estimate these sources and sinks. We are continuing work to develop annual comparisons of these diverse methods in order to clarify what they all actually calculate and to resolve apparent disagreement, in addition to highlighting opportunities for increased understanding.
Nicholas Balasus, Daniel J. Jacob, Alba Lorente, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Zichong Chen, Makoto M. Kelp, Hannah Nesser, and Daniel J. Varon
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3787–3807, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3787-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3787-2023, 2023
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We use machine learning to remove biases in TROPOMI satellite observations of atmospheric methane, with GOSAT observations serving as a reference. We find that the TROPOMI biases relative to GOSAT are related to the presence of aerosols and clouds, the surface brightness, and the specific detector that makes the observation aboard TROPOMI. The resulting blended TROPOMI+GOSAT product is more reliable for quantifying methane emissions.
Alice Drinkwater, Paul I. Palmer, Liang Feng, Tim Arnold, Xin Lan, Sylvia E. Michel, Robert Parker, and Hartmut Boesch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8429–8452, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8429-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8429-2023, 2023
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Changes in atmospheric methane over the last few decades are largely unexplained. Previous studies have proposed different hypotheses to explain short-term changes in atmospheric methane. We interpret observed changes in atmospheric methane and stable isotope source signatures (2004–2020). We argue that changes over this period are part of a large-scale shift from high-northern-latitude thermogenic energy emissions to tropical biogenic emissions, particularly from North Africa and South America.
Ruosi Liang, Yuzhong Zhang, Wei Chen, Peixuan Zhang, Jingran Liu, Cuihong Chen, Huiqin Mao, Guofeng Shen, Zhen Qu, Zichong Chen, Minqiang Zhou, Pucai Wang, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Alba Lorente, Joannes D. Maasakkers, and Ilse Aben
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8039–8057, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8039-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8039-2023, 2023
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We compare and evaluate East Asian methane emissions inferred from different satellite observations (GOSAT and TROPOMI). The results show discrepancies over northern India and eastern China. Independent ground-based observations are more consistent with TROPOMI-derived emissions in northern India and GOSAT-derived emissions in eastern China.
Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O'Dell, David Baker, Carol Bruegge, Albert Chang, Lars Chapsky, Abhishek Chatterjee, Cecilia Cheng, Frédéric Chevallier, David Crisp, Lan Dang, Brian Drouin, Annmarie Eldering, Liang Feng, Brendan Fisher, Dejian Fu, Michael Gunson, Vance Haemmerle, Graziela R. Keller, Matthäus Kiel, Le Kuai, Thomas Kurosu, Alyn Lambert, Joshua Laughner, Richard Lee, Junjie Liu, Lucas Mandrake, Yuliya Marchetti, Gregory McGarragh, Aronne Merrelli, Robert R. Nelson, Greg Osterman, Fabiano Oyafuso, Paul I. Palmer, Vivienne H. Payne, Robert Rosenberg, Peter Somkuti, Gary Spiers, Cathy To, Brad Weir, Paul O. Wennberg, Shanshan Yu, and Jia Zong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3173–3209, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3173-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3173-2023, 2023
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NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 and 3 (OCO-2 and OCO-3, respectively) provide complementary spatiotemporal coverage from a sun-synchronous and precession orbit, respectively. Estimates of total column carbon dioxide (XCO2) derived from the two sensors using the same retrieval algorithm show broad consistency over a 2.5-year overlapping time record. This suggests that data from the two satellites may be used together for scientific analysis.
Peter Joyce, Cristina Ruiz Villena, Yahui Huang, Alex Webb, Manuel Gloor, Fabien H. Wagner, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Rocío Barrio Guilló, Chris Wilson, and Hartmut Boesch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2627–2640, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2627-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2627-2023, 2023
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Methane emissions are responsible for a lot of the warming caused by the greenhouse effect, much of which comes from a small number of point sources. We can identify methane point sources by analysing satellite data, but it requires a lot of time invested by experts and is prone to very high errors. Here, we produce a neural network that can automatically identify methane point sources and estimate the mass of methane that is being released per hour and are able to do so with far smaller errors.
Ana Maria Roxana Petrescu, Chunjing Qiu, Matthew J. McGrath, Philippe Peylin, Glen P. Peters, Philippe Ciais, Rona L. Thompson, Aki Tsuruta, Dominik Brunner, Matthias Kuhnert, Bradley Matthews, Paul I. Palmer, Oksana Tarasova, Pierre Regnier, Ronny Lauerwald, David Bastviken, Lena Höglund-Isaksson, Wilfried Winiwarter, Giuseppe Etiope, Tuula Aalto, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Vladislav Bastrikov, Antoine Berchet, Patrick Brockmann, Giancarlo Ciotoli, Giulia Conchedda, Monica Crippa, Frank Dentener, Christine D. Groot Zwaaftink, Diego Guizzardi, Dirk Günther, Jean-Matthieu Haussaire, Sander Houweling, Greet Janssens-Maenhout, Massaer Kouyate, Adrian Leip, Antti Leppänen, Emanuele Lugato, Manon Maisonnier, Alistair J. Manning, Tiina Markkanen, Joe McNorton, Marilena Muntean, Gabriel D. Oreggioni, Prabir K. Patra, Lucia Perugini, Isabelle Pison, Maarit T. Raivonen, Marielle Saunois, Arjo J. Segers, Pete Smith, Efisio Solazzo, Hanqin Tian, Francesco N. Tubiello, Timo Vesala, Guido R. van der Werf, Chris Wilson, and Sönke Zaehle
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1197–1268, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1197-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1197-2023, 2023
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This study updates the state-of-the-art scientific overview of CH4 and N2O emissions in the EU27 and UK in Petrescu et al. (2021a). Yearly updates are needed to improve the different respective approaches and to inform on the development of formal verification systems. It integrates the most recent emission inventories, process-based model and regional/global inversions, comparing them with UNFCCC national GHG inventories, in support to policy to facilitate real-time verification procedures.
Kai Wu, Paul I. Palmer, Dien Wu, Denis Jouglet, Liang Feng, and Tom Oda
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 581–602, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-581-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-581-2023, 2023
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We evaluate the theoretical ability of the upcoming MicroCarb satellite to estimate urban CO2 emissions over Paris and London. We explore the relative performance of alternative two-sweep and three-sweep city observing modes and take into account the impacts of cloud cover and urban biological CO2 fluxes. Our results find both the two-sweep and three-sweep observing modes are able to reduce prior flux errors by 20 %–40 % depending on the prevailing wind direction and cloud coverage.
Robert J. Parker, Chris Wilson, Edward Comyn-Platt, Garry Hayman, Toby R. Marthews, A. Anthony Bloom, Mark F. Lunt, Nicola Gedney, Simon J. Dadson, Joe McNorton, Neil Humpage, Hartmut Boesch, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Paul I. Palmer, and Dai Yamazaki
Biogeosciences, 19, 5779–5805, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-5779-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-5779-2022, 2022
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Wetlands are the largest natural source of methane, one of the most important climate gases. The JULES land surface model simulates these emissions. We use satellite data to evaluate how well JULES reproduces the methane seasonal cycle over different tropical wetlands. It performs well for most regions; however, it struggles for some African wetlands influenced heavily by river flooding. We explain the reasons for these deficiencies and highlight how future development will improve these areas.
Dien Wu, Junjie Liu, Paul O. Wennberg, Paul I. Palmer, Robert R. Nelson, Matthäus Kiel, and Annmarie Eldering
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14547–14570, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14547-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14547-2022, 2022
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Prior studies have derived the combustion efficiency for a region/city using observed CO2 and CO. We further zoomed into the urban domain and accounted for factors affecting the calculation of spatially resolved combustion efficiency from two satellites. The intra-city variability in combustion efficiency was linked to heavy industry within Shanghai and LA without relying on emission inventories. Such an approach can be applied when analyzing data from future geostationary satellites.
Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O'Sullivan, Matthew W. Jones, Robbie M. Andrew, Luke Gregor, Judith Hauck, Corinne Le Quéré, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Are Olsen, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Clemens Schwingshackl, Stephen Sitch, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Robert B. Jackson, Simone R. Alin, Ramdane Alkama, Almut Arneth, Vivek K. Arora, Nicholas R. Bates, Meike Becker, Nicolas Bellouin, Henry C. Bittig, Laurent Bopp, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise P. Chini, Margot Cronin, Wiley Evans, Stefanie Falk, Richard A. Feely, Thomas Gasser, Marion Gehlen, Thanos Gkritzalis, Lucas Gloege, Giacomo Grassi, Nicolas Gruber, Özgür Gürses, Ian Harris, Matthew Hefner, Richard A. Houghton, George C. Hurtt, Yosuke Iida, Tatiana Ilyina, Atul K. Jain, Annika Jersild, Koji Kadono, Etsushi Kato, Daniel Kennedy, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Jürgen Knauer, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Peter Landschützer, Nathalie Lefèvre, Keith Lindsay, Junjie Liu, Zhu Liu, Gregg Marland, Nicolas Mayot, Matthew J. McGrath, Nicolas Metzl, Natalie M. Monacci, David R. Munro, Shin-Ichiro Nakaoka, Yosuke Niwa, Kevin O'Brien, Tsuneo Ono, Paul I. Palmer, Naiqing Pan, Denis Pierrot, Katie Pocock, Benjamin Poulter, Laure Resplandy, Eddy Robertson, Christian Rödenbeck, Carmen Rodriguez, Thais M. Rosan, Jörg Schwinger, Roland Séférian, Jamie D. Shutler, Ingunn Skjelvan, Tobias Steinhoff, Qing Sun, Adrienne J. Sutton, Colm Sweeney, Shintaro Takao, Toste Tanhua, Pieter P. Tans, Xiangjun Tian, Hanqin Tian, Bronte Tilbrook, Hiroyuki Tsujino, Francesco Tubiello, Guido R. van der Werf, Anthony P. Walker, Rik Wanninkhof, Chris Whitehead, Anna Willstrand Wranne, Rebecca Wright, Wenping Yuan, Chao Yue, Xu Yue, Sönke Zaehle, Jiye Zeng, and Bo Zheng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 4811–4900, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4811-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4811-2022, 2022
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The Global Carbon Budget 2022 describes the datasets and methodology used to quantify the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and their partitioning among the atmosphere, the land ecosystems, and the ocean. These living datasets are updated every year to provide the highest transparency and traceability in the reporting of CO2, the key driver of climate change.
Selena Georgiou, Edward T. A. Mitchard, Bart Crezee, Paul I. Palmer, Greta C. Dargie, Sofie Sjögersten, Corneille E. N. Ewango, Ovide B. Emba, Joseph T. Kanyama, Pierre Bola, Jean-Bosco N. Ndjango, Nicholas T. Girkin, Yannick E. Bocko, Suspense A. Ifo, and Simon L. Lewis
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-580, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-580, 2022
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Two major vegetation types, hardwood trees and palms, overlay the Central Congo Basin peatland complex, each dominant in different locations. We investigated the influence of terrain and climatological variables on their distribution, using a regression model, and found elevation and seasonal rainfall and temperature contribute significantly. There are indications of an optimal range of net water input for palm swamp to dominate, above and below which hardwood swamp dominates.
Stefan Noël, Maximilian Reuter, Michael Buchwitz, Jakob Borchardt, Michael Hilker, Oliver Schneising, Heinrich Bovensmann, John P. Burrows, Antonio Di Noia, Robert J. Parker, Hiroshi Suto, Yukio Yoshida, Matthias Buschmann, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Dietrich G. Feist, David W. T. Griffith, Frank Hase, Rigel Kivi, Cheng Liu, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Young-Suk Oh, Hirofumi Ohyama, Christof Petri, David F. Pollard, Markus Rettinger, Coleen Roehl, Constantina Rousogenous, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, Voltaire A. Velazco, Mihalis Vrekoussis, and Thorsten Warneke
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3401–3437, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3401-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3401-2022, 2022
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We present a new version (v3) of the GOSAT and GOSAT-2 FOCAL products.
In addition to an increased number of XCO2 data, v3 also includes products for XCH4 (full-physics and proxy), XH2O and the relative ratio of HDO to H2O (δD). For GOSAT-2, we also present first XCO and XN2O results. All FOCAL data products show reasonable spatial distribution and temporal variations and agree well with TCCON. Global XN2O maps show a gradient from the tropics to higher latitudes on the order of 15 ppb.
Pierre Friedlingstein, Matthew W. Jones, Michael O'Sullivan, Robbie M. Andrew, Dorothee C. E. Bakker, Judith Hauck, Corinne Le Quéré, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Stephen Sitch, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Rob B. Jackson, Simone R. Alin, Peter Anthoni, Nicholas R. Bates, Meike Becker, Nicolas Bellouin, Laurent Bopp, Thi Tuyet Trang Chau, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise P. Chini, Margot Cronin, Kim I. Currie, Bertrand Decharme, Laique M. Djeutchouang, Xinyu Dou, Wiley Evans, Richard A. Feely, Liang Feng, Thomas Gasser, Dennis Gilfillan, Thanos Gkritzalis, Giacomo Grassi, Luke Gregor, Nicolas Gruber, Özgür Gürses, Ian Harris, Richard A. Houghton, George C. Hurtt, Yosuke Iida, Tatiana Ilyina, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Atul Jain, Steve D. Jones, Etsushi Kato, Daniel Kennedy, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Jürgen Knauer, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Arne Körtzinger, Peter Landschützer, Siv K. Lauvset, Nathalie Lefèvre, Sebastian Lienert, Junjie Liu, Gregg Marland, Patrick C. McGuire, Joe R. Melton, David R. Munro, Julia E. M. S. Nabel, Shin-Ichiro Nakaoka, Yosuke Niwa, Tsuneo Ono, Denis Pierrot, Benjamin Poulter, Gregor Rehder, Laure Resplandy, Eddy Robertson, Christian Rödenbeck, Thais M. Rosan, Jörg Schwinger, Clemens Schwingshackl, Roland Séférian, Adrienne J. Sutton, Colm Sweeney, Toste Tanhua, Pieter P. Tans, Hanqin Tian, Bronte Tilbrook, Francesco Tubiello, Guido R. van der Werf, Nicolas Vuichard, Chisato Wada, Rik Wanninkhof, Andrew J. Watson, David Willis, Andrew J. Wiltshire, Wenping Yuan, Chao Yue, Xu Yue, Sönke Zaehle, and Jiye Zeng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 1917–2005, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1917-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1917-2022, 2022
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The Global Carbon Budget 2021 describes the data sets and methodology used to quantify the emissions of carbon dioxide and their partitioning among the atmosphere, land, and ocean. These living data are updated every year to provide the highest transparency and traceability in the reporting of CO2, the key driver of climate change.
Carlos Alberti, Frank Hase, Matthias Frey, Darko Dubravica, Thomas Blumenstock, Angelika Dehn, Paolo Castracane, Gregor Surawicz, Roland Harig, Bianca C. Baier, Caroline Bès, Jianrong Bi, Hartmut Boesch, André Butz, Zhaonan Cai, Jia Chen, Sean M. Crowell, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Dragos Ene, Jonathan E. Franklin, Omaira García, David Griffith, Bruno Grouiez, Michel Grutter, Abdelhamid Hamdouni, Sander Houweling, Neil Humpage, Nicole Jacobs, Sujong Jeong, Lilian Joly, Nicholas B. Jones, Denis Jouglet, Rigel Kivi, Ralph Kleinschek, Morgan Lopez, Diogo J. Medeiros, Isamu Morino, Nasrin Mostafavipak, Astrid Müller, Hirofumi Ohyama, Paul I. Palmer, Mahesh Pathakoti, David F. Pollard, Uwe Raffalski, Michel Ramonet, Robbie Ramsay, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, William Simpson, Wolfgang Stremme, Youwen Sun, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Yao Té, Gizaw Mengistu Tsidu, Voltaire A. Velazco, Felix Vogel, Masataka Watanabe, Chong Wei, Debra Wunch, Marcia Yamasoe, Lu Zhang, and Johannes Orphal
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2433–2463, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2433-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2433-2022, 2022
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Space-borne greenhouse gas missions require ground-based validation networks capable of providing fiducial reference measurements. Here, considerable refinements of the calibration procedures for the COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON) are presented. Laboratory and solar side-by-side procedures for the characterization of the spectrometers have been refined and extended. Revised calibration factors for XCO2, XCO and XCH4 are provided, incorporating 47 new spectrometers.
Zhu Deng, Philippe Ciais, Zitely A. Tzompa-Sosa, Marielle Saunois, Chunjing Qiu, Chang Tan, Taochun Sun, Piyu Ke, Yanan Cui, Katsumasa Tanaka, Xin Lin, Rona L. Thompson, Hanqin Tian, Yuanzhi Yao, Yuanyuan Huang, Ronny Lauerwald, Atul K. Jain, Xiaoming Xu, Ana Bastos, Stephen Sitch, Paul I. Palmer, Thomas Lauvaux, Alexandre d'Aspremont, Clément Giron, Antoine Benoit, Benjamin Poulter, Jinfeng Chang, Ana Maria Roxana Petrescu, Steven J. Davis, Zhu Liu, Giacomo Grassi, Clément Albergel, Francesco N. Tubiello, Lucia Perugini, Wouter Peters, and Frédéric Chevallier
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 1639–1675, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1639-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1639-2022, 2022
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In support of the global stocktake of the Paris Agreement on climate change, we proposed a method for reconciling the results of global atmospheric inversions with data from UNFCCC national greenhouse gas inventories (NGHGIs). Here, based on a new global harmonized database that we compiled from the UNFCCC NGHGIs and a comprehensive framework presented in this study to process the results of inversions, we compared their results of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O).
Douglas P. Finch, Paul I. Palmer, and Tianran Zhang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 721–733, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-721-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-721-2022, 2022
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We developed a machine learning model to detect plumes of nitrogen dioxide satellite observations over 2 years. We find over 310 000 plumes, mainly over cities, industrial regions, and areas of oil and gas production. Our model performs well in comparison to other datasets and in some cases finds emissions that are not included in other datasets. This method could be used to help locate and measure emission hotspots across the globe and help inform climate policies.
Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O'Dell, David Crisp, Akhiko Kuze, Hannakaisa Lindqvist, Paul O. Wennberg, Abhishek Chatterjee, Michael Gunson, Annmarie Eldering, Brendan Fisher, Matthäus Kiel, Robert R. Nelson, Aronne Merrelli, Greg Osterman, Frédéric Chevallier, Paul I. Palmer, Liang Feng, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Manvendra K. Dubey, Dietrich G. Feist, Omaira E. García, David W. T. Griffith, Frank Hase, Laura T. Iraci, Rigel Kivi, Cheng Liu, Martine De Mazière, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Young-Suk Oh, Hirofumi Ohyama, David F. Pollard, Markus Rettinger, Matthias Schneider, Coleen M. Roehl, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, Voltaire A. Velazco, Mihalis Vrekoussis, Thorsten Warneke, and Debra Wunch
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 325–360, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-325-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-325-2022, 2022
Short summary
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We provide an analysis of an 11-year record of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations derived using an optimal estimation retrieval algorithm on measurements made by the GOSAT satellite. The new product (version 9) shows improvement over the previous version (v7.3) as evaluated against independent estimates of CO2 from ground-based sensors and atmospheric inversion systems. We also compare the new GOSAT CO2 values to collocated estimates from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.
Haiyue Tan, Lin Zhang, Xiao Lu, Yuanhong Zhao, Bo Yao, Robert J. Parker, and Hartmut Boesch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1229–1249, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1229-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1229-2022, 2022
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Methane is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas. Understanding methane emissions and concentration growth over China in the past decade is important to support its mitigation. This study analyzes the contributions of methane emissions from different regions and sources over the globe to methane changes over China in 2007–2018. Our results show strong international transport influences and emphasize the need of intensive methane measurements covering eastern China.
Xiao Lu, Daniel J. Jacob, Haolin Wang, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Yuzhong Zhang, Tia R. Scarpelli, Lu Shen, Zhen Qu, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Hannah Nesser, A. Anthony Bloom, Shuang Ma, John R. Worden, Shaojia Fan, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Ritesh Gautam, Deborah Gordon, Michael D. Moran, Frances Reuland, Claudia A. Octaviano Villasana, and Arlyn Andrews
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 395–418, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-395-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-395-2022, 2022
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We evaluate methane emissions and trends for 2010–2017 in the gridded national emission inventories for the United States, Canada, and Mexico by inversion of in situ and satellite methane observations. We find that anthropogenic methane emissions for all three countries are underestimated in the national inventories, largely driven by oil emissions. Anthropogenic methane emissions in the US peak in 2014, in contrast to the report of a steadily decreasing trend over 2010–2017 from the US EPA.
Mark F. Lunt, Alistair J. Manning, Grant Allen, Tim Arnold, Stéphane J.-B. Bauguitte, Hartmut Boesch, Anita L. Ganesan, Aoife Grant, Carole Helfter, Eiko Nemitz, Simon J. O'Doherty, Paul I. Palmer, Joseph R. Pitt, Chris Rennick, Daniel Say, Kieran M. Stanley, Ann R. Stavert, Dickon Young, and Matt Rigby
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16257–16276, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16257-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16257-2021, 2021
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We present an evaluation of the UK's methane emissions between 2013 and 2020 using a network of tall tower measurement sites. We find emissions that are consistent in both magnitude and trend with the UK's reported emissions, with a declining trend driven by a decrease in emissions from England. The impact of various components of the modelling set-up on these findings are explored through a number of sensitivity studies.
Mehliyar Sadiq, Paul I. Palmer, Mark F. Lunt, Liang Feng, Ingrid Super, Stijn N. C. Dellaert, and Hugo A. C. Denier van der Gon
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-816, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-816, 2021
Publication in ACP not foreseen
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We make use of high-resolution emission inventory of CO2 and co-emitted tracers, satellite measurements, together with nested atmospheric transport model simulation, to investigate how reactive trace gases such as nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide can be used as proxies to determine the combustion contribution to atmospheric CO2 over Europe. We find stronger correlation in ratios of nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide between emission and satellite observed and modelled column concentration.
Zhen Qu, Daniel J. Jacob, Lu Shen, Xiao Lu, Yuzhong Zhang, Tia R. Scarpelli, Hannah Nesser, Melissa P. Sulprizio, Joannes D. Maasakkers, A. Anthony Bloom, John R. Worden, Robert J. Parker, and Alba L. Delgado
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14159–14175, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14159-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14159-2021, 2021
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The recent launch of TROPOMI offers an unprecedented opportunity to quantify the methane budget from a top-down perspective. We use TROPOMI and the more mature GOSAT methane observations to estimate methane emissions and get consistent global budgets. However, TROPOMI shows biases over regions where surface albedo is small and provides less information for the coarse-resolution inversion due to the larger error correlations and spatial variations in the number of observations.
Antoine Berchet, Espen Sollum, Rona L. Thompson, Isabelle Pison, Joël Thanwerdas, Grégoire Broquet, Frédéric Chevallier, Tuula Aalto, Adrien Berchet, Peter Bergamaschi, Dominik Brunner, Richard Engelen, Audrey Fortems-Cheiney, Christoph Gerbig, Christine D. Groot Zwaaftink, Jean-Matthieu Haussaire, Stephan Henne, Sander Houweling, Ute Karstens, Werner L. Kutsch, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Guillaume Monteil, Paul I. Palmer, Jacob C. A. van Peet, Wouter Peters, Philippe Peylin, Elise Potier, Christian Rödenbeck, Marielle Saunois, Marko Scholze, Aki Tsuruta, and Yuanhong Zhao
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 5331–5354, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5331-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5331-2021, 2021
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We present here the Community Inversion Framework (CIF) to help rationalize development efforts and leverage the strengths of individual inversion systems into a comprehensive framework. The CIF is a programming protocol to allow various inversion bricks to be exchanged among researchers.
The ensemble of bricks makes a flexible, transparent and open-source Python-based tool. We describe the main structure and functionalities and demonstrate it in a simple academic case.
Yi Yin, Frederic Chevallier, Philippe Ciais, Philippe Bousquet, Marielle Saunois, Bo Zheng, John Worden, A. Anthony Bloom, Robert J. Parker, Daniel J. Jacob, Edward J. Dlugokencky, and Christian Frankenberg
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12631–12647, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12631-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12631-2021, 2021
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The growth of methane, the second-most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, has been accelerating in recent years. Using an ensemble of multi-tracer atmospheric inversions constrained by surface or satellite observations, we show that global methane emissions increased by nearly 1 % per year from 2010–2017, with leading contributions from the tropics and East Asia.
Caterina Mogno, Paul I. Palmer, Christoph Knote, Fei Yao, and Timothy J. Wallington
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10881–10909, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10881-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10881-2021, 2021
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We use a 3-D atmospheric chemistry model to investigate how seasonal emissions sources and meteorological conditions affect the surface distribution of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and organic aerosol (OA) over the Indo-Gangetic Plain. We find that all seasonal mean values of PM2.5 still exceed safe air quality levels, with human emissions contributing to PM2.5 all year round, open fires during post- and pre-monsoon, and biogenic emissions during monsoon. OA contributes up to 30 % to PM2.5.
Chris Wilson, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Manuel Gloor, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Joey McNorton, Luciana V. Gatti, John B. Miller, Luana S. Basso, and Sarah A. Monks
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10643–10669, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10643-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10643-2021, 2021
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Methane (CH4) is an important greenhouse gas emitted from wetlands like those found in the basin of the Amazon River. Using an atmospheric model and observations from GOSAT, we quantified CH4 emissions from Amazonia during the previous decade. We found that the largest emissions came from a region in the eastern basin and that emissions there were rising faster than in other areas of South America. This finding was supported by CH4 observations made on aircraft within the basin.
Ilya Stanevich, Dylan B. A. Jones, Kimberly Strong, Martin Keller, Daven K. Henze, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Debra Wunch, Justus Notholt, Christof Petri, Thorsten Warneke, Ralf Sussmann, Matthias Schneider, Frank Hase, Rigel Kivi, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Voltaire A. Velazco, Kaley A. Walker, and Feng Deng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 9545–9572, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9545-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9545-2021, 2021
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We explore the utility of a weak-constraint (WC) four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) data assimilation scheme for mitigating systematic errors in methane simulation in the GEOS-Chem model. We use data from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) and show that, compared to the traditional 4D-Var approach, the WC scheme improves the agreement between the model and independent observations. We find that the WC corrections to the model provide insight into the source of the errors.
Jasdeep Singh Anand, Alessandro Anav, Marcello Vitale, Daniele Peano, Nadine Unger, Xu Yue, Robert J. Parker, and Hartmut Boesch
Biogeosciences Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2021-125, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2021-125, 2021
Publication in BG not foreseen
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Ozone damages plants, which prevents them from absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. This poses a potential threat to preventing dangerous climate change. In this work, satellite observations of forest cover, ozone, climate, and growing season are combined with an empirical model to estimate the carbon lost due to ozone exposure over Europe. The estimated carbon losses agree well with prior modelled estimates, showing for the first time that satellites can be used to better understand this effect.
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Editorial statement
After a period of near-zero growth of atmospheric methane, a major greenhouse gas, its growth rates have increased, with values in 2020 and 2021 exceeding all prior values since the beginning of systematic measurements in 1983. This recent acceleration, particularly during the covid-19 years 2020 and 2021, raises the question whether the methane increase was due to stronger sources or reduced sinks in the troposphere. A reduction of the tropospheric abundance of the hydroxyl radical (OH), the reaction of which is the main tropospheric methane sink, could be plausibly explained by global-scale reductions in nitrogen oxides due to pandemic-related industry shutdowns. Using an inversion scheme, Feng et al. demonstrate that such a reduction only accounts for about 34% in 2020 and 10% in 2021 of the observed methane rise. Instead, the authors attribute increased methane emissions to hydrological anomalies and microbial sources over the tropics, i.e., Eastern Africa and tropical South America, and temperate North America.
The study demonstrates the importance of simultaneously accounting for changes in methane emissions and sinks for an improved quantitative understanding of the evolution of the methane concentrations to assess the role of greenhouse gases in climate change and tropospheric composition.
After a period of near-zero growth of atmospheric methane, a major greenhouse gas, its growth...
Short summary
Our understanding of recent changes in atmospheric methane has defied explanation. Since 2007, the atmospheric growth of methane has accelerated to record-breaking values in 2020 and 2021. We use satellite observations of methane to show that (1) increasing emissions over the tropics are mostly responsible for these recent atmospheric changes, and (2) changes in the OH sink during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown can explain up to 34% of changes in atmospheric methane for that year.
Our understanding of recent changes in atmospheric methane has defied explanation. Since 2007,...
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