Articles | Volume 25, issue 21
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14387-2025
© Author(s) 2025. 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-25-14387-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
03 Nov 2025
Research article |
| 03 Nov 2025
| 03 Nov 2025
Building-resolving simulations of anthropogenic and biospheric CO2 in the city of Zurich with GRAMM/GRAL
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
Ivo Suter
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
Leonie Bernet
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
Lionel Constantin
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
Stuart K. Grange
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
now at: Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
Pascal Rubli
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
Junwei Li
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technische Unversität München, Munich, Germany
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technische Unversität München, Munich, Germany
Alessandro Bigi
Dipartimento di Ingegneria “Enzo Ferrari”, Universita degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
Lukas Emmenegger
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, Switzerland
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Robert Hanfland, Dominik Brunner, Christiane Voigt, Alina Fiehn, Anke Roiger, and Margit Pattantyús-Ábrahám
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Ioannis Katharopoulos, Dominique Rust, Martin K. Vollmer, Dominik Brunner, Stefan Reimann, Simon J. O'Doherty, Dickon Young, Kieran M. Stanley, Tanja Schuck, Jgor Arduini, Lukas Emmenegger, and Stephan Henne
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Foteini Stavropoulou, Katarina Vinković, Bert Kers, Marcel de Vries, Steven van Heuven, Piotr Korbeń, Martina Schmidt, Julia Wietzel, Pawel Jagoda, Jaroslav M. Necki, Jakub Bartyzel, Hossein Maazallahi, Malika Menoud, Carina van der Veen, Sylvia Walter, Béla Tuzson, Jonas Ravelid, Randulph Paulo Morales, Lukas Emmenegger, Dominik Brunner, Michael Steiner, Arjan Hensen, Ilona Velzeboer, Pim van den Bulk, Hugo Denier van der Gon, Antonio Delre, Maklawe Essonanawe Edjabou, Charlotte Scheutz, Marius Corbu, Sebastian Iancu, Denisa Moaca, Alin Scarlat, Alexandru Tudor, Ioana Vizireanu, Andreea Calcan, Magdalena Ardelean, Sorin Ghemulet, Alexandru Pana, Aurel Constantinescu, Lucian Cusa, Alexandru Nica, Calin Baciu, Cristian Pop, Andrei Radovici, Alexandru Mereuta, Horatiu Stefanie, Alexandru Dandocsi, Bas Hermans, Stefan Schwietzke, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Huilin Chen, and Thomas Röckmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 10399–10412, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10399-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10399-2023, 2023
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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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Dominik Brunner, Gerrit Kuhlmann, Stephan Henne, Erik Koene, Bastian Kern, Sebastian Wolff, Christiane Voigt, Patrick Jöckel, Christoph Kiemle, Anke Roiger, Alina Fiehn, Sven Krautwurst, Konstantin Gerilowski, Heinrich Bovensmann, Jakob Borchardt, Michal Galkowski, Christoph Gerbig, Julia Marshall, Andrzej Klonecki, Pascal Prunet, Robert Hanfland, Margit Pattantyús-Ábrahám, Andrzej Wyszogrodzki, and Andreas Fix
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2699–2728, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2699-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2699-2023, 2023
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We evaluated six atmospheric transport models for their capability to simulate the CO2 plumes from two of the largest power plants in Europe by comparing the models against aircraft observations collected during the CoMet (Carbon Dioxide and Methane Mission) campaign in 2018. The study analyzed how realistically such plumes can be simulated at different model resolutions and how well the planned European satellite mission CO2M will be able to quantify emissions from power plants.
Prabhakar Shrestha, Jana Mendrok, and Dominik Brunner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14095–14117, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14095-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14095-2022, 2022
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The study extends the Terrestrial Systems Modeling Platform with gas-phase chemistry aerosol dynamics and a radar forward operator to enable detailed studies of aerosol–cloud–precipitation interactions. This is demonstrated using a case study of a deep convective storm, which showed that the strong updraft in the convective core of the storm produced aerosol-tower-like features, which affected the size of the hydrometeors and the simulated polarimetric features (e.g., ZDR and KDP columns).
Peter Bergamaschi, Arjo Segers, Dominik Brunner, Jean-Matthieu Haussaire, Stephan Henne, Michel Ramonet, Tim Arnold, Tobias Biermann, Huilin Chen, Sebastien Conil, Marc Delmotte, Grant Forster, Arnoud Frumau, Dagmar Kubistin, Xin Lan, Markus Leuenberger, Matthias Lindauer, Morgan Lopez, Giovanni Manca, Jennifer Müller-Williams, Simon O'Doherty, Bert Scheeren, Martin Steinbacher, Pamela Trisolino, Gabriela Vítková, and Camille Yver Kwok
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 13243–13268, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13243-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13243-2022, 2022
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We present a novel high-resolution inverse modelling system, "FLEXVAR", and its application for the inverse modelling of European CH4 emissions in 2018. The new system combines a high spatial resolution of 7 km x 7 km with a variational data assimilation technique, which allows CH4 emissions to be optimized from individual model grid cells. The high resolution allows the observations to be better reproduced, while the derived emissions show overall good consistency with two existing models.
Simone M. Pieber, Béla Tuzson, Stephan Henne, Ute Karstens, Christoph Gerbig, Frank-Thomas Koch, Dominik Brunner, Martin Steinbacher, and Lukas Emmenegger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10721–10749, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10721-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10721-2022, 2022
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Understanding regional greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere is a prerequisite to mitigate climate change. In this study, we investigated the regional contributions of carbon dioxide (CO2) at the location of the high Alpine observatory Jungfraujoch (JFJ, Switzerland, 3580 m a.s.l.). To this purpose, we combined receptor-oriented atmospheric transport simulations for CO2 concentration in the period 2009–2017 with stable carbon isotope (δ13C–CO2) information.
Randulph Morales, Jonas Ravelid, Katarina Vinkovic, Piotr Korbeń, Béla Tuzson, Lukas Emmenegger, Huilin Chen, Martina Schmidt, Sebastian Humbel, and Dominik Brunner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2177–2198, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2177-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2177-2022, 2022
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Mapping trace gas emission plumes using in situ measurements from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is an emerging and attractive possibility to quantify emissions from localized sources. We performed an extensive controlled-release experiment to develop an optimal quantification method and to determine the related uncertainties under various environmental and sampling conditions. Our approach was successful in quantifying local methane sources from drone-based measurements.
Gerrit Kuhlmann, Ka Lok Chan, Sebastian Donner, Ying Zhu, Marc Schwaerzel, Steffen Dörner, Jia Chen, Andreas Hueni, Duc Hai Nguyen, Alexander Damm, Annette Schütt, Florian Dietrich, Dominik Brunner, Cheng Liu, Brigitte Buchmann, Thomas Wagner, and Mark Wenig
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1609–1629, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1609-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1609-2022, 2022
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is an air pollutant whose concentration often exceeds air quality guideline values, especially in urban areas. To map the spatial distribution of NO2 in Munich, we conducted the Munich NO2 Imaging Campaign (MuNIC), where NO2 was measured with stationary, mobile, and airborne in situ and remote sensing instruments. The campaign provides a unique dataset that has been used to compare the different instruments and to study the spatial variability of NO2 and its sources.
Marc Schwaerzel, Dominik Brunner, Fabian Jakub, Claudia Emde, Brigitte Buchmann, Alexis Berne, and Gerrit Kuhlmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6469–6482, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6469-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6469-2021, 2021
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NO2 maps from airborne imaging remote sensing often appear much smoother than one would expect from high-resolution model simulations of NO2 over cities, despite the small ground-pixel size of the sensors. Our case study over Zurich, using the newly implemented building module of the MYSTIC radiative transfer solver, shows that the 3D effect can explain part of the smearing and that building shadows cause a noticeable underestimation and noise in the measured NO2 columns.
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.
Ana Maria Roxana Petrescu, Chunjing Qiu, Philippe Ciais, Rona L. Thompson, Philippe Peylin, Matthew J. McGrath, Efisio Solazzo, Greet Janssens-Maenhout, Francesco N. Tubiello, Peter Bergamaschi, Dominik Brunner, Glen P. Peters, Lena Höglund-Isaksson, Pierre Regnier, Ronny Lauerwald, David Bastviken, Aki Tsuruta, Wilfried Winiwarter, Prabir K. Patra, Matthias Kuhnert, Gabriel D. Oreggioni, Monica Crippa, Marielle Saunois, Lucia Perugini, Tiina Markkanen, Tuula Aalto, Christine D. Groot Zwaaftink, Hanqin Tian, Yuanzhi Yao, Chris Wilson, Giulia Conchedda, Dirk Günther, Adrian Leip, Pete Smith, Jean-Matthieu Haussaire, Antti Leppänen, Alistair J. Manning, Joe McNorton, Patrick Brockmann, and Albertus Johannes Dolman
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 2307–2362, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2307-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2307-2021, 2021
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This study is topical and provides a state-of-the-art scientific overview of data availability from bottom-up and top-down CH4 and N2O emissions in the EU27 and UK. The data integrate recent emission inventories with process-based model data and regional/global inversions for the European domain, aiming at reconciling them with official country-level UNFCCC national GHG inventories in support to policy and to facilitate real-time verification procedures.
Gholam Ali Hoshyaripour, Andreas Baer, Sascha Bierbauer, Julia Bruckert, Dominik Brunner, Jochen Förstner, Arash Hamzehloo, Valentin Hanft, Corina Keller, Martina Klose, Pankaj Kumar, Patrick Ludwig, Enrico Metzner, Lisa Muth, Andreas Pauling, Nikolas Porz, Maryam Ramezani Ziarani, Thomas Reddmann, Luca Reißig, Roland Ruhnke, Khompat Satitkovitchai, Axel Seifert, Miriam Sinnhuber, Michael Steiner, Stefan Versick, Heike Vogel, Michael Weimer, Sven Werchner, and Corinna Hoose
Geosci. Model Dev., 19, 1645–1681, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1645-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-1645-2026, 2026
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This paper presents recent advances in ICON-ART, a modeling system that simulates atmospheric composition – such as gases and particles – and their interactions with weather and climate. By integrating updated chemistry, emissions, and aerosol processes, ICON-ART enables detailed, scale-spanning simulations. It supports both scientific research and operational forecasts, contributing to improved air quality, weather and climate predictions.
Luce Creman, Stuart K. Grange, Pascal Rubli, Andrea Fischer, Dominik Brunner, Christoph Hueglin, Lukas Emmenegger, and Leonie Bernet
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 19, 1441–1463, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1441-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1441-2026, 2026
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ZiCOS-L is a network of low-cost sensors in Zurich (Switzerland) to monitor carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations. After correcting for drift and checking the sensor performance, we found that local factors like traffic, public events and vegetation affect CO2 levels. Even though the sensors have higher uncertainties than other sensors, the lower cost allows for a denser network with detailed insights into CO2 levels across the city, helping cities track emissions and support climate action plans.
Thomas Laemmel, Dylan Geissbühler, Stephan Henne, Ryo Fujita, Heather Graven, Christophe Espic, Matthias Bantle, Negar Haghipour, Franz Conen, Dominik Brunner, Martin Steinbacher, Giulia Zazzeri, Samuel Hammer, Markus Leuenberger, and Sönke Szidat
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-265, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-265, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Carbon dioxide and methane are the two main anthropogenic greenhouse gases responsible for current climate change. Beside the measurement of their atmospheric concentration, the analysis of the abundance of their isotope carbon-14 (14C) gives hints about their origin, either biogenic or fossil. Here we present six years of atmospheric 14CH4 and 14CO2 measurements at a high-elevation alpine site in Switzerland (Jungfraujoch) and discuss the observed trends in both local and global views.
Hélène De Longueville, Daniela B. Melo, Alison Redington, Alice Ramsden, Alexandre Danjou, Peter Andrews, Joseph Pitt, Brendan Murphy, Lionel Constantin, Kieran M. Stanley, Simon O'Doherty, Angelina Wenger, Dickon Young, Andreas Engel, Tanja Schuck, Katharina Meixner, Thomas Wagenhaeuser, Fides Gad, Martin K. Vollmer, Stefan Reimann, Michela Maoine, Jgor Arduini, Chris Lunder, Norbert Schmidtbauer, László Haszpra, Mihály Molnár, Arnoud Frumau, Cedric Couret, Matthew Rigby, Stephan Henne, Alistair Manning, and Anita Ganesan
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-194, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-194, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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This study estimates emissions of hydrofluorocarbons, important greenhouse gases, in north-western Europe using atmospheric observations and atmospheric modelling. The estimates are compared with nationally reported emissions submitted to the United Nations. Overall, our results are consistent with reported values, although differences are found for some gases and countries. The findings indicate that emissions in north-western Europe are declining, reflecting the effects of climate regulations.
Ethan Manninen, Apisada Chulakadabba, Maryann Sargent, Zhan Zhang, Harshil Kamdar, Jack Warren, Sébastien Roche, Christopher Chan Miller, Ethan Kyzivat, Joshua Benmergui, Jasna Pittman, Eleanor Walker, Jacob Bushey, Jenna Samra, Jacob Hawthorne, Bingkun Luo, Maya Nasr, Kang Sun, Jonathan Franklin, Xiong Liu, Jia Chen, and Steven Wofsy
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-115, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-115, 2026
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In this work, my coauthors and I interpret methane emissions observed by remote sensing systems as plumes, or point sources. We model the probability that a general imaging spectrometer will detect a plume, and apply this framework to multiple remote sensing systems. We show how two recent systems- MethanAIR and MethaneSAT- provide enough sensitivity to facility scale point sources to effectively characterize most plume emissions in the Permian Basin.
Joël Thanwerdas, Paolo Cristofanelli, Angela Fiore, Rianne Dröge, Sophie Van Mil, Yohanna Villalobos, Zhendong Wu, and Dominik Brunner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5804, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5804, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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We assess how expanding Italy’s sparse ICOS methane network could improve methane emission estimates. Using transport modelling, data assimilation methods and synthetic observations, we test eight candidate sites. Chieti, in Central Italy and Mount Venda, in Northern Italy, provide the strongest added constraints, respectively. The framework developed here can be applied to other countries to optimize their atmospheric measurement networks and to improve constraints on greenhouse gas emissions.
Patrick Aigner, Jia Chen, Felix Böhm, Mali Chariot, Lukas Emmenegger, Lars Frölich, Stuart Grange, Daniel Kühbacher, Klaus Kürzinger, Olivier Laurent, Moritz Makowski, Pascal Rubli, Adrian Schmitt, and Adrian Wenzel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 19, 745–773, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-745-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-745-2026, 2026
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Dense urban CO2 monitoring is challenging due to cost and operational constraints. We developed a mid-cost sensor network for Munich, deployed on 17 rooftops. Temperature-stabilized enclosures and automated 2-point calibration ensured reliable performance, assessed by side-by-side comparison with a Picarro reference. In 1.5 years, the network collected 90 million measurements and resolved urban-rural gradients and seasonal diurnal patterns, capturing spatial CO2 variability at city scale.
Friedrich Klappenbach, Jia Chen, Moritz Makowski, Andreas Luther, Ronald C. Cohen, Jonathan E. Franklin, Steven Wofsy, and Taylor Jones
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-204, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-204, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
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This work presents a method to infer the upwind distance of emission sources from observed peak enhancements in atmospheric trace gas measurements. Using meteorological model output, the expected dilution of emissions from candidate source locations is quantified and compared with the observed concentration signals. The method enables the identification of plausible source locations and provides quantitative estimates of their emission strengths.
Zoé Le Bras, Pascal Rubli, Christoph Hueglin, and Stefan Reimann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 869–878, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-869-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-869-2026, 2026
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Since 1994, harmful air pollutants called BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) have declined by up to 89 % in the suburban area of Zurich thanks to the introduction of various air quality directives in Switzerland and in Europe. Although their contribution to ozone formation became less abundant, they still significantly contribute to the formation of airborne particles. While this study shows clear improvements in air quality, it also highlights the need for further efforts.
Sandro Meier, Marius Vögtli, Andreas Hueni, Audrey McManemin, Adam R. Brandt, Catherine Juéry, Vincent Blandin, Dominik Brunner, and Gerrit Kuhlmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 19, 333–358, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-333-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-333-2026, 2026
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We tested a new airborne imaging instrument to detect and measure methane emissions. Flying over controlled test releases in France, we compared our measurements with known release rates. The instrument detected emissions as low as 5.5 kilograms per hour in good weather and 1.45 kilograms per hour in ideal conditions. Our results show that better wind information is crucial for accurate totals. Our new instrument is important for helping target methane leaks in energy and waste systems.
Nikolai Ponomarev, Michael Steiner, Erik Koene, Pascal Rubli, Stuart Grange, Lionel Constantin, Michel Ramonet, Leslie David, Arash Hamzehloo, Lukas Emmenegger, and Dominik Brunner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 547–570, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-547-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-547-2026, 2026
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Urban inversions are gaining increasing attention, as cities are major contributors to anthropogenic emissions, making accurate emission estimates at this scale essential for supporting climate action plans and verifying reported emission reductions. We estimated carbon dioxide emissions in Zurich and Paris over one year by combining atmospheric observations with mesoscale model simulations. Our study shows how factors like city size, terrain, and measurement methods affect emission estimates.
Eleftherios Ioannidis, Antoon Meesters, Michael Steiner, Dominik Brunner, Friedemann Reum, Isabelle Pison, Antoine Berchet, Rona Thompson, Espen Sollum, Frank-Thomas Koch, Christoph Gerbig, Fenjuan Wang, Shamil Maksyutov, Aki Tsuruta, Maria Tenkanen, Tuula Aalto, Guillaume Monteil, Hong Lin, Ge Ren, Marko Scholze, and Sander Houweling
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 167–198, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-167-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-167-2026, 2026
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This paper describes a detailed study on CH4 European emissions, using different methodologies (9 total inverse models). The study spans over 15 years and provides detailed information on European CH4 emission trends and seasonality, using in-situ data, including Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) network. Our results highlight the importance of improving details in the inversion setup, such as the treatment of lateral boundary conditions to narrow the uncertainty ranges further.
Daniel Kühbacher, Jia Chen, Patrick Aigner, Mario Ilic, Ingrid Super, and Hugo Denier van der Gon
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 9967–9990, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-9967-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-9967-2025, 2025
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We present DRIVE v1.0, a data-driven framework to estimate road transport emissions, their temporal profiles, and the associated uncertainties. The method was applied to the city of Munich, where we present bottom-up emission estimates for the years 2019 to 2022. The estimates are compared against official municipal reports as well as national and European downscaled inventories.
Marta Via, Jure Demšar, Yufang Hao, Manousos Manousakas, Anton Rusanen, Jianhui Jiang, Stuart K. Grange, Jean-Luc Jaffrezo, Vy Ngoc Thuy Dinh, Gaëlle Uzu, Griša Močnik, and Kaspar R. Daellenbach
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5253, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5253, 2025
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We introduce BAMF+HS, an enhanced Bayesian receptor model for particulate matter (PM) source apportionment. By applying a regularised horseshoe prior to the chemical composition matrix, BAMF+HS enforces sparsity, filtering out irrelevant species and improving source separation. Tests on synthetic and real datasets show BAMF+HS consistently outperforms previous models in accuracy and clarity.
Yanxia Li, Hengheng Zhang, Xuefeng Shi, Yaowei Li, Sophie Abou-Rizk, Jessica Smith, Zhaojin An, Adrian Wenzel, Junwei Song, Thomas Leisner, Frank Keutsch, Jia Chen, and Harald Saathoff
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5191, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5191, 2025
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We analyzed Munich air samples across seasons to identify pollution sources. Traffic contributes less to particles than expected, while biomass burning dominates year-round. Summer barbecuing and winter heating release significant pollution. Monoterpene emissions from plants produce particles at night. Effective air quality improvement requires year-round strategies targeting biomass burning, not just vehicles. Understanding each city's pollution patterns is essential for public health.
Leonie Bernet, Benjamin T. Brem, Nicolas Bukowiecki, Stephan Henne, Jörg Klausen, Mathew Mutuku, David Njiru, Patricia Nying'uro, Christoph Zellweger, and Martin Steinbacher
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5272, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5272, 2025
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Long-term atmospheric measurements are crucial to understanding climate change but remain scarce across Africa. We monitored atmospheric species at Mt. Kenya from 2020 to 2024. Our data reveal equatorial seasonal and daily variability and show that models miss local patterns. Emissions at Mt. Kenya mainly come from households, industry, and agriculture, though with large uncertainties. These findings stress the need for more ground stations to improve climate models and emission estimates.
Yuri Brugnara, Martin Steinbacher, Simone Baffelli, and Lukas Emmenegger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 14221–14236, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14221-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14221-2025, 2025
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GAW-QC (Global Atmosphere Watch-Quality Control) is an interactive dashboard for the quality control of in-situ atmospheric composition measurements made at stations taking part in the Global Atmosphere Watch network. Even though it is mainly targeted at station operators who want to analyze recent, not yet published measurements, it allows anybody to verify the quality of already published measurements using various anomaly detection algorithms as well as visual comparisons.
Rainer Hilland, Josh Hashemi, Stavros Stagakis, Dominik Brunner, Lionel Constantin, Natascha Kljun, Ann-Kristin Kunz, Betty Molinier, Samuel Hammer, Lukas Emmenegger, and Andreas Christen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 14279–14299, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14279-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14279-2025, 2025
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We present a study of simultaneously measured fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2) and co-emitted species in the city of Zurich. Flux measurements of CO2 alone cannot be attributed to specific emission sectors, such as road transport or residential heating. We present a model which uses the measured ratios of CO2 to carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) as well as sector-specific reference ratios, to attribute measured fluxes to their emission sectors.
Ann-Kristin Kunz, Samuel Hammer, Patrick Aigner, Laura Bignotti, Lars Borchardt, Jia Chen, Julian Della Coletta, Lukas Emmenegger, Markus Eritt, Xochilt Gutiérrez, Josh Hashemi, Rainer Hilland, Christopher Holst, Armin Jordan, Natascha Kljun, Richard Kneißl, Changxing Lan, Virgile Legendre, Ingeborg Levin, Benjamin Loubet, Matthias Mauder, Betty Molinier, Susanne Preunkert, Michel Ramonet, Stavros Stagakis, and Andreas Christen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4856, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4856, 2025
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We present radiocarbon (14C)-based fossil fuel CO2 fluxes from relaxed eddy accumulation measurements on tall towers in the cities of Zurich, Paris, and Munich. By separating net CO2 fluxes into fossil and non-fossil components, these data reveal significant and variable contributions from human, plant, and soil respiration, as well as point-source emissions. These unique insights into CO2 flux composition offer crucial information for observation-based validation of urban emission estimates.
Ann-Kristin Kunz, Lars Borchardt, Andreas Christen, Julian Della Coletta, Markus Eritt, Xochilt Gutiérrez, Josh Hashemi, Rainer Hilland, Armin Jordan, Richard Kneißl, Virgile Legendre, Ingeborg Levin, Susanne Preunkert, Pascal Rubli, Stavros Stagakis, and Samuel Hammer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 5349–5373, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5349-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5349-2025, 2025
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We present, to our knowledge, the first relaxed eddy accumulation system explicitly tailored to a radiocarbon (14C)-based partitioning of fossil and non-fossil urban CO2 fluxes. Laboratory tests and in-depth quality and performance checks prove that the system meets the technical requirements. A pilot application on a tall tower in the city of Zurich, Switzerland, demonstrates the ability to separate fossil and non-fossil CO2 components within the typical precision of 14C measurements.
Simone Brunamonti, Harald Saathoff, Albert Hertzog, Glenn Diskin, Masatomo Fujiwara, Karen Rosenlof, Ottmar Möhler, Béla Tuzson, Lukas Emmenegger, Nadir Amarouche, Georges Durry, Fabien Frérot, Jean-Christophe Samake, Claire Cenac, Julio Lopez, Paul Monnier, and Mélanie Ghysels
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 5321–5348, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5321-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-5321-2025, 2025
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Water vapor is a strong greenhouse gas, and accurate measurements of its concentration in the upper atmosphere (~8–25 km altitude) are crucial for reliable climate predictions. We investigated the performance of four airborne hygrometers, deployed on aircraft or stratospheric balloon platforms and based on different techniques, in a climate simulation chamber. The results demonstrate the high accuracy and reliability of the involved sensors for atmospheric monitoring and research applications.
Erik Franciscus Maria Koene, Gerrit Kuhlmann, and Dominik Brunner
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4477, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4477, 2025
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We developed methods to reduce noise in satellite images that track air pollution, good for making faint emission signals easier to detect. By using clearer measurements of a related gas, our techniques improve image quality by up to 60 percent, allowing more accurate identification of pollution sources. Tested with simulated and real satellite data, this approach could enhance monitoring of emissions and support better environmental decisions.
Martin K. Vollmer, Joseph R. Pitt, Dickon Young, Stephan Henne, Blagoj Mitrevski, Jens Mühle, Anita Ganesan, Jgor Arduini, Alistair J. Manning, Thomas Wagenhäuser, Alison L. Redington, Brendan Murphy, Ray Gluckmann, Kieran M. Stanley, Paul B. Krummel, Chris R. Lunder, Jaegeun Yun, Dominique Rust, Angelina Wenger, Myriam Guillevic, Jooil Kim, Ray H. J. Wang, Tae Siek Rhee, Lionel Constantin, Arnoud Frumau, Christina M. Harth, Peter K. Salameh, Ove Hermansen, Andreas Engel, Simon O'Doherty, Sunyoung Park, Michela Maione, Paul J. Fraser, Ronald G. Prinn, Ray F. Weiss, and Stefan Reimann
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4824, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4824, 2025
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We provide atmospheric measurements of halogenated olefins from the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiments and we calculate NorthWest European Emissions.
Myriam Agrò, Manuel Bettineschi, Silvia Melina, Diego Aliaga, Andrea Bergomi, Beatrice Biffi, Alessandro Bigi, Giancarlo Ciarelli, Cristina Colombi, Paola Fermo, Ivan Grigioni, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Markku Kulmala, Janne Lampilahti, Angela Marinoni, Celestine Oliewo, Juha Sulo, Gianluigi Valli, Roberta Vecchi, Tuukka Petäjä, Katrianne Lehtipalo, and Federico Bianchi
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2387, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2387, 2025
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This study investigates New Particle Formation (NPF) in Milan, the most populated city in the Po Valley (Italy), using one year of particle number size distribution data (1.2–480 nm). NPF is enhanced under cleaner air conditions with lower pollution, reduced condensation sink, stronger ventilation, and stronger northwesterly winds (e.g., Foehn events). In contrast, longer air mass residence time in the Po Valley and higher air mass exposure to anthropogenic emissions suppress it.
Gerrit Kuhlmann, Foteini Stavropoulou, Stefan Schwietzke, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Andrew Thorpe, Andreas Hueni, Lukas Emmenegger, Andreea Calcan, Thomas Röckmann, and Dominik Brunner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5371–5385, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5371-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5371-2025, 2025
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A measurement campaign in 2019 found that methane emissions from oil and gas in Romania were significantly higher than reported. In 2021, our follow-up campaign using airborne remote sensing showed a marked decreases in emissions by 20 %–60 % due to improved infrastructure. The study highlights the importance of measurement-based emission monitoring and illustrates the value of a multi-scale assessment integrating ground-based observations with large-scale airborne remote sensing campaigns.
Stavros Stagakis, Dominik Brunner, Junwei Li, Leif Backman, Anni Karvonen, Lionel Constantin, Leena Järvi, Minttu Havu, Jia Chen, Sophie Emberger, and Liisa Kulmala
Biogeosciences, 22, 2133–2161, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2133-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-2133-2025, 2025
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The balance between CO2 uptake and emissions from urban green areas is still not well understood. This study evaluated for the first time the urban park CO2 exchange simulations with four different types of biosphere model by comparing them with observations. Even though some advantages and disadvantages of the different model types were identified, there was no strong evidence that more complex models performed better than simple ones.
Joël Thanwerdas, Antoine Berchet, Lionel Constantin, Aki Tsuruta, Michael Steiner, Friedemann Reum, Stephan Henne, and Dominik Brunner
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 1505–1544, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1505-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-1505-2025, 2025
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The Community Inversion Framework (CIF) brings together methods for estimating greenhouse gas fluxes from atmospheric observations. The initial ensemble method implemented in CIF was found to be incomplete and could hardly be compared to other ensemble methods employed in the inversion community. In this paper, we present and evaluate a new implementation of the ensemble mode, building upon the initial developments.
Stuart K. Grange, Pascal Rubli, Andrea Fischer, Dominik Brunner, Christoph Hueglin, and Lukas Emmenegger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 2781–2806, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2781-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2781-2025, 2025
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Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a very important atmospheric pollutant, and to better understand the gas's source and sink dynamics, a mid-cost sensor network hosting 26 sites was deployed in and around Zurich, Switzerland. The sensor measurement performance was quantified, and natural and anthropogenic CO2 emission sources were explored with a focus on what drives high CO2 levels. The observations will be used further by others to validate what is thought to be known about CO2 emissions in the region.
Hossein Maazallahi, Foteini Stavropoulou, Samuel Jonson Sutanto, Michael Steiner, Dominik Brunner, Mariano Mertens, Patrick Jöckel, Antoon Visschedijk, Hugo Denier van der Gon, Stijn Dellaert, Nataly Velandia Salinas, Stefan Schwietzke, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Sorin Ghemulet, Alexandru Pana, Magdalena Ardelean, Marius Corbu, Andreea Calcan, Stephen A. Conley, Mackenzie L. Smith, and Thomas Röckmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1497–1511, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1497-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1497-2025, 2025
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This article presents insights from airborne in situ measurements collected during the ROmanian Methane Emissions from Oil and gas (ROMEO) campaign supported by two models. Results reveal Romania's oil and gas methane emissions were significantly under-reported to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2019. A large underestimation was also found in the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) v7.0 for the study domain in the same year.
Diego Santaren, Janne Hakkarainen, Gerrit Kuhlmann, Erik Koene, Frédéric Chevallier, Iolanda Ialongo, Hannakaisa Lindqvist, Janne Nurmela, Johanna Tamminen, Laia Amorós, Dominik Brunner, and Grégoire Broquet
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 211–239, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-211-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-211-2025, 2025
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This study evaluates data-driven inversion methods for estimating CO2 emissions from local sources, such as power plants and cities, using meteorological data and XCO2 and NO2 satellite images rather than atmospheric transport modeling. We assess and compare the performance of five different methods using simulations of 1 year of satellite images, taken from the upcoming Copernicus CO2 Monitoring Mission, covering 15 power plants and the city of Berlin, Germany.
Michael Steiner, Luca Cantarello, Stephan Henne, and Dominik Brunner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12447–12463, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12447-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12447-2024, 2024
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Atmospheric greenhouse gas inversions have great potential to independently check reported bottom-up emissions; however they are subject to large uncertainties. It is paramount to address and reduce the largest source of uncertainty, which stems from the representation of atmospheric transport in the models. In this study, we show that the use of a temporally varying flow-dependent atmospheric transport uncertainty can enhance the accuracy of emission estimation in an idealized experiment.
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.
Ana Maria Roxana Petrescu, Glen P. Peters, Richard Engelen, Sander Houweling, Dominik Brunner, Aki Tsuruta, Bradley Matthews, Prabir K. Patra, Dmitry Belikov, Rona L. Thompson, Lena Höglund-Isaksson, Wenxin Zhang, Arjo J. Segers, Giuseppe Etiope, Giancarlo Ciotoli, Philippe Peylin, Frédéric Chevallier, Tuula Aalto, Robbie M. Andrew, David Bastviken, Antoine Berchet, Grégoire Broquet, Giulia Conchedda, Stijn N. C. Dellaert, Hugo Denier van der Gon, Johannes Gütschow, Jean-Matthieu Haussaire, Ronny Lauerwald, Tiina Markkanen, Jacob C. A. van Peet, Isabelle Pison, Pierre Regnier, Espen Solum, Marko Scholze, Maria Tenkanen, Francesco N. Tubiello, Guido R. van der Werf, and John R. Worden
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4325–4350, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4325-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4325-2024, 2024
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This study provides an overview of data availability from observation- and inventory-based CH4 emission estimates. It systematically compares them and provides recommendations for robust comparisons, aiming to steadily engage more parties in using observational methods to complement their UNFCCC submissions. Anticipating improvements in atmospheric modelling and observations, future developments need to resolve knowledge gaps in both approaches and to better quantify remaining uncertainty.
Giorgio Veratti, Alessandro Bigi, Michele Stortini, Sergio Teggi, and Grazia Ghermandi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10475–10512, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10475-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10475-2024, 2024
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In a study of two consecutive winter seasons, we used measurements and modelling tools to identify the levels and sources of black carbon pollution in a medium-sized urban area of the Po Valley, Italy. Our findings show that biomass burning and traffic-related emissions (especially from Euro 4 diesel cars) significantly contribute to BC concentrations. This research offers crucial insights for policymakers and urban planners aiming to improve air quality in cities.
Giorgio Veratti, Alessandro Bigi, Sergio Teggi, and Grazia Ghermandi
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 6465–6487, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-6465-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-6465-2024, 2024
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In this study, we present VERT (Vehicular Emissions from Road Traffic), an R package designed to estimate transport emissions using traffic estimates and vehicle fleet composition data. Compared to other tools available in the literature, VERT stands out for its user-friendly configuration and flexibility of user input. Case studies demonstrate its accuracy in both urban and regional contexts, making it a valuable tool for air quality management and transport scenario planning.
Sandro Meier, Erik F. M. Koene, Maarten Krol, Dominik Brunner, Alexander Damm, and Gerrit Kuhlmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7667–7686, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7667-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7667-2024, 2024
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Nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) are important air pollutants. This study addresses the challenge of accurately estimating NOx emissions from NO2 satellite observations. We develop a realistic model to convert NO2 to NOx by using simulated plumes from various power plants. We apply the model to satellite NO2 observations, significantly reducing biases in estimated NOx emissions. The study highlights the potential for a consistent, high-resolution estimation of NOx emissions using satellite data.
Ayah Abu-Hani, Jia Chen, Vigneshkumar Balamurugan, Adrian Wenzel, and Alessandro Bigi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3917–3931, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3917-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3917-2024, 2024
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This study examined the transferability of machine learning calibration models among low-cost sensor units targeting NO2 and NO. The global models were evaluated under similar and different emission conditions. To counter cross-sensitivity, the study proposed integrating O3 measurements from nearby reference stations, in Switzerland. The models show substantial improvement when O3 measurements are incorporated, which is more pronounced when in regions with elevated O3 concentrations.
Gerrit Kuhlmann, Erik Koene, Sandro Meier, Diego Santaren, Grégoire Broquet, Frédéric Chevallier, Janne Hakkarainen, Janne Nurmela, Laia Amorós, Johanna Tamminen, and Dominik Brunner
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 4773–4789, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4773-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4773-2024, 2024
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We present a Python software library for data-driven emission quantification (ddeq). It can be used to determine the emissions of hot spots (cities, power plants and industry) from remote sensing images using different methods. ddeq can be extended for new datasets and methods, providing a powerful community tool for users and developers. The application of the methods is shown using Jupyter notebooks included in the library.
Benedikt Herkommer, Carlos Alberti, Paolo Castracane, Jia Chen, Angelika Dehn, Florian Dietrich, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Matthias Max Frey, Jochen Groß, Lawson Gillespie, Frank Hase, Isamu Morino, Nasrin Mostafavi Pak, Brittany Walker, and Debra Wunch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3467–3494, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3467-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3467-2024, 2024
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The Total Carbon Column Observing Network is a network of ground-based Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers used mainly for satellite validation. To ensure the highest-quality validation data, the network needs to be highly consistent. This is a major challenge, which so far is solved by site comparisons with airborne in situ measurements. In this work, we describe the use of a portable FTIR spectrometer as a travel standard for evaluating the consistency of TCCON sites.
Michael Steiner, Wouter Peters, Ingrid Luijkx, Stephan Henne, Huilin Chen, Samuel Hammer, and Dominik Brunner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2759–2782, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2759-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2759-2024, 2024
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The Paris Agreement increased interest in estimating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of individual countries, but top-down emission estimation is not yet considered policy-relevant. It is therefore paramount to reduce large errors and to build systems that are based on the newest atmospheric transport models. In this study, we present the first application of ICON-ART in the inverse modeling of GHG fluxes with an ensemble Kalman filter and present our results for European CH4 emissions.
Tommaso Isolabella, Vera Bernardoni, Alessandro Bigi, Marco Brunoldi, Federico Mazzei, Franco Parodi, Paolo Prati, Virginia Vernocchi, and Dario Massabò
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1363–1373, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1363-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1363-2024, 2024
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We present an innovative software toolkit to differentiate sources of carbonaceous aerosol in the atmosphere. Our toolkit implements an upgraded mathematical model which allows for determination of fundamental optical properties of the aerosol, its sources, and the mass concentration of different carbonaceous species of particulate matter. We have tested the functionality of the software by re-analysing published data, and we obtained a compatible results with additional information.
Robert Hanfland, Dominik Brunner, Christiane Voigt, Alina Fiehn, Anke Roiger, and Margit Pattantyús-Ábrahám
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2511–2534, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2511-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2511-2024, 2024
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To show that the three-dimensional dispersion of plumes simulated by the Atmospheric Radionuclide Transport Model within the planetary boundary layer agrees with real plumes, we identify the most important input parameters and analyse the turbulence properties of five different turbulence models in very unstable stratification conditions using their deviation from the well-mixed state. Simulations show that one model agrees slightly better in unstable stratification conditions.
Alessandro Bigi, Giorgio Veratti, Elisabeth Andrews, Martine Collaud Coen, Lorenzo Guerrieri, Vera Bernardoni, Dario Massabò, Luca Ferrero, Sergio Teggi, and Grazia Ghermandi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14841–14869, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14841-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14841-2023, 2023
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Atmospheric particles include compounds that play a key role in the greenhouse effect and air toxicity. Concurrent observations of these compounds by multiple instruments are presented, following deployment within an urban environment in the Po Valley, one of Europe's pollution hotspots. The study compares these data, highlighting the impact of ground emissions, mainly vehicular traffic and biomass burning, on the absorption of sun radiation and, ultimately, on climate change and air quality.
Xinxu Zhao, Jia Chen, Julia Marshall, Michal Gałkowski, Stephan Hachinger, Florian Dietrich, Ankit Shekhar, Johannes Gensheimer, Adrian Wenzel, and Christoph Gerbig
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14325–14347, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14325-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14325-2023, 2023
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We develop a modeling framework using the Weather Research and Forecasting model at a high spatial resolution (up to 400 m) to simulate atmospheric transport of greenhouse gases and interpret column observations. Output is validated against weather stations and column measurements in August 2018. The differential column method is applied, aided by air-mass transport tracing with the Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport (STILT) model, also for an exploratory measurement interpretation.
Ioannis Katharopoulos, Dominique Rust, Martin K. Vollmer, Dominik Brunner, Stefan Reimann, Simon J. O'Doherty, Dickon Young, Kieran M. Stanley, Tanja Schuck, Jgor Arduini, Lukas Emmenegger, and Stephan Henne
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14159–14186, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14159-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14159-2023, 2023
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The effectiveness of climate change mitigation needs to be scrutinized by monitoring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Countries report their emissions to the UN in a bottom-up manner. By combining atmospheric observations and transport models someone can independently validate emission estimates in a top-down fashion. We report Swiss emissions of synthetic GHGs based on kilometer-scale transport and inverse modeling, highlighting the role of appropriate resolution in complex terrain.
Simone Brunamonti, Manuel Graf, Tobias Bühlmann, Céline Pascale, Ivan Ilak, Lukas Emmenegger, and Béla Tuzson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4391–4407, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4391-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4391-2023, 2023
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The abundance of water vapor (H2O) in the upper atmosphere has a significant impact on the rate of global warming. We developed a new lightweight spectrometer (ALBATROSS) for H2O measurements aboard meteorological balloons. Here, we assess the accuracy and precision of ALBATROSS using metrology-grade reference gases. The results demonstrate the exceptional potential of mid-infrared laser absorption spectroscopy as a new reference method for in situ measurements of H2O in the upper atmosphere.
Foteini Stavropoulou, Katarina Vinković, Bert Kers, Marcel de Vries, Steven van Heuven, Piotr Korbeń, Martina Schmidt, Julia Wietzel, Pawel Jagoda, Jaroslav M. Necki, Jakub Bartyzel, Hossein Maazallahi, Malika Menoud, Carina van der Veen, Sylvia Walter, Béla Tuzson, Jonas Ravelid, Randulph Paulo Morales, Lukas Emmenegger, Dominik Brunner, Michael Steiner, Arjan Hensen, Ilona Velzeboer, Pim van den Bulk, Hugo Denier van der Gon, Antonio Delre, Maklawe Essonanawe Edjabou, Charlotte Scheutz, Marius Corbu, Sebastian Iancu, Denisa Moaca, Alin Scarlat, Alexandru Tudor, Ioana Vizireanu, Andreea Calcan, Magdalena Ardelean, Sorin Ghemulet, Alexandru Pana, Aurel Constantinescu, Lucian Cusa, Alexandru Nica, Calin Baciu, Cristian Pop, Andrei Radovici, Alexandru Mereuta, Horatiu Stefanie, Alexandru Dandocsi, Bas Hermans, Stefan Schwietzke, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Huilin Chen, and Thomas Röckmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 10399–10412, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10399-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10399-2023, 2023
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In this study, we quantify CH4 emissions from onshore oil production sites in Romania at source and facility level using a combination of ground- and drone-based measurement techniques. We show that the total CH4 emissions in our studied areas are much higher than the emissions reported to UNFCCC, and up to three-quarters of the detected emissions are related to operational venting. Our results suggest that oil and gas production infrastructure in Romania holds a massive mitigation potential.
Vigneshkumar Balamurugan, Jia Chen, Adrian Wenzel, and Frank N. Keutsch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 10267–10285, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10267-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10267-2023, 2023
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In this study, machine learning models are employed to model NO2 and O3 concentrations. We employed a wide range of sources of data, including meteorological and column satellite measurements, to model NO2 and O3 concentrations. The spatial and temporal variability, and their drivers, were investigated. Notably, the machine learning model established the relationship between NOx and O3. Despite the fact that metropolitan regions are NO2 hotspots, rural areas have high O3 concentrations.
Andreas Forstmaier, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Juan Bettinelli, Hossein Maazallahi, Carsten Schneider, Dominik Winkler, Xinxu Zhao, Taylor Jones, Carina van der Veen, Norman Wildmann, Moritz Makowski, Aydin Uzun, Friedrich Klappenbach, Hugo Denier van der Gon, Stefan Schwietzke, and Thomas Röckmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6897–6922, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6897-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6897-2023, 2023
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Large cities emit greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming. In this study, we measured the release of one important green house gas, methane, in Hamburg. Multiple sources that contribute to methane emissions were located and quantified. Methane sources were found to be mainly caused by human activity (e.g., by release from oil and gas refineries). Moreover, potential natural sources have been located, such as the Elbe River and lakes.
Leonie Bernet, Tove Svendby, Georg Hansen, Yvan Orsolini, Arne Dahlback, Florence Goutail, Andrea Pazmiño, Boyan Petkov, and Arve Kylling
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4165–4184, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4165-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4165-2023, 2023
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After the severe destruction of the ozone layer, the amount of ozone in the stratosphere is expected to increase again. At northern high latitudes, however, such a recovery has not been detected yet. To assess ozone changes in that region, we analyse the amount of ozone above specific locations (total ozone) measured at three stations in Norway. We found that total ozone increases significantly at two Arctic stations, which may be an indication of ozone recovery at northern high latitudes.
Nadia K. Colombi, Daniel J. Jacob, Laura Hyesung Yang, Shixian Zhai, Viral Shah, Stuart K. Grange, Robert M. Yantosca, Soontae Kim, and Hong Liao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4031–4044, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4031-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4031-2023, 2023
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Surface ozone, detrimental to human and ecosystem health, is very high and increasing in South Korea. Using a global model of the atmosphere, we found that emissions from South Korea and China contribute equally to the high ozone observed. We found that in the absence of all anthropogenic emissions over East Asia, ozone is still very high, implying that the air quality standard in South Korea is not practically achievable unless this background external to East Asia can be decreased.
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.
Dominik Brunner, Gerrit Kuhlmann, Stephan Henne, Erik Koene, Bastian Kern, Sebastian Wolff, Christiane Voigt, Patrick Jöckel, Christoph Kiemle, Anke Roiger, Alina Fiehn, Sven Krautwurst, Konstantin Gerilowski, Heinrich Bovensmann, Jakob Borchardt, Michal Galkowski, Christoph Gerbig, Julia Marshall, Andrzej Klonecki, Pascal Prunet, Robert Hanfland, Margit Pattantyús-Ábrahám, Andrzej Wyszogrodzki, and Andreas Fix
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2699–2728, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2699-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2699-2023, 2023
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We evaluated six atmospheric transport models for their capability to simulate the CO2 plumes from two of the largest power plants in Europe by comparing the models against aircraft observations collected during the CoMet (Carbon Dioxide and Methane Mission) campaign in 2018. The study analyzed how realistically such plumes can be simulated at different model resolutions and how well the planned European satellite mission CO2M will be able to quantify emissions from power plants.
Lars Mächler, Daniel Baggenstos, Florian Krauss, Jochen Schmitt, Bernhard Bereiter, Remo Walther, Christoph Reinhard, Béla Tuzson, Lukas Emmenegger, and Hubertus Fischer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 355–372, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-355-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-355-2023, 2023
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We present a new method to extract the gases from ice cores and measure their greenhouse gas composition. The ice is sublimated continuously with a near-infrared laser, releasing the gases, which are then analyzed on a laser absorption spectrometer. The main advantage over previous efforts is a low effective resolution of 1–2 cm. This capability is crucial for the analysis of highly thinned ice, as expected from ongoing drilling efforts to extend ice core history further back in time.
Maximilian Rißmann, Jia Chen, Gregory Osterman, Xinxu Zhao, Florian Dietrich, Moritz Makowski, Frank Hase, and Matthäus Kiel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6605–6623, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6605-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6605-2022, 2022
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The Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) measures atmospheric concentrations of the most potent greenhouse gas, CO2, globally. By comparing its measurements to a ground-based monitoring network in Munich (MUCCnet), we find that the satellite is able to reliably detect urban CO2 concentrations. Furthermore, spatial CO2 differences captured by OCO-2 and MUCCnet are strongly correlated, which indicates that OCO-2 could be helpful in determining urban CO2 emissions from space.
Prabhakar Shrestha, Jana Mendrok, and Dominik Brunner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14095–14117, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14095-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14095-2022, 2022
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The study extends the Terrestrial Systems Modeling Platform with gas-phase chemistry aerosol dynamics and a radar forward operator to enable detailed studies of aerosol–cloud–precipitation interactions. This is demonstrated using a case study of a deep convective storm, which showed that the strong updraft in the convective core of the storm produced aerosol-tower-like features, which affected the size of the hydrometeors and the simulated polarimetric features (e.g., ZDR and KDP columns).
Benjamin Zanger, Jia Chen, Man Sun, and Florian Dietrich
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 7533–7556, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7533-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-7533-2022, 2022
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Gaussian priors (GPs) used in least squares inversion do not reflect the true distributions of greenhouse gas emissions well. A method that does not rely on GPs is sparse reconstruction (SR). We show that necessary conditions for SR are satisfied for cities and that the application of a wavelet transform can further enhance sparsity. We apply the theory of compressed sensing to SR. Our results show that SR needs fewer measurements and is superior for assessing unknown emitters compared to GPs.
Peter Bergamaschi, Arjo Segers, Dominik Brunner, Jean-Matthieu Haussaire, Stephan Henne, Michel Ramonet, Tim Arnold, Tobias Biermann, Huilin Chen, Sebastien Conil, Marc Delmotte, Grant Forster, Arnoud Frumau, Dagmar Kubistin, Xin Lan, Markus Leuenberger, Matthias Lindauer, Morgan Lopez, Giovanni Manca, Jennifer Müller-Williams, Simon O'Doherty, Bert Scheeren, Martin Steinbacher, Pamela Trisolino, Gabriela Vítková, and Camille Yver Kwok
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 13243–13268, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13243-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13243-2022, 2022
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We present a novel high-resolution inverse modelling system, "FLEXVAR", and its application for the inverse modelling of European CH4 emissions in 2018. The new system combines a high spatial resolution of 7 km x 7 km with a variational data assimilation technique, which allows CH4 emissions to be optimized from individual model grid cells. The high resolution allows the observations to be better reproduced, while the derived emissions show overall good consistency with two existing models.
Simone M. Pieber, Béla Tuzson, Stephan Henne, Ute Karstens, Christoph Gerbig, Frank-Thomas Koch, Dominik Brunner, Martin Steinbacher, and Lukas Emmenegger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10721–10749, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10721-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10721-2022, 2022
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Understanding regional greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere is a prerequisite to mitigate climate change. In this study, we investigated the regional contributions of carbon dioxide (CO2) at the location of the high Alpine observatory Jungfraujoch (JFJ, Switzerland, 3580 m a.s.l.). To this purpose, we combined receptor-oriented atmospheric transport simulations for CO2 concentration in the period 2009–2017 with stable carbon isotope (δ13C–CO2) information.
Ivo Suter, Tom Grylls, Birgit S. Sützl, Sam O. Owens, Chris E. Wilson, and Maarten van Reeuwijk
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 5309–5335, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-5309-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-5309-2022, 2022
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Cities are increasingly moving to the fore of climate and air quality research due to their central role in the population’s health and well-being, while suitable models remain scarce. This article describes the development of a new urban LES model, which allows examining the effects of various processes, infrastructure and vegetation on the local climate and air quality. Possible applications are demonstrated and a comparison to an experiment is shown.
Vigneshkumar Balamurugan, Jia Chen, Zhen Qu, Xiao Bi, and Frank N. Keutsch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7105–7129, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7105-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7105-2022, 2022
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In this study, we investigated the response of secondary pollutants to changes in precursor emissions, focusing on the formation of secondary PM, during the COVID-19 lockdown period. We show that, due to the decrease in primary NOx emissions, atmospheric oxidizing capacity is increased. The nighttime increase in ozone, caused by less NO titration, results in higher NO3 radicals, which contribute significantly to the formation of PM nitrates. O3 should be limited in order to control PM pollution.
Stuart K. Grange, Gaëlle Uzu, Samuël Weber, Jean-Luc Jaffrezo, and Christoph Hueglin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7029–7050, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7029-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7029-2022, 2022
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Oxidative potential (OP), a biologically relevant metric for particulate matter (PM), was linked to PM10 and PM2.5 sources and constituents across Switzerland between 2018 and 2019. Wood burning and non-exhaust traffic emissions were identified as key processes that led to enhanced OP. Therefore, the make-up of the PM mix was very important for OP. The results highlight the importance of the management of wood burning and non-exhaust emissions to reduce OP, and presumably biological harm.
Adam Brighty, Véronique Jacob, Gaëlle Uzu, Lucille Borlaza, Sébastien Conil, Christoph Hueglin, Stuart K. Grange, Olivier Favez, Cécile Trébuchon, and Jean-Luc Jaffrezo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6021–6043, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6021-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6021-2022, 2022
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With an revised analytical method and long-term sampling strategy, we have been able to elucidate much more information about atmospheric plant debris, a poorly understood class of particulate matter. We found weaker seasonal patterns at urban locations compared to rural locations and significant interannual variability in concentrations between previous years and 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This suggests a possible man-made influence on plant debris concentration and source strength.
Andreas Luther, Julian Kostinek, Ralph Kleinschek, Sara Defratyka, Mila Stanisavljević, Andreas Forstmaier, Alexandru Dandocsi, Leon Scheidweiler, Darko Dubravica, Norman Wildmann, Frank Hase, Matthias M. Frey, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Jarosław Nȩcki, Justyna Swolkień, Christoph Knote, Sanam N. Vardag, Anke Roiger, and André Butz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 5859–5876, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5859-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5859-2022, 2022
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Coal mining is an extensive source of anthropogenic methane emissions. In order to reduce and mitigate methane emissions, it is important to know how much and where the methane is emitted. We estimated coal mining methane emissions in Poland based on atmospheric methane measurements and particle dispersion modeling. In general, our emission estimates suggest higher emissions than expected by previous annual emission reports.
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.
Randulph Morales, Jonas Ravelid, Katarina Vinkovic, Piotr Korbeń, Béla Tuzson, Lukas Emmenegger, Huilin Chen, Martina Schmidt, Sebastian Humbel, and Dominik Brunner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2177–2198, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2177-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2177-2022, 2022
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Mapping trace gas emission plumes using in situ measurements from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is an emerging and attractive possibility to quantify emissions from localized sources. We performed an extensive controlled-release experiment to develop an optimal quantification method and to determine the related uncertainties under various environmental and sampling conditions. Our approach was successful in quantifying local methane sources from drone-based measurements.
Johannes Gensheimer, Alexander J. Turner, Philipp Köhler, Christian Frankenberg, and Jia Chen
Biogeosciences, 19, 1777–1793, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-1777-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-1777-2022, 2022
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We develop a convolutional neural network, named SIFnet, that increases the spatial resolution of SIF from TROPOMI by a factor of 10 to a spatial resolution of 0.005°. SIFnet utilizes coarse SIF observations, together with a broad range of high-resolution auxiliary data. The insights gained from interpretable machine learning techniques allow us to make quantitative claims about the relationships between SIF and other common parameters related to photosynthesis.
Gerrit Kuhlmann, Ka Lok Chan, Sebastian Donner, Ying Zhu, Marc Schwaerzel, Steffen Dörner, Jia Chen, Andreas Hueni, Duc Hai Nguyen, Alexander Damm, Annette Schütt, Florian Dietrich, Dominik Brunner, Cheng Liu, Brigitte Buchmann, Thomas Wagner, and Mark Wenig
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1609–1629, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1609-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1609-2022, 2022
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is an air pollutant whose concentration often exceeds air quality guideline values, especially in urban areas. To map the spatial distribution of NO2 in Munich, we conducted the Munich NO2 Imaging Campaign (MuNIC), where NO2 was measured with stationary, mobile, and airborne in situ and remote sensing instruments. The campaign provides a unique dataset that has been used to compare the different instruments and to study the spatial variability of NO2 and its sources.
Dominique Rust, Ioannis Katharopoulos, Martin K. Vollmer, Stephan Henne, Simon O'Doherty, Daniel Say, Lukas Emmenegger, Renato Zenobi, and Stefan Reimann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2447–2466, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2447-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2447-2022, 2022
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Artificial halocarbons contribute to ozone layer depletion and to global warming. We measured the atmospheric concentrations of halocarbons at the Beromünster tower, modelled the Swiss emissions, and compared the results to the internationally reported Swiss emissions inventory. For most of the halocarbons, we found good agreement, whereas one refrigerant might be overestimated in the inventory. In addition, we present first emission estimates of the newest types of halocarbons.
Marc Schwaerzel, Dominik Brunner, Fabian Jakub, Claudia Emde, Brigitte Buchmann, Alexis Berne, and Gerrit Kuhlmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6469–6482, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6469-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6469-2021, 2021
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NO2 maps from airborne imaging remote sensing often appear much smoother than one would expect from high-resolution model simulations of NO2 over cities, despite the small ground-pixel size of the sensors. Our case study over Zurich, using the newly implemented building module of the MYSTIC radiative transfer solver, shows that the 3D effect can explain part of the smearing and that building shadows cause a noticeable underestimation and noise in the measured NO2 columns.
Taylor S. Jones, Jonathan E. Franklin, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Kristian D. Hajny, Johannes C. Paetzold, Adrian Wenzel, Conor Gately, Elaine Gottlieb, Harrison Parker, Manvendra Dubey, Frank Hase, Paul B. Shepson, Levi H. Mielke, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13131–13147, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13131-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13131-2021, 2021
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Methane emissions from leaks in natural gas pipes are often a large source in urban areas, but they are difficult to measure on a city-wide scale. Here we use an array of innovative methane sensors distributed around the city of Indianapolis and a new method of combining their data with an atmospheric model to accurately determine the magnitude of these emissions, which are about 70 % larger than predicted. This method can serve as a framework for cities trying to account for their emissions.
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.
Ana Maria Roxana Petrescu, Chunjing Qiu, Philippe Ciais, Rona L. Thompson, Philippe Peylin, Matthew J. McGrath, Efisio Solazzo, Greet Janssens-Maenhout, Francesco N. Tubiello, Peter Bergamaschi, Dominik Brunner, Glen P. Peters, Lena Höglund-Isaksson, Pierre Regnier, Ronny Lauerwald, David Bastviken, Aki Tsuruta, Wilfried Winiwarter, Prabir K. Patra, Matthias Kuhnert, Gabriel D. Oreggioni, Monica Crippa, Marielle Saunois, Lucia Perugini, Tiina Markkanen, Tuula Aalto, Christine D. Groot Zwaaftink, Hanqin Tian, Yuanzhi Yao, Chris Wilson, Giulia Conchedda, Dirk Günther, Adrian Leip, Pete Smith, Jean-Matthieu Haussaire, Antti Leppänen, Alistair J. Manning, Joe McNorton, Patrick Brockmann, and Albertus Johannes Dolman
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 2307–2362, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2307-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-2307-2021, 2021
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This study is topical and provides a state-of-the-art scientific overview of data availability from bottom-up and top-down CH4 and N2O emissions in the EU27 and UK. The data integrate recent emission inventories with process-based model data and regional/global inversions for the European domain, aiming at reconciling them with official country-level UNFCCC national GHG inventories in support to policy and to facilitate real-time verification procedures.
Cited articles
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Bergamaschi, P., Danila, A., Weiss, R., Ciais, P., Thompson, R., Brunner, D., Levin, I., Meijer, Y., Chevallier, F., Janssens-Maenhout, G., Bovensmann, H., Crisp, D., Basu, S., Dlugokencky, E., Engelen, R., Gerbig, C., Günther, D., Hammer, S., Henne, S., Houweling, S., Karstens, U., Kort, E., Maione, M., Manning, A., Miller, J., Montzka, S., Pandey, S., Peters, W., Peylin, P., Pinty, B., Ramonet, M., Reimann, S., Röckmann, T., Schmidt, M., Strogies, M., Sussams, J., Tarasova, O., Van Aardenne, J., Vermeulen, A., and Vogel, F.: Atmospheric monitoring and inverse modelling for verification of greenhouse gas inventories, JRC Science for Policy Report JRC111789, https://doi.org/10.2760/759928, 2018. a
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Brunner, D., Savage, N., Jorba, O., Eder, B., Giordano, L., Badia, A., Balzarini, A., Baró, R., Bianconi, R., Chemel, C., Curci, G., Forkel, R., Jiménez-Guerrero, P., Hirtl, M., Hodzic, A., Honzak, L., Im, U., Knote, C., Makar, P., Manders-Groot, A., van Meijgaard, E., Neal, L., Pérez, J. L., Pirovano, G., San Jose, R., Schröder, W., Sokhi, R. S., Syrakov, D., Torian, A., Tuccella, P., Werhahn, J., Wolke, R., Yahya, K., Zabkar, R., Zhang, Y., Hogrefe, C., and Galmarini, S.: Comparative analysis of meteorological performance of coupled chemistry-meteorology models in the context of AQMEII phase 2, Atmospheric Environment, 115, 470–498, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2014.12.032, 2015. a
Cai, Q., Zeng, N., Zhao, F., Han, P., Liu, D., Lin, X., and Chen, J.: The impact of human and livestock respiration on CO2 emissions from 14 global cities, Carbon Balance and Management, 17, 17, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-022-00217-7, 2022. a, b
Cambaliza, M. O. L., Shepson, P. B., Caulton, D. R., Stirm, B., Samarov, D., Gurney, K. R., Turnbull, J., Davis, K. J., Possolo, A., Karion, A., Sweeney, C., Moser, B., Hendricks, A., Lauvaux, T., Mays, K., Whetstone, J., Huang, J., Razlivanov, I., Miles, N. L., and Richardson, S. J.: Assessment of uncertainties of an aircraft-based mass balance approach for quantifying urban greenhouse gas emissions, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 9029–9050, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-9029-2014, 2014. a
Ciais, P., Wang, Y., Andrew, R., Bréon, F. M., Chevallier, F., Broquet, G., Nabuurs, G. J., Peters, G., McGrath, M., Meng, W., Zheng, B., and Tao, S.: Biofuel burning and human respiration bias on satellite estimates of fossil fuel CO2 emissions, Environmental Research Letters, 15, 074036, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab7835, 2020. a
Constantin, L., Brunner, D., Thanwerdas, J., Keller, C., Steiner, M., and Koene, E. F. M.: Emiproc: A Python package for emission inventory processing, Zenodo [code], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14614229, 2025. a
Dietrich, F., Chen, J., Voggenreiter, B., Aigner, P., Nachtigall, N., and Reger, B.: MUCCnet: Munich Urban Carbon Column network, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1111–1126, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1111-2021, 2021. a
Edwards, J. M., McGregor, J. R., Bush, M. R., and Bornemann, F. J.: Assessment of numerical weather forecasts against observations from Cardington: seasonal diurnal cycles of screen-level and surface temperatures and surface fluxes, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 137, 656–672, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.742, 2011. a
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Feng, S., Lauvaux, T., Newman, S., Rao, P., Ahmadov, R., Deng, A., Díaz-Isaac, L. I., Duren, R. M., Fischer, M. L., Gerbig, C., Gurney, K. R., Huang, J., Jeong, S., Li, Z., Miller, C. E., O'Keeffe, D., Patarasuk, R., Sander, S. P., Song, Y., Wong, K. W., and Yung, Y. L.: Los Angeles megacity: a high-resolution land–atmosphere modelling system for urban CO2 emissions, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 9019–9045, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9019-2016, 2016. a
Fong, W. K., Sotos, M., Doust, M., Schultz, S., Marques, A., and Deng-Beck, C.: Global protocol for community-scale greenhouse gas emission inventories, Tech. rep., World Resources Institute, https://ghgprotocol.org/ghg-protocol-cities (last access: 22 October 2025, 2014. a
Glauch, T., Marshall, J., Gerbig, C., Botía, S., Gałkowski, M., Vardag, S. N., and Butz, A.: pyVPRM: a next-generation vegetation photosynthesis and respiration model for the post-MODIS era, Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 4713–4742, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-4713-2025, 2025. a
Grange, S. K.: Data for publication “The ZiCOS-M CO2 sensor network: measurement performance and CO2 variability across Zürich”, Zenodo [data set], https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13759332, 2024. a
Graz University of Technology: GRAZ Lagrangian Model, https://gral.tugraz.at/ (last access: 14 August 2023), 2023. a
Guevara, M., Tena, C., Porquet, M., Jorba, O., and Pérez García-Pando, C.: HERMESv3, a stand-alone multi-scale atmospheric emission modelling framework – Part 2: The bottom–up module, Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 873–903, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-873-2020, 2020. a
Gurney, K. R., Liang, J., Roest, G., Song, Y., Mueller, K., and Lauvaux, T.: Under-reporting of greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. cities, Nature Communications, 12, 553, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20871-0, 2021. a, b
Han, P., Yao, B., Cai, Q., Chen, H., Sun, W., Liang, M., Zhang, X., Zhao, M., Martin, C., Liu, Z., Ye, H., Wang, P., Li, Y., and Zeng, N.: Support Carbon Neutral Goal with a High-Resolution Carbon Monitoring System in Beijing, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 105, E2461–E2481, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-23-0025.1, 2024. a
Hanfland, R., Pattantyús-Ábrahám, M., Richter, C., Brunner, D., and Voigt, C.: Atmospheric Radionuclide Transport Model (ARTM) – Development, Description and Sensitivity Analysis, Air Quality, Atmosphere and Health, 249, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-022-01188-x, 2022. a
Hardiman, B. S., Wang, J. A., Hutyra, L. R., Gately, C. K., Getson, J. M., and Friedl, M. A.: Accounting for urban biogenic fluxes in regional carbon budgets, Science of The Total Environment, 592, 366–372, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.028, 2017. a
Hilland, R., Hashemi, J., Stagakis, S., Brunner, D., Constantin, L., Kljun, N., Molinier, B., Hammer, S., Emmenegger, L., and Christen, A.: Sectoral attribution of greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions using multi-species eddy covariance on a tall tower in Zurich, Switzerland, EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1088, 2025. a
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Kim, J., Berelson, W. M., Rollins, N. E., Asimow, N. G., Newman, C., Cohen, R. C., Miller, J. B., McDonald, B. C., Peischl, J., and Lehman, S. J.: Observing Anthropogenic and Biogenic CO2 Emissions in Los Angeles Using a Dense Sensor Network, Environmental Science & Technology, 59, 3508–3517, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c11392, 2025. a
Kubilay, A., Derome, D., and Carmeliet, J.: Coupling of physical phenomena in urban microclimate: A model integrating air flow, wind-driven rain, radiation and transport in building materials, Urban Climate, 24, 398–418, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2017.04.012, 2018. a
Kuenen, J. J. P., Visschedijk, A. J. H., Jozwicka, M., and Denier van der Gon, H. A. C.: TNO-MACC_II emission inventory; a multi-year (2003–2009) consistent high-resolution European emission inventory for air quality modelling, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 10963–10976, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10963-2014, 2014. a, b
Lauvaux, T., Gurney, K. R., Miles, N. L., Davis, K. J., Richardson, S. J., Deng, A., Nathan, B. J., Oda, T., Wang, J. A., Hutyra, L., and Turnbull, J.: Policy-Relevant Assessment of Urban CO2 Emissions, Environmental Science & Technology, 54, 10237–10245, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c00343, 2020. a, b
Lian, J., Laurent, O., Chariot, M., Lienhardt, L., Ramonet, M., Utard, H., Lauvaux, T., Bréon, F.-M., Broquet, G., Cucchi, K., Millair, L., and Ciais, P.: Development and deployment of a mid-cost CO2 sensor monitoring network to support atmospheric inverse modeling for quantifying urban CO2 emissions in Paris, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5821–5839, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5821-2024, 2024. a
Lionel, C., Dominik, B., Joel, T., Corina, K., Michael, S., and Erik, K.: Emiproc: A Python package for emission inventory processing, Journal of Open Source Software, 10, 7509, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.07509, 2025. a, b
Mahadevan, P., Wofsy, S. C., Matross, D. M., Xiao, X., Dunn, A. L., Lin, J. C., Gerbig, C., Munger, J. W., Chow, V. Y., and Gottlieb, E. W.: A satellite-based biosphere parameterization for net ecosystem CO2 exchange Vegetation Photosynthesis and Respiration Model (VPRM), Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 22, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GB002735, 2008. a, b
Maronga, B., Banzhaf, S., Burmeister, C., Esch, T., Forkel, R., Fröhlich, D., Fuka, V., Gehrke, K. F., Geletič, J., Giersch, S., Gronemeier, T., Groß, G., Heldens, W., Hellsten, A., Hoffmann, F., Inagaki, A., Kadasch, E., Kanani-Sühring, F., Ketelsen, K., Khan, B. A., Knigge, C., Knoop, H., Krč, P., Kurppa, M., Maamari, H., Matzarakis, A., Mauder, M., Pallasch, M., Pavlik, D., Pfafferott, J., Resler, J., Rissmann, S., Russo, E., Salim, M., Schrempf, M., Schwenkel, J., Seckmeyer, G., Schubert, S., Sühring, M., von Tils, R., Vollmer, L., Ward, S., Witha, B., Wurps, H., Zeidler, J., and Raasch, S.: Overview of the PALM model system 6.0, Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 1335–1372, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-1335-2020, 2020. a
May, M., Wald, S., Suter, I., Brunner, D., and Vardag, S. N.: Evaluation of the GRAMM/GRAL model for high-resolution wind fields in Heidelberg, Germany, Atmospheric Research, 300, 107207, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2023.107207, 2024. a, b
Mijling, B.: High-resolution mapping of urban air quality with heterogeneous observations: a new methodology and its application to Amsterdam, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 4601–4617, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4601-2020, 2020. a
Mohn, J., Szidat, S., Zeyer, K., and Emmenegger, L.: Fossil and biogenic CO2 from waste incineration based on a yearlong radiocarbon study, Waste Management, 32, 1516–1520, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2012.04.002, 2012. a
Müller, M., Graf, P., Meyer, J., Pentina, A., Brunner, D., Perez-Cruz, F., Hüglin, C., and Emmenegger, L.: Integration and calibration of non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) CO2 low-cost sensors and their operation in a sensor network covering Switzerland, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3815–3834, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3815-2020, 2020. a
Nalini, K., Lauvaux, T., Abdallah, C., Lian, J., Ciais, P., Utard, H., Laurent, O., and Ramonet, M.: High-Resolution Lagrangian Inverse Modeling of CO2 Emissions Over the Paris Region During the First 2020 Lockdown Period, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 127, e2021JD036032, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD036032, 2022. a, b
Oettl, D.: Evaluation of the Revised Lagrangian Particle Model GRAL Against Wind-Tunnel and Field Observations in the Presence of Obstacles, Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 155, 271–287, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-014-9993-4, 2015. a, b
Oettl, D.: Development of the Mesoscale Model GRAMM-SCI: Evaluation of Simulated Highly-Resolved Flow Fields in an Alpine and Pre-Alpine Region, Atmosphere, 12, https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12030298, 2021. a, b
Oettl, D. and Uhrner, U.: Development and evaluation of GRAL-C dispersion model, a hybrid Eulerian–Lagrangian approach capturing NO–NO2–O3 chemistry, Atmospheric Environment, 45, 839–847, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2010.11.028, 2011. a
Oettl, D. and Veratti, G.: A comparative study of mesoscale flow-field modelling in an Eastern Alpine region using WRF and GRAMM-SCI, Atmospheric Research, 249, 105288, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2020.105288, 2021. a, b, c, d
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To support the city of Zurich in tracking its path to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions planned to be reached by 2040, a CO2 emission monitoring system was established. The system combines a dense network of CO2 sensors with a high-resolution atmospheric transport model GRAMM/GRAL. This study presents the setup of the model together with its numerous inputs and evaluates its performance in comparison with observations from the CO2 sensor network.
To support the city of Zurich in tracking its path to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions planned...
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