Comparing space-based to reported carbon monoxide emission estimates for Europe's iron and steel plants

Leguijt, Gijs; Maasakkers, Joannes D.; Denier van der Gon, Hugo A. C.; Segers, Arjo J.; Borsdorff, Tobias; van der Velde, Ivar R.; Aben, Ilse

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-555-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-555-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-555-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 1

Research article

|

21 Jan 2025

Research article |

| 21 Jan 2025

Comparing space-based to reported carbon monoxide emission estimates for Europe's iron and steel plants

Gijs Leguijt, Joannes D. Maasakkers, Hugo A. C. Denier van der Gon, Arjo J. Segers, Tobias Borsdorff, Ivar R. van der Velde, and Ilse Aben

Data sets

TROPOMI Level 2 Carbon Monoxide total column products Copernicus Sentinel-5P https://doi.org/10.5270/S5P-bj3nry0

ECMWF atmospheric reanalysis version 5 H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Global Fire Assimilation Sys- tem fire emission Fire radiative power J. W. Kaiser et al. https://ads.atmosphere.copernicus.eu/datasets/cams-global-fire-emissions-gfas?tab=overview

Industrial Reporting under the Industrial Emissions Directive 2010/75/EU and European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register Regulation (EC) No. 166/2006 – ver. 8.0 March 2023 E-PRTR https://sdi.eea.europa.eu/data/0e2e16ac-06e9-40b8-9aef-b3d228100564

Model code and software

Atmospheric Chemistry Observations and Modeling version 4.1.5 J. G. Powers et al. https://github.com/wrf-model/WRF/releases

Short summary

The production of steel coincides with large emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants including carbon monoxide. European facilities are required to report their emissions, which are estimated using a variety of methods. We evaluate these estimates using carbon monoxide concentrations measured via satellite. We find generally good agreement between our values and those reported but also identify some uncertainties, showing that satellites can provide insights into these emissions.