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Analyzing nitrogen oxides to carbon dioxide emission ratios from space: A case study of Matimba Power Station in South Africa

Janne Hakkarainen,  Finnish Meteorological Institute,  janne.hakkarainen@fmi.fi (Presenter)
Monika E. Szelag,  Finnish Meteorological Institute,  monika.szelag@fmi.fi
Iolanda Ialongo,  Finnish Meteorological Institute,  iolanda.ialongo@fmi.fi
Christian Retscher,  European Space Agency,  christian.retscher@esa.int
Tomohiro Oda,  Universities Space Research Association (USRA),  toda@usra.edu
David Crisp,  JPL/Caltech,  david.crisp@jpl.nasa.gov

We describe a new methodology for deriving source-specific emission ratios of nitrogen oxides (NOx) to carbon dioxide (CO2) from space-based TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) and Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) observations. The approach is based on scaling the observed ratio along the OCO-2 track with simulated data, in order to obtain the NOx-to-CO2 emission ratio at the source. We analyze fourteen TROPOMI/OCO-2 collocations from near the Matimba coal-fired power station in South Africa. We obtain a mean NOx-to-CO2 emission ratio of 2.6×10-3 and standard deviation of 0.6×10-3 (or 23%). When applied to NOx emission estimates derived from TROPOMI data, we obtain annual CO2 emissions of 62, 60 and 58 kt/d for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively, with standard deviation of 20 kt/d (or 33%). These values are consistent with existing inventories such as the Open-source Data Inventory for Anthropogenic CO2 (ODIAC). The proposed method will also work ideally for new and upcoming satellite observations systems such as OCO-3, CO2M and GOSAT-GW.


Reference:
Janne Hakkarainen, Monika E. Szelag, Iolanda Ialongo, Christian Retscher, Tomohiro Oda, and David Crisp: Analyzing nitrogen oxides to carbon dioxide emission ratios from space: A case study of Matimba Power Station in South Africa, Accepted for publication in Atmospheric Environment: X, 2021.

Poster: Poster_Hakkarainen__6_25.pdf 

Presentation Type: Poster

Session: 3.2a Observations to quantify hot spots and local/urban emissions

Session Date: Wednesday (6/16) 9:45 AM

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