Abstract. The growth of mega-cities leads to air quality problems directly affecting the citizens. Satellite measurements are becoming of higher quality and quantity, which leads to more accurate satellite retrievals of enhanced air pollutant concentrations over large cities. In this paper, we compare and discuss both an existing and a new method for estimating urban-scale trends in CO emissions using multiyear retrievals from the MOPITT satellite instrument. The first method is mainly based on satellite data, and has the advantage of fewer assumptions, but also comes with uncertainties and limitations as shown in this paper. To improve the reliability of urban-to-regional scale emission trend estimation, we simulate MOPITT retrievals using the Weather Research and Forecast model with chemistry core (WRFChem). The difference between model and retrieval is used to optimize CO emissions in WRF-Chem, focusing on the city of Madrid, Spain. This method has the advantage over the existing method in that it allows both a trend analysis of CO concentrations and a quantification of CO emissions. Our analysis confirms that MOPITT is capable of detecting CO enhancements over Madrid, although significant differences remain between the yearly averaged model output and satellite measurements (R 2 = 0.75) over the city. After optimization, we find Madrid CO emissions to be lower by 48
Abstract. The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), launched 13 October 2017, has been measuring carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations in the Earth's atmosphere since early November 2017. In the first measurements, TROPOMI was able to measure CO concentrations of the high-pollution event in India of November 2017. In this paper, we studied the extent of the pollution in India, comparing the TROPOMI CO with modeled data from the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) to identify the most important sources contributing to the high pollution, both at ground level and in the total column. We investigated the period 11–19 November 2017. We found that residential and commercial combustion was a much more important source of CO pollution than the post-monsoon crop burning during this period, which is in contrast to what media suggested and some studies on aerosol emissions found. Also, the high pollution was not limited to Delhi and its direct neighborhood but the accumulation of pollution extended over the whole Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) due to the unfavorable weather conditions in combination with extensive emissions. From the TROPOMI data and WRF simulations, we observed a buildup of CO during 11–14 November and a decline in CO after 15 November. The meteorological conditions, characterized by low wind speeds and shallow atmospheric boundary layers, were most likely the primary explanation for the temporal accumulation and subsequent dispersion of regionally emitted CO in the atmosphere. This emphasizes the important role of atmospheric dynamics in determining the air quality conditions at ground level and in the total column. Due to its rapidly growing population and economy, India is expected to encounter similar pollution events more often in future post-monsoon and winter seasons unless significant policy measures are taken to reduce residential and commercial emissions.
The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), launched 13 October 2017, measures carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations in the Earth's atmosphere since early November 2017. In the first measurements, TROPOMI was able to measure CO concentrations of the high pollution event in India of November 2017. In this paper we studied the extent of the pollution in India, comparing the TROPOMI CO with modelled data from the Weather Research and Forecast model (WRF) to identify the most important sources contributing to the high pollution, both at ground-level and in the total column. We 5 investigated the period between 11 and 19 November 2017. We found that residential and commercial combustion was a much more important source of CO pollution than the post-monsoon crop burning during this period, which is in contrast to what media suggested and some studies on aerosol emissions found. Also, the high pollution was not limited to Delhi and its direct neighbourhood but the accumulation of pollution extended over the whole Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) due to the unfavourable weather conditions in combination with extensive emissions. From the TROPOMI data and WRF simulations, we observed 10 a build-up of CO during 11-14 November and a decline in CO after the 15 th of November. The meteorological situation, characterized by low wind speeds and shallow atmospheric boundary layers, was most likely the primary explanation for the temporal accumulation and subsequent dispersion of regionally emitted CO in the atmosphere, emphasizing the important role of atmospheric dynamics. Due to its rapidly growing population and economy, India is expected to encounter similar pollution events more often in future post-monsoon and winter seasons unless significant policy measures are taken to reduce residential 15 and commercial emissions.
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