Retrieval of methane source strengths in Europe using a simple modeling approach to assess the potential of spaceborne lidar observations

Abstract

Abstract. We investigate the sensitivity of future spaceborne lidar measurements to changes in surface methane emissions. We use surface methane observations from nine European ground stations and a Lagrangian transport model to infer surface methane emissions for 2010. Our inversion shows the strongest emissions from the Netherlands, the coal mines in Upper Silesia, Poland, and wetlands in southern Finland. The simulated methane surface concentrations capture at least half of the daily variability in the observations, suggesting that the transport model is correctly simulating the regional transport pathways over Europe. With this tool we can test whether proposed methane lidar instruments will be sensitive to changes in surface emissions. We show that future lidar instruments should be able to detect a 50 % reduction in methane emissions from the Netherlands and Germany, at least during summer.

Spaceborne NO2 observations are sensitive to coal mining and processing in the largest coal basin of Russia

“…Our findings are novel at a global level, as most existing spaceborne studies focusing on coal mining have reported increases in atmospheric CH 4 6 , 7 , 38 , 39 . Although we demonstrated that spaceborne observations of NO 2 can be utilized to attribute NO 2 pollution to previously unreported coal mining and processing over large exploited coal basins, the hypothesis that coal mining itself can be a major source of NO 2 emissions should be evaluated.…”

Atmospheric CO2 measurements with a 2-μm DIAL instrument

“…Such instruments allow monitoring these gases during day and night and at high latitude which current passive missions cannot do. The spatially resolved data provided would better constraint the greenhouse gases transport models and help identify their sources and sink [1,2]. Then several DIAL missions are in preparation: Merlin (CNES/DLR) to measure CH 4 and ASCENDS (NASA) for CO 2 .…”

“…The spatially resolved data provided would better constraint the greenhouse gases transport models and help identify their sources and sink [1,2]. Then several DIAL missions are in preparation: Merlin (CNES/DLR) to measure CH 4 and ASCENDS (NASA) for CO 2 . One of the challenges of these missions is to get robust laser sources emitting at least two wavelengths (inside and outside an absorption line of the gas) to perform the DIAL measurement.…”