Academic Journal
Quantification of carbon monoxide emissions from African cities using TROPOMI.
| Title: | Quantification of carbon monoxide emissions from African cities using TROPOMI. |
|---|---|
| Authors: | Leguijt, Gijs, Maasakkers, Joannes D., Denier van der Gon, Hugo A. C., Segers, Arjo J., Borsdorff, Tobias, Aben, Ilse |
| Source: | Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics; 2023, Vol. 23 Issue 15, p8899-8919, 21p |
| Abstract: | Carbon monoxide (CO) is an air pollutant that plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry and is mostly emitted by forest fires and incomplete combustion in, for example, road transport, residential heating, and industry. As CO is co-emitted with fossil fuel CO2 combustion emissions, it can be used as a proxy for CO2. Following the Paris Agreement, there is a need for independent verification of reported activity-based bottom-up CO2 emissions through atmospheric measurements. CO can be observed daily at a global scale with the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) satellite instrument with daily global coverage at a resolution down to 5.5 × 7 km 2. To take advantage of this unique TROPOMI dataset, we develop a cross-sectional flux-based emission quantification method that can be applied to quantify emissions from a large number of cities, without relying on computationally expensive inversions. We focus on Africa as a region with quickly growing cities and large uncertainties in current emission estimates. We use a full year of high-resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) simulations over three cities to evaluate and optimize the performance of our cross-sectional flux emission quantification method and show its reliability down to emission rates of 0.1 Tg CO yr -1. Comparison of the TROPOMI-based emission estimates to the Dynamics–Aerosol–Chemistry–Cloud Interactions in West Africa (DACCIWA) and Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) bottom-up inventories shows that CO emission rates in northern Africa are underestimated in EDGAR, suggesting overestimated combustion efficiencies. We see the opposite when comparing TROPOMI to the DACCIWA inventory in South Africa and Côte d'Ivoire, where CO emission factors appear to be overestimated. Over Lagos and Kano (Nigeria) we find that potential errors in the spatial disaggregation of national emissions cause errors in DACCIWA and EDGAR respectively. Finally, we show that our computationally efficient quantification method combined with the daily TROPOMI observations can identify a weekend effect in the road-transport-dominated CO emissions from Cairo and Algiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Subject Terms: | CITIES & towns, CARBON monoxide, CARBON emissions, EMISSION inventories, ATMOSPHERIC carbon dioxide, COMBUSTION efficiency, AIR pollutants |
| Copyright of Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics is the property of Copernicus Gesellschaft mbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| ISSN: | 16807316 |
| DOI: | 10.5194/acp-23-8899-2023 |
| Database: | Complementary Index |
Availability