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Quantifying CO 2 Emissions From Individual Power Plants From Space
Author(s) -
Nassar Ray,
Hill Timothy G.,
McLinden Chris A.,
Wunch Debra,
Jones Dylan B. A.,
Crisp David
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl074702
Subject(s) - environmental science , greenhouse gas , observatory , satellite , emission inventory , plume , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , remote sensing , geography , physics , aerospace engineering , geology , engineering , oceanography , air quality index , astrophysics
In order to better manage anthropogenic CO 2 emissions, improved methods of quantifying emissions are needed at all spatial scales from the national level down to the facility level. Although the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO‐2) satellite was not designed for monitoring power plant emissions, we show that in some cases, CO 2 observations from OCO‐2 can be used to quantify daily CO 2 emissions from individual middle‐ to large‐sized coal power plants by fitting the data to plume model simulations. Emission estimates for U.S. power plants are within 1–17% of reported daily emission values, enabling application of the approach to international sites that lack detailed emission information. This affirms that a constellation of future CO 2 imaging satellites, optimized for point sources, could monitor emissions from individual power plants to support the implementation of climate policies.