Premium
Constraining Fossil Fuel CO 2 Emissions From Urban Area Using OCO‐2 Observations of Total Column CO 2
Author(s) -
Ye Xinxin,
Lauvaux Thomas,
Kort Eric A.,
Oda Tomohiro,
Feng Sha,
Lin John C.,
Yang Emily G.,
Wu Dien
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1029/2019jd030528
Subject(s) - environmental science , terrain , emission inventory , plume , satellite , fossil fuel , metropolitan area , inversion (geology) , meteorology , greenhouse gas , structural basin , atmospheric sciences , air quality index , geography , geology , cartography , ecology , paleontology , archaeology , engineering , biology , aerospace engineering , oceanography
Satellite observations of the total column dry‐air CO 2 (X CO2 ) are expected to support the quantification and monitoring of fossil fuel CO 2 (ffCO 2 ) emissions from urban areas. We evaluate the utility of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO‐2) X CO2 retrievals to optimize whole‐city emissions, using a Bayesian inversion system and high‐resolution transport modeling. The uncertainties of constrained emissions related to transport model, satellite measurements, and local biospheric fluxes are quantified. For the first two uncertainty sources, we examine cities of different landscapes: “plume city” located in relatively flat terrain, represented by Riyadh and Cairo; and “basin city” located in basin terrain, represented by Los Angeles (LA). The retrieved scaling factors of emissions and their uncertainties show prominent variabilities from track to track, due to the varying meteorological conditions and relative locations of the tracks transecting plumes. To explore the performance of multiple tracks in retrieving emissions, pseudo data experiments are carried out. The estimated least numbers of tracks required to constrain the total emissions for Riyadh (<10% uncertainty), Cairo (<10%), and LA (<5%) are 8, 5, and 7, respectively. Additionally, to evaluate the impact of biospheric fluxes on derivation of the ffX CO2 enhancements, we conduct simulations for Pearl River Delta metropolitan area. Significant fractions of local X CO2 enhancements associated with local biospheric X CO2 variations are shown, which potentially lead to biased estimates of ffCO 2 emissions. We demonstrate that satellite measurements can be used to improve urban ffCO 2 emissions with a sufficient amount of measurements and appropriate representations of the uncertainty components.