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First Concurrent Observations of NO 2 and CO 2 From Power Plant Plumes by Airborne Remote Sensing
Author(s) -
Fujinawa Tamaki,
Kuze Akihiko,
Suto Hiroshi,
Shiomi Kei,
Kanaya Yugo,
Kawashima Takahiro,
Kataoka Fumie,
Mori Shigetaka,
Eskes Henk,
Tanimoto Hiroshi
Publication year - 2021
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 - 10.1029/2021gl092685
Subject(s) - plume , environmental science , panache , atmospheric sciences , emission inventory , satellite , meteorology , remote sensing , geology , physics , air quality index , astronomy
Combined NO 2 and CO 2 observations have the potential to constrain the identification of the locations and strength of urban CO 2 emissions, in particular, point sources such as power plants. We report the first results of airborne spectroscopic NO 2 and CO 2 observations over an urban area in Japan in February 2018. Inversed emission rates of two stacks of the coal‐fired power plant for CO 2 showed relatively good agreement with those estimated by a bottom‐up inventory—the Regional Emission inventory in ASia (REAS) v3.1—within −7% to 40% because the plume shapes were well identified due to constraint by NO 2 measurements. The estimated NO x emission rates showed discrepancies more than 80% with those estimated by the REAS v3.1, mainly due to the uncertainties in activity data and emission factors, or in the greatly varying NO/NO 2 ratios in fresh plumes, which warrant further investigations when estimating NO x emissions from satellite NO 2 observations on km‐scales.