Articles | Volume 15, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-75-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-75-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Data description paper
| 
04 Jan 2023
Data description paper |
| 04 Jan 2023
| 04 Jan 2023
Version 2 of the global catalogue of large anthropogenic and volcanic SO2 sources and emissions derived from satellite measurements
Vitali E. Fioletov
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON, Canada
Chris A. McLinden
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON, Canada
Debora Griffin
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON, Canada
Ihab Abboud
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON, Canada
Nickolay Krotkov
Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Peter J. T. Leonard
The Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
Joanna Joiner
Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Nicolas Theys
Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB), Brussels, Belgium
Simon Carn
Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA
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Simone Pulimeno, Angelo Lupi, Vito Vitale, Claudia Frangipani, Carlos Toledano, Stelios Kazadzis, Natalia Kouremeti, Christoph Ritter, Sandra Graßl, Kerstin Stebel, Vitali Fioletov, Ihab Abboud, Sandra Blindheim, Lynn Ma, Norm O’Neill, Piotr Sobolewski, Pawan Gupta, Elena Lind, Thomas F. Eck, Antti Hyvärinen, Veijo Aaltonen, Rigel Kivi, Janae Csavina, Dmitry Kabanov, Sergey M. Sakerin, Olga R. Sidorova, Robert S. Stone, Hagen Telg, Laura Riihimaki, Raul R. Cordero, Martin Radenz, Ronny Engelmann, Michel Van Roozendal, Anatoli Chaikovsky, Philippe Goloub, Junji Hisamitsu, and Mauro Mazzola
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2527, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2527, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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This study analyzed aerosols optical properties over the Arctic and Antarctic to measure them even during long periods of darkness. It found that pollution in the Arctic is decreasing, likely due to European emission regulations, while wildfires are becoming a more important source of particles. In Antarctica, particle levels are higher near the coast than inland, and vary by season. These results help us better understand how air pollution and climate are changing at the Earth’s poles.
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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6093–6120, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6093-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6093-2025, 2025
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The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) was used to understand the evolution of NOx emissions from the Canadian oil sands. OMI NO2 combined with winds and reported stack emissions found emissions from the heavy-hauler mine fleet have remained flat since 2005, whereas the total oil sands mined have more than doubled. This difference is a result of emissions standards that limit NOx emissions becoming more stringent over this period, confirming the efficacy of the policy enacting these standards.
Ramina Alwarda, Kristof Bognar, Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Jonathan Davies, Sum Chi Lee, Debora Griffin, Alexandru Lupu, Udo Frieß, Alexander Cede, Yushan Su, and Kimberly Strong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 2397–2423, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2397-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2397-2025, 2025
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a pollutant with a short lifetime and large variability, but there are limited measurements of its distribution in the lower atmosphere. We present a new 3-year dataset of NO2 vertical profiles in Toronto, Canada, and evaluate it using NO2 from satellite and surface monitoring networks and simulations by an air quality forecast model. We quantify and explain the differences among the datasets to provide information that can be used to understand NO2 variability.
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Satellite data were used to estimate urban per capita emissions for 261 major cities worldwide. Three components in tropospheric NO2 data (background NO2, NO2 from urban sources, and NO2 from industrial point sources) were isolated, and then each of these components was analyzed separately. The largest per capita emissions were found in the Middle East and the smallest in India and southern Africa. Urban weekend emissions are 20 %–50 % less than workday emissions for all regions except China.
Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Debora Griffin, Chris McLinden, Ralf Staebler, Cristian Mihele, Kevin Strawbridge, Jonathan Davies, Ihab Abboud, Sum Chi Lee, Alexander Cede, Martin Tiefengraber, and Robert Swap
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6889–6912, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6889-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6889-2024, 2024
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Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4291–4309, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4291-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4291-2024, 2024
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Sulfur dioxide (SO2), a poisonous gas from human activities and volcanoes, causes air pollution, acid rain, and changes to climate and the ozone layer. Satellites have been used to monitor SO2 globally, including remote areas. Here we describe a new satellite SO2 dataset from the OMPS instrument that flies on the N20 satellite. Results show that the new dataset agrees well with the existing ones from other satellites and can help to continue the global monitoring of SO2 from space.
Vitali E. Fioletov, Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Can Li, Joanna Joiner, Nicolas Theys, and Simon Carn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5575–5592, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5575-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5575-2023, 2023
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Vitali Fioletov, Xiaoyi Zhao, Ihab Abboud, Michael Brohart, Akira Ogyu, Reno Sit, Sum Chi Lee, Irina Petropavlovskikh, Koji Miyagawa, Bryan J. Johnson, Patrick Cullis, John Booth, Glen McConville, and C. Thomas McElroy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 12731–12751, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12731-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12731-2023, 2023
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2273–2295, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2273-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2273-2023, 2023
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5497–5514, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5497-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5497-2022, 2022
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Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Michael Brohart, Volodya Savastiouk, Ihab Abboud, Akira Ogyu, Jonathan Davies, Reno Sit, Sum Chi Lee, Alexander Cede, Martin Tiefengraber, Moritz Müller, Debora Griffin, and Chris McLinden
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2261–2283, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2261-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2261-2021, 2021
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 647–663, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-647-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-647-2021, 2021
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Large volcanic eruptions can inject teragrams of sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the stratosphere, influencing stratospheric chemistry and Earth's climate. This work calculates decay timescales of volcanic gas-phase SO2 in the stratosphere using data from three satellite products. SO2 decay timescales vary significantly between the different products, and this uncertainty limits our ability to attribute an observed SO2 decay following an eruption to a specific chemical process.
Huan Yu, Isabelle De Smedt, Nicolas Theys, Maarten Sneep, Pepijn Veefkind, and Michel Van Roozendael
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 4131–4163, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4131-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4131-2025, 2025
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We introduce a new cloud retrieval algorithm using the O2–O2 absorption band at 477 nm to generate harmonized cloud datasets from OMI and TROPOMI. The algorithm improves upon the OMI O2–O2 operational cloud algorithm in several aspects. The new approach improves consistency in cloud parameters and NO2 retrievals between two sensors.
Ismail Makroum, Patrick Jöckel, Martin Dameris, Nicolas Theys, and Johannes De Leeuw
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3915, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3915, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
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We use a state-of-the-art numerical chemistry-climate model to study the atmospheric sulfur dioxide budget. We simulate the atmospheric concentration of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and corresponding sulfur deposition fluxes and compare the results with observational data from a satellite instrument and with ground-based in-situ measurements. For the evaluation of the simulated atmospheric lifetime of SO2, we also simulate the fate of SO2 emitted by two volcanic eruptions that happened in 2019.
Simone Pulimeno, Angelo Lupi, Vito Vitale, Claudia Frangipani, Carlos Toledano, Stelios Kazadzis, Natalia Kouremeti, Christoph Ritter, Sandra Graßl, Kerstin Stebel, Vitali Fioletov, Ihab Abboud, Sandra Blindheim, Lynn Ma, Norm O’Neill, Piotr Sobolewski, Pawan Gupta, Elena Lind, Thomas F. Eck, Antti Hyvärinen, Veijo Aaltonen, Rigel Kivi, Janae Csavina, Dmitry Kabanov, Sergey M. Sakerin, Olga R. Sidorova, Robert S. Stone, Hagen Telg, Laura Riihimaki, Raul R. Cordero, Martin Radenz, Ronny Engelmann, Michel Van Roozendal, Anatoli Chaikovsky, Philippe Goloub, Junji Hisamitsu, and Mauro Mazzola
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2527, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2527, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
Short summary
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This study analyzed aerosols optical properties over the Arctic and Antarctic to measure them even during long periods of darkness. It found that pollution in the Arctic is decreasing, likely due to European emission regulations, while wildfires are becoming a more important source of particles. In Antarctica, particle levels are higher near the coast than inland, and vary by season. These results help us better understand how air pollution and climate are changing at the Earth’s poles.
Lorenzo Fabris, Nicolas Theys, Lieven Clarisse, Bruno Franco, Jonas Vlietinck, Huan Yu, Hugues Brenot, Thomas Danckaert, Pascal Hedelt, and Michel Van Roozendael
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4026, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4026, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
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In this study, we developed an improved algorithm to retrieve the plume height and column density of sulfur dioxide emitted by volcanoes using data from the spectral band 2 of TROPOMI (S-5P). We tested its sensitivity to various conditions and applied it to real volcanic eruptions. Overall, our approach shows high precision, accuracy and sensitivity, and the results are consistent with other satellite measurements.
Robert James Duncan Spurr, Matt Christi, Nickolay Anatoly Krotkov, Won-Ei Choi, Simon Carn, Can Li, Natalya Kramarova, David Haffner, Eun-Su Yang, Nick Gorkavyi, Alexander Vasilkov, Krzysztof Wargan, Omar Torres, Diego Loyola, Serena Di Pede, Joris Pepijn Veefkind, and Pawan Kumar Bhartia
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2938, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2938, 2025
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An eruption of the submarine Hunga volcano injected a massive plume of water vapor, sulfur dioxide and aerosols into the Southern tropical stratosphere. The high-altitude Hunga aerosol plume showed up as strongly enhanced solar backscattered ultraviolet (BUV) radiation compromising satellite BUV ozone retrievals. In this paper, we have developed a new technique to retrieve the aerosol amount and height, based on satellite solar BUV radiances from the TROPOMI and OMPS nadir profiler instruments.
África Barreto, Francisco Quirós, Omaira E. García, Jorge Pereda-de-Pablo, Daniel González-Fernández, Andrés Bedoya-Velásquez, Michael Sicard, Carmen Córdoba-Jabonero, Marco Iarlori, Vincenzo Rizi, Nickolay Krotkov, Simon Carn, Reijo Roininen, Antonio J. Molina-Arias, A. Fernando Almansa, Óscar Álvarez-Losada, Carla Aramo, Juan José Bustos, Romain Ceolato, Adolfo Comerón, Alicia Felpeto, Rosa D. García, Pablo González-Sicilia, Yenny González, Pascal Hedelt, Miguel Hernández, María-Ángeles López-Cayuela, Diego Loyola, Stavros Meletlidis, Constantino Muñoz-Porcar, Ermanno Pietropaolo, Ramón Ramos, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gómez, Roberto Román, Pedro M. Romero-Campos, Martin Stuefer, Carlos Toledano, and Elsworth Welton
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3164, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3164, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
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This manuscript describes the instrumental coverage deployed during the Tajogaite eruption (19 September–25 December 2021) by the Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN), the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), and other Spanish members of ACTRIS (Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure) to monitor its atmospheric impact. Two complementary methods provide consistent plume height data for future operational surveillance.
Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Vitali Fioletov, Junhua Zhang, Enrico Dammers, Cristen Adams, Mallory Loria, Nickolay Krotkov, and Lok N. Lamsal
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6093–6120, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6093-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6093-2025, 2025
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The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) was used to understand the evolution of NOx emissions from the Canadian oil sands. OMI NO2 combined with winds and reported stack emissions found emissions from the heavy-hauler mine fleet have remained flat since 2005, whereas the total oil sands mined have more than doubled. This difference is a result of emissions standards that limit NOx emissions becoming more stringent over this period, confirming the efficacy of the policy enacting these standards.
Ramina Alwarda, Kristof Bognar, Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Jonathan Davies, Sum Chi Lee, Debora Griffin, Alexandru Lupu, Udo Frieß, Alexander Cede, Yushan Su, and Kimberly Strong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 2397–2423, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2397-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2397-2025, 2025
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a pollutant with a short lifetime and large variability, but there are limited measurements of its distribution in the lower atmosphere. We present a new 3-year dataset of NO2 vertical profiles in Toronto, Canada, and evaluate it using NO2 from satellite and surface monitoring networks and simulations by an air quality forecast model. We quantify and explain the differences among the datasets to provide information that can be used to understand NO2 variability.
Zachary Watson, Can Li, Fei Liu, Sean W. Freeman, Huanxin Zhang, Jun Wang, and Shan-Hu Lee
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1735, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1735, 2025
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Air pollutants like sulfur dioxide cause direct impacts on human health and the environment. Our work estimated surface concentrations from satellite data using atmospheric models and machine learning compared to an air quality monitoring network. We found that both methods can accurately determine the locations and changes in sulfur dioxide, but the machine learning method had better accuracy. Both methods are useful for monitoring air quality in locations without ground-based measurements.
Debora Griffin, Colin Hempel, Chris McLinden, Shailesh Kumar Kharol, Colin Lee, Andre Fogal, Christopher Sioris, Mark Shephard, and Yuan You
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1681, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1681, 2025
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Surface NO2 concentrations are obtained across North America using satellite data and machine learning, and compared to traditional approaches to determine surface NO2 from satellite observations.
Yuhang Zhang, Huan Yu, Isabelle De Smedt, Jintai Lin, Nicolas Theys, Michel Van Roozendael, Gaia Pinardi, Steven Compernolle, Ruijing Ni, Fangxuan Ren, Sijie Wang, Lulu Chen, Jos Van Geffen, Mengyao Liu, Alexander M. Cede, Martin Tiefengraber, Alexis Merlaud, Martina M. Friedrich, Andreas Richter, Ankie Piters, Vinod Kumar, Vinayak Sinha, Thomas Wagner, Yongjoo Choi, Hisahiro Takashima, Yugo Kanaya, Hitoshi Irie, Robert Spurr, Wenfu Sun, and Lorenzo Fabris
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1561–1589, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1561-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1561-2025, 2025
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We developed an advanced algorithm for global retrieval of TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) HCHO and NO2 vertical column densities with much improved consistency. Sensitivity tests demonstrate the complexity and nonlinear interactions of auxiliary parameters in the air mass factor calculation. An improved agreement is found with measurements from a global ground-based instrument network. The scientific retrieval provides a useful source of information for studies combining HCHO and NO2.
Jan-Lukas Tirpitz, Santo Fedele Colosimo, Nathaniel Brockway, Robert Spurr, Matt Christi, Samuel Hall, Kirk Ullmann, Johnathan Hair, Taylor Shingler, Rodney Weber, Jack Dibb, Richard Moore, Elizabeth Wiggins, Vijay Natraj, Nicolas Theys, and Jochen Stutz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1989–2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1989-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1989-2025, 2025
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We combine plume composition data from the 2019 NASA FIREX-AQ campaign with state-of-the-art radiative transfer modeling techniques to calculate distributions of actinic flux and photolysis frequencies in a wildfire plume. Excellent agreement of the model and observations demonstrates the applicability of this approach to constrain photochemistry in such plumes. We identify limiting factors for the modeling accuracy and discuss spatial and spectral features of the distributions.
Yutao Chen, Ronald J. van der A, Jieying Ding, Henk Eskes, Jason E. Williams, Nicolas Theys, Athanasios Tsikerdekis, and Pieternel F. Levelt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1851–1868, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1851-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1851-2025, 2025
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There is a lack of local SO2 top-down emission inventories in India. With the improvement in the divergence method and the derivation of SO2 local lifetime, gridded SO2 emissions over a large area can be estimated efficiently. This method can be applied to any region in the world to derive SO2 emissions. Especially for regions with high latitudes, our methodology has the potential to significantly improve the top-down derivation of SO2 emissions.
Pascal Hedelt, Jens Reichardt, Felix Lauermann, Benjamin Weiß, Nicolas Theys, Alberto Redondas, Africa Barreto, Omaira Garcia, and Diego Loyola
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1253–1272, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1253-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1253-2025, 2025
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The 2021 volcanic eruption of Tajogaite on La Palma is investigated using ground-based and satellite measurements. In addition, the atmospheric transport of the volcanic cloud towards Europe is studied in detail. The amount of SO2 released during the eruption and the height of the volcanic plume are in excellent agreement among the different measurements. Furthermore, volcanic aerosol microphysical properties could be retrieved using a new retrieval approach based on lidar measurements.
Vitali Fioletov, Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Xiaoyi Zhao, and Henk Eskes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 575–596, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-575-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-575-2025, 2025
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Satellite data were used to estimate urban per capita emissions for 261 major cities worldwide. Three components in tropospheric NO2 data (background NO2, NO2 from urban sources, and NO2 from industrial point sources) were isolated, and then each of these components was analyzed separately. The largest per capita emissions were found in the Middle East and the smallest in India and southern Africa. Urban weekend emissions are 20 %–50 % less than workday emissions for all regions except China.
Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Debora Griffin, Chris McLinden, Ralf Staebler, Cristian Mihele, Kevin Strawbridge, Jonathan Davies, Ihab Abboud, Sum Chi Lee, Alexander Cede, Martin Tiefengraber, and Robert Swap
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6889–6912, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6889-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6889-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This study explores differences between remote sensing and in situ instruments in terms of their vertical, horizontal, and temporal sampling differences. Understanding and resolving these differences are critical for future analyses linking satellite, ground-based remote sensing, and in situ observations in air quality monitoring. It shows that the meteorological conditions (wind directions, speed, and boundary layer conditions) will strongly affect the agreement between the two measurements.
Bryan N. Duncan, Daniel C. Anderson, Arlene M. Fiore, Joanna Joiner, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Can Li, Dylan B. Millet, Julie M. Nicely, Luke D. Oman, Jason M. St. Clair, Joshua D. Shutter, Amir H. Souri, Sarah A. Strode, Brad Weir, Glenn M. Wolfe, Helen M. Worden, and Qindan Zhu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13001–13023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13001-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13001-2024, 2024
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Trace gases emitted to or formed within the atmosphere may be chemically or physically removed from the atmosphere. One trace gas, the hydroxyl radical (OH), is responsible for initiating the chemical removal of many trace gases, including some greenhouse gases. Despite its importance, scientists have not been able to adequately measure OH. In this opinion piece, we discuss promising new methods to indirectly constrain OH using satellite data of trace gases that control the abundance of OH.
Kerry Anderson, Jack Chen, Peter Englefield, Debora Griffin, Paul A. Makar, and Dan Thompson
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 7713–7749, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7713-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7713-2024, 2024
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The Global Forest Fire Emissions Prediction System (GFFEPS) is a model that predicts smoke and carbon emissions from wildland fires. The model calculates emissions from the ground up based on satellite-detected fires, modelled weather and fire characteristics. Unlike other global models, GFFEPS uses daily weather conditions to capture changing burning conditions on a day-to-day basis. GFFEPS produced lower carbon emissions due to the changing weather not captured by the other models.
Can Li, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Joanna Joiner, Vitali Fioletov, Chris McLinden, Debora Griffin, Peter J. T. Leonard, Simon Carn, Colin Seftor, and Alexander Vasilkov
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4291–4309, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4291-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4291-2024, 2024
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Sulfur dioxide (SO2), a poisonous gas from human activities and volcanoes, causes air pollution, acid rain, and changes to climate and the ozone layer. Satellites have been used to monitor SO2 globally, including remote areas. Here we describe a new satellite SO2 dataset from the OMPS instrument that flies on the N20 satellite. Results show that the new dataset agrees well with the existing ones from other satellites and can help to continue the global monitoring of SO2 from space.
Debora Griffin, Jack Chen, Kerry Anderson, Paul Makar, Chris A. McLinden, Enrico Dammers, and Andre Fogal
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10159–10186, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10159-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10159-2024, 2024
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Satellite-derived CO emissions provide new insights into the understanding of global CO emission rates from wildfires. We use TROPOMI satellite data to create a global inventory database of wildfire CO emissions. These satellite-derived wildfire emissions are used for the evaluation and improvement of existing fire emission inventories and to examine how the wildfire CO emissions have changed over the past 2 decades.
Enrico Dammers, Janot Tokaya, Christian Mielke, Kevin Hausmann, Debora Griffin, Chris McLinden, Henk Eskes, and Renske Timmermans
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 4983–5007, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4983-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-4983-2024, 2024
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Nitrogen dioxide (NOx) is produced by sources such as industry and traffic and is directly linked to negative impacts on health and the environment. The current construction of emission inventories to keep track of NOx emissions is slow and time-consuming. Satellite measurements provide a way to quickly and independently estimate emissions. In this study, we apply a consistent methodology to derive NOx emissions over Germany and illustrate the value of having such a method for fast projections.
Jean-Paul Vernier, Thomas J. Aubry, Claudia Timmreck, Anja Schmidt, Lieven Clarisse, Fred Prata, Nicolas Theys, Andrew T. Prata, Graham Mann, Hyundeok Choi, Simon Carn, Richard Rigby, Susan C. Loughlin, and John A. Stevenson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5765–5782, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5765-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5765-2024, 2024
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The 2019 Raikoke eruption (Kamchatka, Russia) generated one of the largest emissions of particles and gases into the stratosphere since the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption. The Volcano Response (VolRes) initiative, an international effort, provided a platform for the community to share information about this eruption and assess its climate impact. The eruption led to a minor global surface cooling of 0.02 °C in 2020 which is negligible relative to warming induced by human greenhouse gas emissions.
Bruno Franco, Lieven Clarisse, Nicolas Theys, Juliette Hadji-Lazaro, Cathy Clerbaux, and Pierre Coheur
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4973–5007, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4973-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4973-2024, 2024
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Using IASI global infrared measurements, we retrieve nitrous acid (HONO) in fire plumes from space. We detect large enhancements of pyrogenic HONO worldwide, especially from intense wildfires at Northern Hemisphere mid- and high latitudes. Predominance of IASI nighttime over daytime measurements sheds light on HONO's extended lifetime and secondary formation during long-range transport in smoke plumes. Our findings deepen the understanding of atmospheric HONO, crucial for air quality assessment.
Fei Liu, Steffen Beirle, Joanna Joiner, Sungyeon Choi, Zhining Tao, K. Emma Knowland, Steven J. Smith, Daniel Q. Tong, Siqi Ma, Zachary T. Fasnacht, and Thomas Wagner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3717–3728, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3717-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3717-2024, 2024
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Using satellite data, we developed a coupled method independent of the chemical transport model to map NOx emissions across US cities. After validating our technique with synthetic data, we charted NOx emissions from 2018–2021 in 39 cities. Our results closely matched EPA estimates but also highlighted some inconsistencies in both magnitude and spatial distribution. This research can help refine strategies for monitoring and managing air quality.
Lukas Fehr, Chris McLinden, Debora Griffin, Daniel Zawada, Doug Degenstein, and Adam Bourassa
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 7491–7507, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7491-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-7491-2023, 2023
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This work highlights upgrades to SASKTRAN, a model that simulates sunlight interacting with the atmosphere to help measure trace gases. The upgrades were verified by detailed comparisons between different numerical methods. A case study was performed using SASKTRAN’s multidimensional capabilities, which found that ignoring horizontal variation in the atmosphere (a common practice in the field) can introduce non-negligible errors where there is snow or high pollution.
Vitali E. Fioletov, Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Can Li, Joanna Joiner, Nicolas Theys, and Simon Carn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5575–5592, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5575-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5575-2023, 2023
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Snow-covered terrain, with its high reflectance in the UV, typically enhances satellite sensitivity to boundary layer pollution. However, a significant fraction of high-quality cloud-free measurements over snow is currently excluded from analyses. In this study, we investigated how satellite SO2 measurements over snow-covered surfaces can be used to improve estimations of annual SO2 emissions.
Vitali Fioletov, Xiaoyi Zhao, Ihab Abboud, Michael Brohart, Akira Ogyu, Reno Sit, Sum Chi Lee, Irina Petropavlovskikh, Koji Miyagawa, Bryan J. Johnson, Patrick Cullis, John Booth, Glen McConville, and C. Thomas McElroy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 12731–12751, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12731-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12731-2023, 2023
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Stratospheric ozone within the Southern Hemisphere springtime polar vortex has been a subject of intense research since the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole. The wintertime ozone in the vortex is less studied. We show that the recent wintertime ozone values over the South Pole were about 12 % below the pre-1980s level; i.e., the decline there was nearly twice as large as that over southern midlatitudes. Thus, wintertime ozone there can be used as an indicator of the ozone layer state.
Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Alberto Redondas, Julian Gröbner, Luca Egli, Franz Zeilinger, Javier López-Solano, Alberto Berjón Arroyo, James Kerr, Eliane Maillard Barras, Herman Smit, Michael Brohart, Reno Sit, Akira Ogyu, Ihab Abboud, and Sum Chi Lee
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2273–2295, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2273-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2273-2023, 2023
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The Brewer ozone spectrophotometer is one of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW)'s standard ozone monitoring instruments since the 1980s. This work is aimed at obtaining answers to (1) why Brewer primary calibration work can only be performed at certain sites (e.g., Izaña and MLO) and (2) what is needed to assure the equivalence of calibration quality from different sites.
Thomas Wagner, Simon Warnach, Steffen Beirle, Nicole Bobrowski, Adrian Jost, Janis Puķīte, and Nicolas Theys
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1609–1662, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1609-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1609-2023, 2023
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We investigate 3D effects of volcanic plumes on the retrieval results of satellite and ground-based UV–Vis observations. With its small ground pixels of 3.5 x 5.5 km², the TROPOMI instrument can detect much smaller volcanic plumes than previous instruments. At the same time, 3D effects become important. The effect of horizontal photon paths especially can lead to a strong underestimation of the derived plume contents of up to > 50 %, which can be further increased for strong absorbers like SO2.
Nick Gorkavyi, Nickolay Krotkov, and Alexander Marshak
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1527–1537, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1527-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1527-2023, 2023
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The article discusses topical issues of the visible (libration) motion of the Earth in the sky of the Moon in a rectangle measuring 13.4° × 15.8°. On the one hand, the librations of the Moon make these observations difficult. On the other hand, they can be used as a natural scanning mechanism for cameras and spectroscopes mounted on a fixed platform on the surface of the Moon.
Joanna Joiner, Sergey Marchenko, Zachary Fasnacht, Lok Lamsal, Can Li, Alexander Vasilkov, and Nickolay Krotkov
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 481–500, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-481-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-481-2023, 2023
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Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is an important trace gas for both air quality and climate. NO2 affects satellite ocean color products. A new ocean color instrument – OCI (Ocean Color Instrument) – will be launched in 2024 on a NASA satellite. We show that it will be possible to measure NO2 from OCI even though it was not designed for this. The techniques developed here, based on machine learning, can also be applied to instruments already in space to speed up algorithms and reduce the effects of noise.
Jing Wei, Zhanqing Li, Jun Wang, Can Li, Pawan Gupta, and Maureen Cribb
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1511–1532, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1511-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1511-2023, 2023
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This study estimated the daily seamless 10 km ambient gaseous pollutants (NO2, SO2, and CO) across China using machine learning with extensive input variables measured on monitors, satellites, and models. Our dataset yields a high data quality via cross-validation at varying spatiotemporal scales and outperforms most previous related studies, making it most helpful to future (especially short-term) air pollution and environmental health-related studies.
Miriam Latsch, Andreas Richter, Henk Eskes, Maarten Sneep, Ping Wang, Pepijn Veefkind, Ronny Lutz, Diego Loyola, Athina Argyrouli, Pieter Valks, Thomas Wagner, Holger Sihler, Michel van Roozendael, Nicolas Theys, Huan Yu, Richard Siddans, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6257–6283, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6257-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6257-2022, 2022
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The article investigates different S5P TROPOMI cloud retrieval algorithms for tropospheric trace gas retrievals. The cloud products show differences primarily over snow and ice and for scenes under sun glint. Some issues regarding across-track dependence are found for the cloud fractions as well as for the cloud heights.
Can Li, Joanna Joiner, Fei Liu, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Vitali Fioletov, and Chris McLinden
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5497–5514, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5497-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5497-2022, 2022
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Satellite observations provide information on the sources of SO2, an important pollutant that affects both air quality and climate. However, these observations suffer from relatively poor data quality due to weak signals of SO2. Here, we use a machine learning technique to analyze satellite SO2 observations in order to reduce the noise and artifacts over relatively clean areas while keeping the signals near pollution sources. This leads to significant improvement in satellite SO2 data.
Katherine L. Hayden, Shao-Meng Li, John Liggio, Michael J. Wheeler, Jeremy J. B. Wentzell, Amy Leithead, Peter Brickell, Richard L. Mittermeier, Zachary Oldham, Cristian M. Mihele, Ralf M. Staebler, Samar G. Moussa, Andrea Darlington, Mengistu Wolde, Daniel Thompson, Jack Chen, Debora Griffin, Ellen Eckert, Jenna C. Ditto, Megan He, and Drew R. Gentner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12493–12523, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12493-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12493-2022, 2022
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In this study, airborne measurements provided the most detailed characterization, to date, of boreal forest wildfire emissions. Measurements showed a large diversity of air pollutants expanding the volatility range typically reported. A large portion of organic species was unidentified, likely comprised of complex organic compounds. Aircraft-derived emissions improve wildfire chemical speciation and can support reliable model predictions of pollution from boreal forest wildfires.
Nicolas Theys, Christophe Lerot, Hugues Brenot, Jeroen van Gent, Isabelle De Smedt, Lieven Clarisse, Mike Burton, Matthew Varnam, Catherine Hayer, Benjamin Esse, and Michel Van Roozendael
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4801–4817, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4801-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4801-2022, 2022
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Sulfur dioxide plume height after a volcanic eruption is an important piece of information for many different scientific studies and applications. Satellite UV retrievals are useful in this respect, but available algorithms have shown so far limited sensitivity to SO2 height. Here we present a new technique to improve the retrieval of SO2 plume height for SO2 columns as low as 5 DU. We demonstrate the algorithm using TROPOMI measurements and compare with other height estimates.
Pieternel F. Levelt, Deborah C. Stein Zweers, Ilse Aben, Maite Bauwens, Tobias Borsdorff, Isabelle De Smedt, Henk J. Eskes, Christophe Lerot, Diego G. Loyola, Fabian Romahn, Trissevgeni Stavrakou, Nicolas Theys, Michel Van Roozendael, J. Pepijn Veefkind, and Tijl Verhoelst
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10319–10351, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10319-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10319-2022, 2022
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Using the COVID-19 lockdown periods as an example, we show how Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI trace gas data (NO2, SO2, CO, HCHO and CHOCHO) can be used to understand impacts on air quality for regions and cities around the globe. We also provide information for both experienced and inexperienced users about how we created the data using state-of-the-art algorithms, where to get the data, methods taking meteorological and seasonal variability into consideration, and insights for future studies.
Aaron Pearlman, Monica Cook, Boryana Efremova, Francis Padula, Lok Lamsal, Joel McCorkel, and Joanna Joiner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4489–4501, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4489-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4489-2022, 2022
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NOAA’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) constellation is planned to consist of an atmospheric composition instrument (ACX) to support air quality forecasting and monitoring. As design trade-offs are being studied, we investigated one parameter, the polarization sensitivity, which has yet to be fully documented for NO2 retrievals. Our simulation study explores these impacts to inform the ACX’s development and better understand polarization’s role in trace gas retrievals.
Mark Weber, Carlo Arosio, Melanie Coldewey-Egbers, Vitali E. Fioletov, Stacey M. Frith, Jeannette D. Wild, Kleareti Tourpali, John P. Burrows, and Diego Loyola
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6843–6859, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6843-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6843-2022, 2022
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Long-term trends in column ozone have been determined from five merged total ozone datasets spanning the period 1978–2020. We show that ozone recovery due to the decline in stratospheric halogens after the 1990s (as regulated by the Montreal Protocol) is evident outside the tropical region and amounts to half a percent per decade. The ozone recovery in the Northern Hemisphere is however compensated for by the negative long-term trend contribution from atmospheric dynamics since the year 2000.
Vitali Fioletov, Chris A. McLinden, Debora Griffin, Nickolay Krotkov, Fei Liu, and Henk Eskes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4201–4236, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4201-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4201-2022, 2022
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The COVID-19 lockdown had a large impact on anthropogenic emissions and particularly on nitrogen dioxide (NO2). A new method of isolation of background, urban, and industrial components in NO2 is applied to estimate the lockdown impact on each of them. From 16 March to 15 June 2020, urban NO2 declined by −18 % to −28 % in most regions of the world, while background NO2 typically declined by less than −10 %.
Fei Liu, Zhining Tao, Steffen Beirle, Joanna Joiner, Yasuko Yoshida, Steven J. Smith, K. Emma Knowland, and Thomas Wagner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1333–1349, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1333-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1333-2022, 2022
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In this work, we present a novel method to infer NOx emissions and lifetimes based on tropospheric NO2 observations together with reanalysis wind fields for cities located in polluted backgrounds. We evaluate the accuracy of the method using synthetic NO2 observations derived from a high-resolution model simulation. Our work provides an estimate for uncertainties in satellite-derived emissions inferred from chemical transport model (CTM)-independent approaches.
Mahtab Majdzadeh, Craig A. Stroud, Christopher Sioris, Paul A. Makar, Ayodeji Akingunola, Chris McLinden, Xiaoyi Zhao, Michael D. Moran, Ihab Abboud, and Jack Chen
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 219–249, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-219-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-219-2022, 2022
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A new lookup table for aerosol optical properties based on a Mie scattering code was calculated and adopted within an improved version of the photolysis module in the GEM-MACH in-line chemical transport model. The modified version of the photolysis module makes use of online interactive aerosol feedback and applies core-shell parameterizations to the black carbon absorption efficiency based on Bond et al. (2006) to the size bins with black carbon mass fraction of less than 40 %.
Debora Griffin, Chris A. McLinden, Enrico Dammers, Cristen Adams, Chelsea E. Stockwell, Carsten Warneke, Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Kyle J. Zarzana, Jake P. Rowe, Rainer Volkamer, Christoph Knote, Natalie Kille, Theodore K. Koenig, Christopher F. Lee, Drew Rollins, Pamela S. Rickly, Jack Chen, Lukas Fehr, Adam Bourassa, Doug Degenstein, Katherine Hayden, Cristian Mihele, Sumi N. Wren, John Liggio, Ayodeji Akingunola, and Paul Makar
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7929–7957, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7929-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7929-2021, 2021
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Satellite-derived NOx emissions from biomass burning are estimated with TROPOMI observations. Two common emission estimation methods are applied, and sensitivity tests with model output were performed to determine the accuracy of these methods. The effect of smoke aerosols on TROPOMI NO2 columns is estimated and compared to aircraft observations from four different aircraft campaigns measuring biomass burning plumes in 2018 and 2019 in North America.
Catherine Hardacre, Jane P. Mulcahy, Richard J. Pope, Colin G. Jones, Steven T. Rumbold, Can Li, Colin Johnson, and Steven T. Turnock
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 18465–18497, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18465-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18465-2021, 2021
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We investigate UKESM1's ability to represent the sulfur (S) cycle in the recent historical period. The S cycle is a key driver of historical radiative forcing. Earth system models such as UKESM1 should represent the S cycle well so that we can have confidence in their projections of future climate. We compare UKESM1 to observations of sulfur compounds, finding that the model generally performs well. We also identify areas for UKESM1’s development, focussing on how SO2 is removed from the air.
Christophe Lerot, François Hendrick, Michel Van Roozendael, Leonardo M. A. Alvarado, Andreas Richter, Isabelle De Smedt, Nicolas Theys, Jonas Vlietinck, Huan Yu, Jeroen Van Gent, Trissevgeni Stavrakou, Jean-François Müller, Pieter Valks, Diego Loyola, Hitoshi Irie, Vinod Kumar, Thomas Wagner, Stefan F. Schreier, Vinayak Sinha, Ting Wang, Pucai Wang, and Christian Retscher
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7775–7807, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7775-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7775-2021, 2021
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Global measurements of glyoxal tropospheric columns from the satellite instrument TROPOMI are presented. Such measurements can contribute to the estimation of atmospheric emissions of volatile organic compounds. This new glyoxal product has been fully characterized with a comprehensive error budget, with comparison with other satellite data sets as well as with validation based on independent ground-based remote sensing glyoxal observations.
Nick Gorkavyi, Nickolay Krotkov, Can Li, Leslie Lait, Peter Colarco, Simon Carn, Matthew DeLand, Paul Newman, Mark Schoeberl, Ghassan Taha, Omar Torres, Alexander Vasilkov, and Joanna Joiner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7545–7563, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7545-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7545-2021, 2021
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The 21 June 2019 eruption of the Raikoke volcano produced significant amounts of volcanic aerosols (sulfate and ash) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas that penetrated into the lower stratosphere. We showed that the amount of SO2 decreases with a characteristic period of 8–18 d and the peak of sulfate aerosol lags the initial peak of SO2 by 1.5 months. We also examined the dynamics of an unusual stratospheric coherent circular cloud of SO2 and aerosol observed from 18 July to 22 September 2019.
Luis Guanter, Cédric Bacour, Andreas Schneider, Ilse Aben, Tim A. van Kempen, Fabienne Maignan, Christian Retscher, Philipp Köhler, Christian Frankenberg, Joanna Joiner, and Yongguang Zhang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 5423–5440, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5423-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5423-2021, 2021
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Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is an electromagnetic signal emitted by plants in the red and far-red parts of the spectrum. It has a functional link to photosynthesis and can be measured by satellite instruments, which makes it an important variable for the remote monitoring of the photosynthetic activity of vegetation ecosystems around the world. In this contribution we present a SIF dataset derived from the new Sentinel-5P TROPOMI missions.
Nicolas Theys, Vitali Fioletov, Can Li, Isabelle De Smedt, Christophe Lerot, Chris McLinden, Nickolay Krotkov, Debora Griffin, Lieven Clarisse, Pascal Hedelt, Diego Loyola, Thomas Wagner, Vinod Kumar, Antje Innes, Roberto Ribas, François Hendrick, Jonas Vlietinck, Hugues Brenot, and Michel Van Roozendael
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16727–16744, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16727-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16727-2021, 2021
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We present a new algorithm to retrieve sulfur dioxide from space UV measurements. We apply the technique to high-resolution TROPOMI measurements and demonstrate the high sensitivity of the approach to weak SO2 emissions worldwide with an unprecedented limit of detection of 8 kt yr−1. This result has broad implications for atmospheric science studies dealing with improving emission inventories and identifying and quantifying missing sources, in the context of air quality and climate.
Hugues Brenot, Nicolas Theys, Lieven Clarisse, Jeroen van Gent, Daniel R. Hurtmans, Sophie Vandenbussche, Nikolaos Papagiannopoulos, Lucia Mona, Timo Virtanen, Andreas Uppstu, Mikhail Sofiev, Luca Bugliaro, Margarita Vázquez-Navarro, Pascal Hedelt, Michelle Maree Parks, Sara Barsotti, Mauro Coltelli, William Moreland, Simona Scollo, Giuseppe Salerno, Delia Arnold-Arias, Marcus Hirtl, Tuomas Peltonen, Juhani Lahtinen, Klaus Sievers, Florian Lipok, Rolf Rüfenacht, Alexander Haefele, Maxime Hervo, Saskia Wagenaar, Wim Som de Cerff, Jos de Laat, Arnoud Apituley, Piet Stammes, Quentin Laffineur, Andy Delcloo, Robertson Lennart, Carl-Herbert Rokitansky, Arturo Vargas, Markus Kerschbaum, Christian Resch, Raimund Zopp, Matthieu Plu, Vincent-Henri Peuch, Michel Van Roozendael, and Gerhard Wotawa
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 3367–3405, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3367-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3367-2021, 2021
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The purpose of the EUNADICS-AV (European Natural Airborne Disaster Information and Coordination System for Aviation) prototype early warning system (EWS) is to develop the combined use of harmonised data products from satellite, ground-based and in situ instruments to produce alerts of airborne hazards (volcanic, dust, smoke and radionuclide clouds), satisfying the requirement of aviation air traffic management (ATM) stakeholders (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/723986).
Isabelle De Smedt, Gaia Pinardi, Corinne Vigouroux, Steven Compernolle, Alkis Bais, Nuria Benavent, Folkert Boersma, Ka-Lok Chan, Sebastian Donner, Kai-Uwe Eichmann, Pascal Hedelt, François Hendrick, Hitoshi Irie, Vinod Kumar, Jean-Christopher Lambert, Bavo Langerock, Christophe Lerot, Cheng Liu, Diego Loyola, Ankie Piters, Andreas Richter, Claudia Rivera Cárdenas, Fabian Romahn, Robert George Ryan, Vinayak Sinha, Nicolas Theys, Jonas Vlietinck, Thomas Wagner, Ting Wang, Huan Yu, and Michel Van Roozendael
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12561–12593, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12561-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12561-2021, 2021
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This paper assess the performances of the TROPOMI formaldehyde observations compared to its predecessor OMI at different spatial and temporal scales. We also use a global network of MAX-DOAS instruments to validate both satellite datasets for a large range of HCHO columns. The precision obtained with daily TROPOMI observations is comparable to monthly OMI observations. We present clear detection of weak HCHO column enhancements related to shipping emissions in the Indian Ocean.
Claire Lamotte, Jonathan Guth, Virginie Marécal, Martin Cussac, Paul David Hamer, Nicolas Theys, and Philipp Schneider
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 11379–11404, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11379-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11379-2021, 2021
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Improvements are made in a global chemical transfer model by considering a new volcanic SO2 emissions inventory, with more volcanoes referenced and more information on the altitude of injection. Better constraining volcanic emissions with this inventory improves the global, but mostly local, tropospheric sulfur composition. The tropospheric sulfur budget shows a nonlinearity to the volcanic contribution, especially to the sulfate aerosol burden and sulfur wet deposition.
Johannes de Leeuw, Anja Schmidt, Claire S. Witham, Nicolas Theys, Isabelle A. Taylor, Roy G. Grainger, Richard J. Pope, Jim Haywood, Martin Osborne, and Nina I. Kristiansen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10851–10879, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10851-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10851-2021, 2021
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Using the NAME dispersion model in combination with high-resolution SO2 satellite data from TROPOMI, we investigate the dispersion of volcanic SO2 from the 2019 Raikoke eruption. NAME accurately simulates the dispersion of SO2 during the first 2–3 weeks after the eruption and illustrates the potential of using high-resolution satellite data to identify potential limitations in dispersion models, which will ultimately help to improve efforts to forecast the dispersion of volcanic clouds.
Antti Arola, William Wandji Nyamsi, Antti Lipponen, Stelios Kazadzis, Nickolay A. Krotkov, and Johanna Tamminen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 4947–4957, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4947-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4947-2021, 2021
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Methods to estimate surface UV radiation from satellite measurements offer the only means to obtain global coverage, and the development of satellite-based UV algorithms has been ongoing since the early 1990s. One of the main challenges in this development has been how to account for the overall effect of absorption by atmospheric aerosols. One such method was suggested roughly a decade ago, and in this study we propose further improvements for this kind of approach.
Nikita M. Fedkin, Can Li, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Pascal Hedelt, Diego G. Loyola, Russell R. Dickerson, and Robert Spurr
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3673–3691, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3673-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3673-2021, 2021
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This study presents a new volcanic sulfur dioxide (SO2) layer height retrieval algorithm for the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). We generated a large spectral dataset with a radiative transfer model and used it to train neural networks to predict SO2 height from OMI radiance data. The algorithm is fast and takes less than 10 min for a single orbit. Retrievals were tested on four eruption cases, and results had reasonable agreement (within 2 km) with other retrievals and previous studies.
Nick Schutgens, Oleg Dubovik, Otto Hasekamp, Omar Torres, Hiren Jethva, Peter J. T. Leonard, Pavel Litvinov, Jens Redemann, Yohei Shinozuka, Gerrit de Leeuw, Stefan Kinne, Thomas Popp, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6895–6917, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6895-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6895-2021, 2021
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Absorptive aerosol has a potentially large impact on climate change. We evaluate and intercompare four global satellite datasets of absorptive aerosol optical depth (AAOD) and single-scattering albedo (SSA). We show that these datasets show reasonable correlations with the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) reference, although significant biases remain. In a follow-up paper we show that these observations nevertheless can be used for model evaluation.
Michaela I. Hegglin, Susann Tegtmeier, John Anderson, Adam E. Bourassa, Samuel Brohede, Doug Degenstein, Lucien Froidevaux, Bernd Funke, John Gille, Yasuko Kasai, Erkki T. Kyrölä, Jerry Lumpe, Donal Murtagh, Jessica L. Neu, Kristell Pérot, Ellis E. Remsberg, Alexei Rozanov, Matthew Toohey, Joachim Urban, Thomas von Clarmann, Kaley A. Walker, Hsiang-Jui Wang, Carlo Arosio, Robert Damadeo, Ryan A. Fuller, Gretchen Lingenfelser, Christopher McLinden, Diane Pendlebury, Chris Roth, Niall J. Ryan, Christopher Sioris, Lesley Smith, and Katja Weigel
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 1855–1903, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1855-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1855-2021, 2021
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An overview of the SPARC Data Initiative is presented, to date the most comprehensive assessment of stratospheric composition measurements spanning 1979–2018. Measurements of 26 chemical constituents obtained from an international suite of space-based limb sounders were compiled into vertically resolved, zonal monthly mean time series. The quality and consistency of these gridded datasets are then evaluated using a climatological validation approach and a range of diagnostics.
Alexander Vasilkov, Nickolay Krotkov, Eun-Su Yang, Lok Lamsal, Joanna Joiner, Patricia Castellanos, Zachary Fasnacht, and Robert Spurr
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2857–2871, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2857-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2857-2021, 2021
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To explicitly account for aerosol effects in the OMI cloud and nitrogen dioxide algorithms, we use a model of aerosol optical properties from a global aerosol assimilation system and radiative transfer computations. Accounting for anisotropic reflection of Earth's surface is an important feature of the approach. Comparisons of the cloud and tropospheric nitrogen dioxide retrievals with implicit and explicit aerosol corrections are carried out for a selected area with high pollution.
Eloise A. Marais, John F. Roberts, Robert G. Ryan, Henk Eskes, K. Folkert Boersma, Sungyeon Choi, Joanna Joiner, Nader Abuhassan, Alberto Redondas, Michel Grutter, Alexander Cede, Laura Gomez, and Monica Navarro-Comas
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2389–2408, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2389-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2389-2021, 2021
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Nitrogen oxides in the upper troposphere have a profound influence on the global troposphere, but routine reliable observations there are exceedingly rare. We apply cloud-slicing to TROPOMI total columns of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at high spatial resolution to derive near-global observations of NO2 in the upper troposphere and show consistency with existing datasets. These data offer tremendous potential to address knowledge gaps in this oft underappreciated portion of the atmosphere.
Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Michael Brohart, Volodya Savastiouk, Ihab Abboud, Akira Ogyu, Jonathan Davies, Reno Sit, Sum Chi Lee, Alexander Cede, Martin Tiefengraber, Moritz Müller, Debora Griffin, and Chris McLinden
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2261–2283, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2261-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2261-2021, 2021
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The Brewer spectrophotometer is one of the main instruments for measurements of atmospheric total column ozone. The global Brewer network largely relies on the world reference instruments (the Brewer triad) operated by Environment and Climate Change Canada since the early 1980s. This study provides an updated assessment (1999–2019) of the reference instrument performance, in terms of random uncertainties and long-term stability.
Junjie Liu, Latha Baskaran, Kevin Bowman, David Schimel, A. Anthony Bloom, Nicholas C. Parazoo, Tomohiro Oda, Dustin Carroll, Dimitris Menemenlis, Joanna Joiner, Roisin Commane, Bruce Daube, Lucianna V. Gatti, Kathryn McKain, John Miller, Britton B. Stephens, Colm Sweeney, and Steven Wofsy
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 299–330, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-299-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-299-2021, 2021
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On average, the terrestrial biosphere carbon sink is equivalent to ~ 20 % of fossil fuel emissions. Understanding where and why the terrestrial biosphere absorbs carbon from the atmosphere is pivotal to any mitigation policy. Here we present a regionally resolved satellite-constrained net biosphere exchange (NBE) dataset with corresponding uncertainties between 2010–2018: CMS-Flux NBE 2020. The dataset provides a unique perspective on monitoring regional contributions to the CO2 growth rate.
Nick Gorkavyi, Zachary Fasnacht, David Haffner, Sergey Marchenko, Joanna Joiner, and Alexander Vasilkov
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 961–974, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-961-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-961-2021, 2021
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Various instrumental or geophysical artifacts, such as saturation, stray light or obstruction of light, negatively impact satellite measured ultraviolet and visible Earthshine radiance spectra. Here, we introduce a straightforward detection method that is based on the correlation, r, between the observed Earthshine radiance and solar irradiance spectra over a 10 nm spectral range; our decorrelation index (DI for brevity) is simply defined as DI of 1–r.
Elena Spinei, Martin Tiefengraber, Moritz Müller, Manuel Gebetsberger, Alexander Cede, Luke Valin, James Szykman, Andrew Whitehill, Alexander Kotsakis, Fernando Santos, Nader Abbuhasan, Xiaoyi Zhao, Vitali Fioletov, Sum Chi Lee, and Robert Swap
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 647–663, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-647-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-647-2021, 2021
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Plastics are widely used in everyday life and scientific equipment. This paper presents Delrin plastic off-gassing as a function of temperature on the atmospheric measurements of formaldehyde by Pandora spectroscopic instruments. The sealed telescope assembly containing Delrin components emitted large amounts of formaldehyde at 30–45 °C, interfering with the Pandora measurements. These results have a broader implication since electronic products often experience the same temperature.
Lok N. Lamsal, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Alexander Vasilkov, Sergey Marchenko, Wenhan Qin, Eun-Su Yang, Zachary Fasnacht, Joanna Joiner, Sungyeon Choi, David Haffner, William H. Swartz, Bradford Fisher, and Eric Bucsela
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 455–479, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-455-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-455-2021, 2021
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The NASA standard nitrogen dioxide (NO2) version 4.0 product for OMI Aura incorporates the most salient improvements. It represents the first global satellite trace gas retrieval with OMI–MODIS synergy accounting for surface reflectance anisotropy in cloud and NO2 retrievals. Improved spectral fitting procedures for NO2 and oxygen dimer (for cloud) retrievals and reliance on high-resolution field-of-view-specific input information for NO2 and cloud retrievals help enhance the NO2 data quality.
Can Li, Nickolay A. Krotkov, Peter J. T. Leonard, Simon Carn, Joanna Joiner, Robert J. D. Spurr, and Alexander Vasilkov
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6175–6191, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6175-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6175-2020, 2020
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Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is an important pollutant that causes haze and acid rain. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) has been providing global observation of SO2 from space for over 15 years. In this paper, we introduce a new OMI SO2 dataset for global pollution monitoring. The dataset better accounts for the influences of different factors such as location and sun and satellite angles, leading to improved data quality. The new OMI SO2 dataset is publicly available through NASA's data center.
Gaia Pinardi, Michel Van Roozendael, François Hendrick, Nicolas Theys, Nader Abuhassan, Alkiviadis Bais, Folkert Boersma, Alexander Cede, Jihyo Chong, Sebastian Donner, Theano Drosoglou, Anatoly Dzhola, Henk Eskes, Udo Frieß, José Granville, Jay R. Herman, Robert Holla, Jari Hovila, Hitoshi Irie, Yugo Kanaya, Dimitris Karagkiozidis, Natalia Kouremeti, Jean-Christopher Lambert, Jianzhong Ma, Enno Peters, Ankie Piters, Oleg Postylyakov, Andreas Richter, Julia Remmers, Hisahiro Takashima, Martin Tiefengraber, Pieter Valks, Tim Vlemmix, Thomas Wagner, and Folkard Wittrock
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6141–6174, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6141-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6141-2020, 2020
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We validate several GOME-2 and OMI tropospheric NO2 products with 23 MAX-DOAS and 16 direct sun instruments distributed worldwide, highlighting large horizontal inhomogeneities at several sites affecting the validation results. We propose a method for quantification and correction. We show the application of such correction reduces the satellite underestimation in almost all heterogeneous cases, but a negative bias remains over the MAX-DOAS and direct sun network ensemble for both satellites.
Ilias Bougoudis, Anne-Marlene Blechschmidt, Andreas Richter, Sora Seo, John Philip Burrows, Nicolas Theys, and Annette Rinke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 11869–11892, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11869-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11869-2020, 2020
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A 22-year (1996 to 2017) consistent Arctic tropospheric BrO dataset derived from four satellite remote sensing instruments is presented. An increase in tropospheric BrO VCDs over this period, and especially during polar springs, can be seen. Comparisons of tropospheric BrO VCDs with first-year sea ice reveal a moderate spatial and temporal correlation between the two, suggesting that the increase in first-year sea ice in the Arctic has an impact on tropospheric BrO abundancies.
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Fioletov, V., McLinden, C. A., Griffin, D., Theys, N., Loyola, D. G., Hedelt, P., Krotkov, N. A., and Li, C.: Anthropogenic and volcanic point source SO2 emissions derived from TROPOMI on board Sentinel-5 Precursor: first results, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 5591–5607, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-5591-2020, 2020.
Fioletov, V., McLinden, C. A., Griffin, D., Abboud, I., Krotkov, N., Leonard, P. J. T., Li, C., Joiner, J., Theys, N., and Carn, S.: Multi-Satellite Air Quality Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Sources and Emissions Database Long-Term L4 Global V2, edited by: Leonard, P., Goddard Earth Science Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) [data set], Greenbelt, MD, USA, https://doi.org/10.5067/MEASURES/SO2/DATA406, 2022.
Fioletov, V. E., McLinden, C. A., Krotkov, N., Yang, K., Loyola, D. G., Valks, P., Theys, N., Van Roozendael, M., Nowlan, C. R., Chance, K., Liu, X., Lee, C., and Martin, R. V.: Application of OMI, SCIAMACHY, and GOME-2 satellite SO2 retrievals for detection of large emission sources, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 118, 11399–11418, https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50826, 2013.
Fioletov, V. E., McLinden, C. A., Krotkov, N., and Li, C.: Lifetimes and emissions of SO2 from point sources estimated from OMI, Geophys. Res. Lett., 42, 1969–1976, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063148, 2015.
Fioletov, V. E., McLinden, C. A., Krotkov, N., Li, C., Joiner, J., Theys, N., Carn, S., and Moran, M. D.: A global catalogue of large SO2 sources and emissions derived from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 11497–11519, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11497-2016, 2016.
Fischer, T. P., Arellano, S., Carn, S., Aiuppa, A., Galle, B., Allard, P., Lopez, T., Shinohara, H., Kelly, P., Werner, C., Cardellini, C., and Chiodini, G.: The emissions of CO2 and other volatiles from the world's subaerial volcanoes, Sci. Rep.-UK, 9, 1–11, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-54682-1, 2019.
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Levelt, P. F., Joiner, J., Tamminen, J., Veefkind, J. P., Bhartia, P. K., Stein Zweers, D. C., Duncan, B. N., Streets, D. G., Eskes, H., van der A, R., McLinden, C., Fioletov, V., Carn, S., de Laat, J., DeLand, M., Marchenko, S., McPeters, R., Ziemke, J., Fu, D., Liu, X., Pickering, K., Apituley, A., González Abad, G., Arola, A., Boersma, F., Chan Miller, C., Chance, K., de Graaf, M., Hakkarainen, J., Hassinen, S., Ialongo, I., Kleipool, Q., Krotkov, N., Li, C., Lamsal, L., Newman, P., Nowlan, C., Suleiman, R., Tilstra, L. G., Torres, O., Wang, H., and Wargan, K.: The Ozone Monitoring Instrument: overview of 14 years in space, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5699–5745, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5699-2018, 2018.
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Short summary
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) measurements from three satellite instruments were used to update and extend the previously developed global catalogue of large SO2 emission sources. This version 2 of the global catalogue covers the period of 2005–2021 and includes a total of 759 continuously emitting point sources. The catalogue data show an approximate 50 % decline in global SO2 emissions between 2005 and 2021, although emissions were relatively stable during the last 3 years.
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) measurements from three satellite instruments were used to update and...
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