Direct space‐based observations of anthropogenic CO2 emission areas from OCO‐2. Issue 21 (1st November 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hakkarainen, J.; Ialongo, I.; Tamminen, J.
• Is Part Of: Geophysical research letters. Volume 43:Issue 21(2016)
• Page Start: 11, 400
• Page End: 11, 406
• Publication Date: 2016-11-01
• Subjects: carbon dioxide -- remote sensing -- anthropogenic emissions -- cluster analysis; Geophysics -- Periodicals; Planets -- Periodicals; Lunar geology -- Periodicals; 550
• DOI: 10.1002/2016GL070885
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0094-8276

Abstract

Abstract: Anthropogenic CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion have large impacts on climate. In order to monitor the increasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, accurate spaceborne observations—as available from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory‐2 (OCO‐2)—are needed. This work provides the first direct observation of anthropogenic CO2 from OCO‐2 over the main pollution regions: eastern USA, central Europe, and East Asia. This is achieved by deseasonalizing and detrending OCO‐2 CO2 observations to derive CO2 anomalies. Several small isolated emission areas (such as large cities) are detectable from the anomaly maps. The spatial distribution of the CO2 anomaly matches the features observed in the maps of the Ozone Monitoring Instrument NO2 tropospheric columns, used as an indicator of atmospheric pollution. The results of a cluster analysis confirm the spatial correlation between CO2 and NO2 data over areas with different amounts of pollution. We found positive correlation between CO2 anomalies and emission inventories. The results demonstrate the power of spaceborne data for monitoring anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Plain Language Summary: Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions from fossil fuel combustion have large impacts on climate. Over the past 20 years, spaceborne measurements of air pollutants have revolutionized the way we monitor atmospheric composition, providing increasingly accurate information on the pollution levels on the global scale. However, the identification of anthropogenic CO2 signatures from space is challenging because of the strong effect of natural variability and transport. This study reports the first observation of anthropogenic CO2 emission areas from the observations made by NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory‐2. This was achieved by developing a novel methodology to derive CO2 anomaly maps, solely based on satellite‐based CO2 measurements with unprecedented spatial coverage and detail. We were able to identify the major anthropogenic CO2 emission regions, such as Europe, USA and China. In addition, several smaller isolated emitting areas, like individual cities, were detected. Key Points: We report the first observation of anthropogenic CO2 emission areas from OCO‐2 data We present a novel methodology for direct fine‐scale mapping of CO2 emission areas We observe positive correlation between XCO2 anomalies and emissions inventories