Assessment of Updated Fuel‐Based Emissions Inventories Over the Contiguous United States Using TROPOMI NO<sub>2</sub> Retrievals

Ling, Meng; McDonald, Brian; McKeen, S. A.; Eskes, Henk; Levelt, P.; Francoeur, C.; Harkins, Colin; He, Jian; Barth, M. C.; Henze, D. K.; Béla, M.; Trainer, M.; Gouw, J. A. de; Frost, G. J.

doi:10.1029/2021jd035484

Cited by 26 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 111 publications

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“…In the analysis conducted, NOx emissions inferred from TROPOMI observations appear biased low when assessed against those inferred from OMI data and surface and concentration measurements. The bias is consistent with recent research showing a low bias in TROPOMI v1.2 and v1.3 tropospheric columns (Judd et al, 2020;Verhoelst et al, 2021;Li et al, 2021;Van Geffen et al, 2021). The results highlight the importance of efforts to develop robust and consistent satellite data products for use in air quality modeling evaluation, assimilation, and emissions inversions.…”

Section: Impacts Of Emissions Updates On Long-range O3 Transportsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Over polluted areas, the direction of ΔΩ for the TROPOMI or OMI data assimilations tends to differ. This discrepancy is likely due to the low bias in TROPOMI-derived tropospheric NO2 columns, which has been reported to be approximately 10% over the U.S., Europe, and India, and greater than 20% over China when compared with the OMI Quality Assurance for Essential Climate Variables (QA4ECV) retrieval ( Van Geffen et al, 2021;Verhoelst et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2020a;Li et al, 2021). Over background areas, the analysis increments that results from assimilation of observations from both satellites generally agree.…”

Section: Lightning Nox Emissions Updatesmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…Additional errors in the emissions estimates may be associated with emissions from non-anthropogenic NOx sources. Although the emissions inversion targets anthropogenic sources only, changes in NO2 columns observed by the satellite instruments driven by natural NOx emissions processes may not be captured by in the air quality model simulations and subsequently lead to biased anthropogenic emissions inferences (Li et al, 2021).…”

Section: Emissions Inversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inferring and evaluating satellite-based constraints on NOx emissions estimates in air quality simulations

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Henderson

Napelenok

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. Satellite observations of tropospheric NO2 columns can provide top-down observational constraints on emissions estimates of nitrogen oxides (NOx). Mass-balance based methods are often applied for this purpose, but do not isolate near-surface emissions from those aloft, such as lightning emissions. Here, we introduce an inverse modeling framework that couples satellite chemical data assimilation to a chemical transport model and infers satellite-constrained emissions totals using the iterative finite-difference mass-balance method. The approach improves the finite-difference mass-balance inversion by isolating the near-surface emissions increment. We apply the framework to estimate lightning and anthropogenic NOx emissions over the Northern Hemisphere. Using overlapping observations from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), we compare NOx emissions inferences from these satellite instruments, as well as the impacts of emissions changes on modeled NO2 and O3. OMI inferences of anthropogenic emissions consistently lead to larger emissions than TROPOMI inferences, attributed to a low bias in TROPOMI NO2 retrievals. Updated lightning NOx emissions from either satellite improve the chemical transport model’s low tropospheric O3 bias. Combined lightning and anthropogenic updates inferred from satellite observations can improve the model’s ability to represent background and ground-level O3 concentrations, an ongoing policy consideration in the U.S. as domestic and international emissions control strategies evolve.

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Section: Impacts Of Emissions Updates On Long-range O3 Transportsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Lightning Nox Emissions Updatesmentioning

confidence: 84%

Section: Emissions Inversionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Inferring and evaluating satellite-based constraints on NOx emissions estimates in air quality simulations

East

Henderson

Napelenok

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…According to the 2017 EPA National Emissions Inventory, fire sources (wildfire, prescribed burns, and agricultural field burning) accounted for 12.2% of ammonia emissions and 3.7% of nitrogen oxide emissions across the United States. However, wildfire emission inventories are highly uncertain and the relative importance of wildfire emissions can vary considerably over space and time (Koplitz et al., 2018; Li et al., 2021). Fuel and combustion conditions can dictate the ratio of oxidized to reduced Nr emissions from wildfire (Benedict et al., 2017), although reduced Nr compounds accounted for the majority of emissions from 23 wildfires throughout the western United States during 2018, even during flaming combustion (Lindaas, Pollack, Garofalo, et al., 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elevated Nitrogen Deposition to Fire‐Prone Forests Adjacent to Urban and Agricultural Areas, Colorado Front Range, USA

et al. 2022

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As humans increasingly dominate the nitrogen cycle, deposition of reactive nitrogen (Nr) will continue to have adverse consequences for ecosystems. In the Rocky Mountains, Nr deposition remains elevated and has become increasingly dominated by ammonium, despite efforts to reduce emissions. Currently, spatial models of Nr deposition do not fully account for urban and agricultural emissions, sources that contribute to the observed high rates of ammonium deposition in adjacent ecosystems. To address this gap in the Colorado Front Range, we measured Nr deposition along a transect from urban and agricultural plains to subalpine forests. We found elevated values of wet Nr deposition at the urban and foothill sites (4.7 and 4.4 kg N ha−1 yr−1, respectively), and lower values at the montane and subalpine sites (2.5–2.8 kg N ha−1 yr−1). Ammonium dominated wet and bulk Nr deposition, accounting for approximately 69% of bulk Nr deposition. Seasonally, bulk Nr deposition was highest in the spring months, when air masses from the plains are transported west into the mountains. Previous work has demonstrated that high elevations of the Colorado Front Range are especially sensitive to Nr deposition due to thin soil and minimal vegetation. Our results indicate that despite lower precipitation, the fire‐prone forested foothills receive even greater Nr deposition than higher elevations, due to proximity to urban and agricultural Nr sources. The interaction between elevated Nr deposition and wildfire in this region may pose a risk to water supplies and ecosystems, and is an important topic for future research.

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“…Other area and point source emissions are taken from the NEI 2014. Herein, we refer to this inventory as the FIVE18_VCP inventory, which is gridded at 4 km × 4 km resolution across the continental US and utilized in Coggon et al (2021) and Li et al (2021). Emissions outside of the US are based on those from the NEI 2005 and scaled to more recent years for Canada and Mexico using CEDS (Hoesly et al, 2016).…”

Section: Emission Inventories and Sensitivity Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Volatile Chemical Products, Other VOCs, and NO_x on Peak Ozone in the Lake Michigan Region

et al. 2022

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The Lake Michigan Ozone Study conducted in 2017 (Stanier et al., 2021) was a multi-site collaborative field campaign to support atmospheric chemistry studies and air quality management in the Lake Michigan region. While peak ozone concentrations in the region have fallen in response to ozone precursor emission reductions, ambient air quality requirements have grown stricter over the same period. For example, ozone at lakeshore Wisconsin monitors has fallen from 100 to 75 ppb from 2001 to 2020 (WDNR, 2021).

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Assessment of Updated Fuel‐Based Emissions Inventories Over the Contiguous United States Using TROPOMI NO₂ Retrievals

Abstract: Nitrogen oxides (NO x , NO + NO 2 ) are important precursors of tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) and secondary nitrate aerosols, affecting air quality, human health, and climate (

Cited by 26 publications

References 111 publications

Inferring and evaluating satellite-based constraints on NOx emissions estimates in air quality simulations

Inferring and evaluating satellite-based constraints on NOx emissions estimates in air quality simulations

Elevated Nitrogen Deposition to Fire‐Prone Forests Adjacent to Urban and Agricultural Areas, Colorado Front Range, USA

The Impact of Volatile Chemical Products, Other VOCs, and NO_x on Peak Ozone in the Lake Michigan Region

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Assessment of Updated Fuel‐Based Emissions Inventories Over the Contiguous United States Using TROPOMI NO2 Retrievals

Abstract: Nitrogen oxides (NO x , NO + NO 2 ) are important precursors of tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) and secondary nitrate aerosols, affecting air quality, human health, and climate (

Cited by 26 publications

References 111 publications

Inferring and evaluating satellite-based constraints on NOx emissions estimates in air quality simulations

Inferring and evaluating satellite-based constraints on NOx emissions estimates in air quality simulations

Elevated Nitrogen Deposition to Fire‐Prone Forests Adjacent to Urban and Agricultural Areas, Colorado Front Range, USA

The Impact of Volatile Chemical Products, Other VOCs, and NOx on Peak Ozone in the Lake Michigan Region

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Assessment of Updated Fuel‐Based Emissions Inventories Over the Contiguous United States Using TROPOMI NO₂ Retrievals

The Impact of Volatile Chemical Products, Other VOCs, and NO_x on Peak Ozone in the Lake Michigan Region