Potential of TROPOMI for understanding spatio-temporal variations in surface NO₂ and their dependencies upon land use over the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

Abstract. In orbit since late 2017, the Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) is offering new outstanding opportunities for better understanding the emission and fate of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution in the troposphere. In this study, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the spatio-temporal variability of TROPOMI NO2 tropospheric columns (TrC-NO2) over the Iberian Peninsula during 2018–2021 (considering the TrC-NO2 PAL product recently developed using a single TROPOMI processor version, thus ensuring consistency over the time period). We complement our analysis with estimates of NOx anthropogenic and natural soil emissions. Closely related to cloud cover, the data availability of TROPOMI observations ranges from 30–45 % during April and November to 70–80 % during summertime, with strong variations between northern and southern Spain. Strongest TrC-NO2 hotspots are located over Madrid and Barcelona, while TrC-NO2 enhancements are also observed along international maritime routes close the strait of Gibraltar, and to a lesser extent along specific major highways. TROPOMI TrC-NO2 appear reasonably well correlated with collocated surface NO2 mixing ratios, with correlations around 0.7–0.8 depending on the averaging time. We investigate the changes of weekly and monthly variability of TROPOMI TrC-NO2 depending on the urban cover fraction. Weekly profiles show a reduction of TrC-NO2 during the weekend ranging from -10 to -40 % from least to most urbanized areas, in reasonable agreement with surface NO2. In the largest agglomerations like Madrid or Barcelona, this weekend effect peaks not in the city center but in specific suburban areas/cities, suggesting a larger relative contribution of commuting to total NOx anthropogenic emissions. The TROPOMI TrC-NO2 monthly variability also strongly varies with the level of urbanisation, with monthly differences relative to annual mean ranging from -40 % in summer to +60 % in winter in the most urbanized areas, and from -10 to +20 % in the least urbanized areas. When focusing on agricultural areas, TROPOMI observations depict an enhancement in June–July that could come from natural soil NO emissions. Some specific analysis in Madrid show that the relatively sharp NO2 minimum used to occur in August (drop of road transport during holidays) has now evolved into a much broader minimum partly de-coupled from the observed local road traffic counting; this change started in 2018, thus before the COVID-19 outbreak. All in all, our study illustrates the strong potential of TROPOMI TrC-NO2 observations for complementing the existing surface NO2 monitoring stations, especially in the poorly covered rural and maritime areas where NOx can play a key role, notably for the production of tropospheric O3.

Lightning‐Produced Nitrogen Oxides Per Flash Length Obtained by Using TROPOMI Observations and the Ebro Lightning Mapping Array

“…The eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula comprises several large cities and agricultural areas where high anthropogenic emissions of NO x are located (Petetin et al., 2023). Therefore, we only included in our analysis thunderstorms producing a considerable high amount of fresh‐produced LNO x to ensure that the LNO x signal is detectable.…”