The first national scale spatial and temporal analysis of surface CO₂ over South Africa utilising satellite retrievals

Abstract

South Africa is the dominant continental source region of CO 2 fossil fuel emissions. This is a result of the strong dependence of its economy on fossil fuels. However, the observations of atmospheric CO 2 in South Africa are inadequate. The country has the Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) Cape Point station as the only site with long-term ambient CO 2 monitoring record. In this study, satellite data retrieved from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument on board the Aura satellite from Dec 2004 to Dec 2009 is used for the first time to quantify the spatial distribution of CO 2 over South Africa, as well as to determine its annual variability at selected sites. The study found that the surface CO 2 foot print in South Africa resembles the industrial CO 2 emission sources spatial distribution, particularly during the summer and autumn. In winter and spring seasons the surface CO 2 foot prints are spatially expanded as a result of contributions of emissions from biomass and domestic fossil fuel combustion. The surface levels of CO 2 at the study areas have been increasing during the period of the analysis.