It is widely known that ozone is one of the most important gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. In the upper part of the atmosphere, which is known as the stratosphere, ozone absorbs the harmful ultraviolet radiation. Thereby it protects humans and heats the stratosphere controlling the thermal balance and dynamics. In the lower atmosphere, known …
Landscape fires, whether natural or human-induced, have a key impact on the Earth system via the release of pollutants, greenhouse gases and aerosols, affecting human health and climate. Over the next decades their role may increase related to drier and warmer conditions, exacerbating biome shifts and lowering biodiversity. In addition, this may provide one of …
A team of researchers estimated the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from coal-fired power plants and other major anthropogenic point sources in the South African Highveld region using space-based data. The results indicate that CO2 emissions can be obtained also in challenging cases where the plumes from multiple sources overlap. The new publication characterizes CO2 emissions …
3DCTRL project aims to evaluate cloud correction methodologies in Copernicus Sentinel-4, Sentinel-5 and Sentinel-5p trace gas retrieval schemes and to explore ways to improve handling of realistic clouds in the retrievals of atmospheric species. Cloud shadow fraction, cloud top height, cloud optical depth, solar zenith and viewing angles, were identified as the metrics being the …
Operational retrievals of trace gas column amounts assume (near) cloud free conditions. However, the large pixel size of the satellite instruments (for example the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument on Sentinel 5P, TROPOMI-S5P, is 5.5 km by 3.5 km at nadir) imply that pixels may be contaminated by sub-pixel sized cloud(s). Furthermore, clouds in neighbour pixels may …
Researchers at the Finnish Meteorological Institute developed a new methodology to derive source-specific NOₓ-to-CO₂ emission ratios using satellite observations. The method was applied to Matimba power station in South-Africa. The results can be used to estimate carbon dioxide emissions. Missions to observe CO2 plumes Since the Paris agreement was adopted in 2015, the role of …
A new dataset of vertical column densities of H2O and HDO retrieved from short-wave infrared reflectance measurements by the TROPOMI instrument onboard the Sentinel-5p satellite was recently released. The data quality shows improvements in noise level compared to previous missions like SCIAMACHY. The retrieval methodology, the validation approach and demonstrative applications of the dataset are …
The capability of Sentinel-5p for aerosol monitoring is currently not used to its full potential. However, satellite observations in the spectral range from approximately 340 to 400 nm are known to have unique sensitivity to elevation and absorption of tropospheric aerosols. Traditionally, this sensitivity is used in many ozone monitoring instruments such as TOMS, GOME-1, …
The S5PI+ OClO project is one of the seven themes of ESA’s Sentinel-5p+ Innovation activity, which aims at developing products for the TROPOMI instrument on the Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite which are not yet part of the operational processor. The Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite was launched in October 2017 and provides operational data since July 2018. This mission …
The ESA –TROPOSIF project is one of the seven themes from the Sentinel-5p+ Innovation (S5p+I) activity funded by ESA, which aims at developing novel scientific products / retrieval methods from the data acquired by the TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument) instrument aboard the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor mission launched in October 2017. Although the Sentinel-5P mission was designed …
